Motor Boat & Yachting — February 2018

SWIFT TRAWLER 34

OURB OATS

Our deputy editor attempts to uncover the mystery of the missing infl atable

Tender loving care

We turned up at our berth for a week-

long stint on the boat and to our

dismay, the tender wasn’t there.

Frustrating and slightly bizarre as we

had left it upturned on the foredeck

and lashed down with multiple lines

so there was no way it had been

pinched by the weather.

The marina office was sympathetic

but said there wasn’t much they

could do as CCTV doesn’t cover

the area and the staff hadn’t seen

anything suspicious during their

rounds. Without any obvious recourse,

we resigned ourselves to the fact that

we were likely to be without a tender

for the week unless we stumped up

for a new one. We rely on the tender

a lot where we are and it didn’t look

as if the old one was going to reappear

any time soon, so the bullet was bitten

and the same day, a new 2.7m Honda

Honwave was nestled up to Blues

Away and ready for action. Thankfully,

our 6hp Suzuki outboard hadn’t been

pinched as it was bolted and locked

to a mount on the transom.

It wasn’t the ideal circumstances

in which to get a new tender but the

Honwave does at least have some

nice features that the old Quicksilver

didn’t, like larger, more robust tubes,

better handholds and a firmer

inflatable floor. It also has a more

flared bow, which does a great job

of deflecting spray when there’s

a boatful. So there was a silver lining

to the tale, but it wasn’t over yet.

On their next trip, my parents were

walking to the boat when they spotted

a rather sorry-looking tender lashed

to one of the boats in our basin. It

was half sinking, covered in weed

and scuffed to high heaven but,

sure enough, it was our old tender.

Dad took the name of the boat it was

clinging on to and headed up to the

marina office to see if contact could

be made. This was puzzling. Where

had the tender been and how did

it end up back in our basin in such

a sorry state?

The marina office gave us the

details of the owner of the boat and

we sent an email thanking them

for rescuing the tender (assuming

they were unlikely to have taken it

themselves and then keep it in plain

sight in the same marina). We asked

if we could meet up to get it back and

give them a bottle of wine for their

trouble. There was no reply to the

emails and we couldn’t get a response

to our phonecalls so, 100% confident

that it was ours, we recovered it.

Wherever it had been, it had been

through a rough time. The tubes were

deflated and covered in weed and

there were deep scuffs and black

marks all over the tubes. Dad got it

back to the berth and spent a day

bringing it back to life, adding patches

to the worst scuffs, reinflating the

tubes and giving it a thorough clean.

The transformation was remarkable,

but now we were stuck with two

tenders to care for and store.

We put the old tender up for sale

in the marina office for €200 and

after a period of very little interest,

a visiting sailor, using Marina de

Portimão as a stop-off during a long

voyage, contacted Dad and said he

would like to take a look. Sure enough,

he came to the berth and liked what

he saw, agreeing on the price and

shaking hands.

As I type, our trusty tender is now

on a voyage across the Atlantic with

her new owner, so it seems her days

of adventure are far from over.

Jack Haines

98

The old tender

before the

mystery began

Blues Away with

her pair of tenders