Chile Black

Decision - Collection - Preparation

So, after a lot of prevarication, at the end of 2006 after selling our MG Spring 25 we finally decided on a multihull for our next boat. We've wanted one for about fifteen years after seeing an F-27 fly (and I do mean fly) past our rather quick half tonner monohull (with seven crew) on our way to the Round the Island Race. Three crew on the windward hull about eight feet above the water and doing at least three times our speed - b*stards :-)

We looked at several Mk1 F-24s, One in the IoW, one Chichester'ish and one on Guernsey... The IoW boat was fine, as was the Channel Island one... the Other was waaaay over priced. We also looked at a rather nice F-27 in Essex (with a great owner) but decided that the Factory interior really was not for us. So having done some research we decided what we really needed was a Mk2 F-24 and, the hunt was on.

After many many hours on the WWW, Val found one in France via a broker, and after much to-ing and fro-ing... and getting very very lost, we found her. We had a great afternoon looking over the boat and chatting to the owner in a combination of drawings, wild gestures and a computer translation package... we decided that if we could come to terms, this was the boat we were looking for.

Sounds simple, doesn't it... That was in February and we finally picked the boat up at the start of the Easter holidays. I have to say that the quality of service and professionalism of the French broker was something that UK companies should aspire to... Frankly astounding and a pleasure doing business with them.

We picked the boat up on the first Saturday of the holidays, it rained... When we got to the boat nothing was loaded and the only paperwork that was available was the stuff that was legally needed... The owner was playing silly buggers, (because he now thought he'd let the boat go for too low a price), and had 'lost' all the service manuals, receipts etc... What a spanner, (once we'd got back home and chatted to the Broker it turns out that we both felt that the previous owner had a mental age somewhat less than his UK shoe size and the Broker was ashamed of his 'client')... So it was all sorted out in the end.

We loaded the boat and hooked it up, (we had made sure the trailer had been serviced that week), and off we went. Rouen, a place that almost seems designed to get those unfamiliar with it's bizantine road system lost... and it did. The up side was we made lots of new friends, added to our French vocab and learnt many and varied new ways of expressing ourselves via hand signals. We did find the Ferry terminal without getting lost though and had a whole row to ourselves... And when we were loaded - we ended up as the first on and the first off, bliss. The crossing was one of collapse after all the stress... I even watched a football match, such was my mental incapacity :-)

At Newhaven the Customs chaps waved us on and fifteen minutes later we were home, thirty after that and we were asleep!

I had organised a SWSCC event at Goodwood on Sunday, so we were up at 0600... Back home by 1000 and had the boat stripped and pressure washed sparkly clean by 1600hrs... Man were we a tad tired.

Monday saw us trailering the boat to Hayling Island to get a Specialist Company to sort out the hull for us... Ten days later and we had her back, all antifouled and saucy. In the mean while we pulled all the mast halyards and pressure washed them, the sheets and control lines as well as the trampolines - very very messy and wet work - bit of luck it was hot and sunny :-)

Took the outboard over to Dad™ and ran it up on our hi-tech test bed, (alright, so it was a big bucket), I'd already changed the end fittings and fuel line as the originals were a tad worse for wear and tear, the motor started up just before the purple lights in front of my eyes got too bad... It ran OK but had a tenancy to stall if the revs dropped too much - something to watch.

From then on it was a race... Could we do all the jobs needed before the next half term holiday so we could launch her? Well, yes but it was flippin hard work. The previous owner either got incompetents to do the original fitting out of the boat, or he did it himself... and so, it turns out he should have been supervised by an adult at all times. Nothing major, just jobs done not in the best way... so they needed doing again.

Two jobs that really needed doing were: (1) Removal of the huge water tank under the cockpit and (2) Removal of the flippin sink/cooker unit, a sink/cooker unit in the stbd bunk seat - I mean, why?

The tank was straight forward, just a nut and bolt job - mind you the water pump the previous owner had installed was huge... Think 'mains pumping station' huge and you'd not be too far away. The cooker thingy was somewhat more complex... You see, the previous owner (PO) had just belted a hole in the foam sandwich of the bench seat and bolted the unit in - all fine and good, except that it took up 1/3 of the seat and looked blinkin ugly! So, plan A was to fill and fair the damaged bench back in, which would have been a major task and would never have looked good... So plan B was to fair in the cut edges and make a GRP 'bin and lid' affair that would look good and serve a purpose. This is what we did and it turned out pretty damn good.

Another 'minor' jobbie was to repair the float bow end caps... We think the PO had let the mooring lines rub them rather badly over a long period of time, but going on current experience, who knows :-)

Next was to install a base station VHF and GPS (and their associated wiring) together with 12V outlets to recharge the hand held radio we had and run the PC, for when we do long trips etc. Also replace the dead battery, rewire the switch panel to something more sensible and replace the compass night light LED, which had died.

Also took the time to re-fair/repair the rudder blade and the hanging fittings as well as removing the gas bottle holder in the cockpit and fill/fair off all the through holes the PO seem to think were necessary.

We also polished/waxed the hull/floats, cleaned the cabin (with bleach), reseated the stbd chainplate, repaired the odd butcher job the PO had done the bow return lip (for his very very strange bowsprit 'holder') and a couple of other minor dinks that the survey had thrown up. Meanwhile SMR at Brighton Marina had redone the rigging for us.

Next was the terror of raising the mast, just to see what was what...

Mast up - Launch - First Sail

Friday... Hitched the boat up and drove the relatively short distance to the boatyard/slip, booked in, raised the mast and launched the boat... Bit of an anticlimax really, all went very smoothly with no issues. Popped the floats and bolted them in place, checked the outboard, (a bit cranky - but this turned out to just be the plug and the fuel line bulb), sorted out the running rigging, tensioned the shrouds and off we went... Very very smooth and trouble free.

Once we'd cleared the outer breakwater we hoisted the main and jib, switched the motor off and had our first taste of sailing a 'big' multihull... I love this boat, It goes sooo fast :-) In not a lot of wind she tracked along at over 7Kts and occasionally hitting eight, tacking was almost as our last boat but maybe just a tad slower... No rig setup, little sail trimming, low wind speed and a sloppy sea - not bad at all.

Arrived a Brighton in less than an hour and plonked her on a temp berth while the marina moved a cat from where we'd be going, an hour later we were packed and in the car - a very productive day. Must say the marinas organisation was pretty damn good - berth sorted out, cat moved, paid up, electric promised in a week or so, (had been cut due to prospective development work), key fob thingy done and car stickers provided in not a lot of time...

So, she's moored and pretty much ready for her first summer season...

Repair/maintenance: 63hrs to June 1^st

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