had kept her in Genoa. She stayed in the
Med until 1998 when she was bought by an
Englishman called David Sherrif (who used to
build Nelsons), who brought her back to the
Hamble. Rumour has it she was nicknamed
‘Britannia’ by the locals because of her
resemblance to the Royal yacht. He sold her on
in 2001 to an engineer, who kept her in Dartmouth for about
10 years. And then in 2008 she was taken up to Scotland to
Ardfern Marina, where I found her.
I was totally hooked – anchor, line and sinker! By the time
I left, dusk was falling and a huge shooting star fl ew right over
the boat. Surely this was a sign that she was meant to be mine?
I later learnt that Auriga was named after a star constellation.
So I didn’t go looking for a boat – she came looking for me.
As I wasn’t looking for a boat, I didn’t have
a budget, but she was on sale for £200,000 and
I managed to agree a price of £175,000. For a
60ft, 30-tonne classic motoryacht sleeping seven
in four cabins, with two heads, central heating
and masses of soul, she seemed amazing value
for money, although I knew there were going
to be some regular maintenance costs.
When I rang Winters Marine in Salcombe, mid-season, to see
if they had a berth for Auriga, they had one space left, which just
happened to be 60ft in length! Like I said, it felt like the stars
were aligned. And there was another amazing piece of serendipity- about an hour after my broker friend called to say that Auriga
was now mine, my Mum rang up with some unexpected news.
My Grandmother had died a few months earlier, aged 101, but
ABOVE and
LEFT Rob was
smitten the
fi rst time he saw
Auriga’s classic
lines and smart
blue hull