Greeting's , newbee on the prowl .
Hi guy's , my name's mickey , now i already own a boat , but she's in a pretty poor state . I used to live aboard in the 90's , on the east coast , however i moved back ashore to help my parent's out who lived in oxford , and ended up with a house . However now it's worst as i've got mother living with me now too , dad having died 10 years ago , so i never managed to returned to suffolk . I've not being idle though , i got back into camping , which has moved on to bigger thing's and i've also been involved with hang gliding since 2003 , actually i'm involved with training at present though that is likely coming to an end shortly . I'm rated both glider and power .
My boat's a 24 foot 10 inch fin keeled , Cowal , from the Maitland Morris stable . Clyde Built in 1967 , at the Morris and Lorrimore yard , Sandbank , Argyll (actually on the cowl peninsula) . Mine is actually a masthead sloop , setting a 170 sq ft genoa , the Cowal was actually designed as a yawl with a 24 sq ft mizzen and i think a 110 sq ft staysail . Now if your reaching for the keyboard , i'll save ya the trouble , i can't find anything on the interweb thingy about them , but basically their similar to a folkboat . My boat's history is not the best , but to be honest , i'm not sure how much of it , to believe . I only found out about it after i had brought her , but if it's true , one can only conclude she is a very lucky boat .
At some point in her chequered history , her gelcoat was damaged , i've been told by ice , but the result was she developed osmosis . When i purchased her in 88 , a survey gave her repair a clean bill of health , however , on lifting outta the water in 98 , i discovered the osmosis had returned . As it was in the early stages , my plan was to dry her naturally and epoxy coat . But i had to delayed that after the Thames flooded the boat yard she was in and almost had her afloat again , this time without seacocks . She's still there today .
So why am i back , well now in my late fifty's , thoughts are beginning to turn towards retiring . I've recently bought a 6m motorhome to that effect , however it's quickly establishing itself as not the way to go , and now with another situation unexpectedly changing , im able to consider digging plan A out again , ready for dusted off .
Now i'm not talking of a large boat here , i figure a 30 footer will be more than enough , yet still remain small enough to be singlehanded . Almost certainly a two sticker , either a ketch or yawl to keep the sail area's down , and handy for an aging owner , meaning she is also likely to get sailed more often . My sailing mate had a Macwester 26 , which would have fitted the bill perfectly , i can't even stand up inside my present boat . Now i do have a boat in mind so i don't need any help in that department , nor in banking , like i said earlier i've already lived aboard before , and i don't need credit card's anyway . No , what i'm interested in , is things that have changed by way of legislation to boat ownership and operation in the last 20 years or so . I'm expecting technology to have moved on , dsc was just emerging , i'm already vhf marine , trained and licensed , though i would do a refresher . I've even got a furuno 1720 radar in the loft , brand new , never used , can you see how oitta date i am ? .
So come on then guy's , what have i being missing ? .
Hi there guy's
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