W
hen it comes to something
as simple as booking a lift-out
so that Smuggler’s Blues 2 can
hibernate ashore through the
winter, what could possibly go
wrong? Pick yard, book date,
take boat round. Simple.
The yard I chose was Dartside Quay on the River
Dart. Last year I’d wintered ashore courtesy of
Torbay Council on Brixham harbourside, which
was good value but I felt my much more expensive
and much larger boat deserved a proper boatyard
with a travel lift and facilities like shorepower. The
date I chose was Wednesday November 1, which
offered an afternoon tide to avoid an early start.
Hazel wasn’t working, which meant she could
enjoy one last spin to the Dart with me while
at the same time making travel logistics much
easier, as we could drop a car to the yard first so
it was waiting for us when we got there. I booked
Darthaven Engineering to service and winterise
the boat the day after. All the ducks in a row.
A few days before Wednesday November 1,
I received a call from Dartside Quay. Due to an
issue with their smaller crane, they would now
need to use the big travel hoist, meaning they
could no longer accommodate us on Wednesday.
Could we move the date to Friday? It would mean
Hazel couldn’t come, but what can you do?
Having agreed to that, Hazel’s work pattern
changed slightly, and she wasn’t working Thursday.
Maybe if we could lift on Thursday she could still join
me? I called Dartside to see if that was possible.
After a bit of diary juggling, they reckoned that
if I turned up at 3:30pm they could squeeze me
in. Brilliant. I gave Hazel the good news. She was
booked to go horse riding at 5:30pm so couldn’t
make it. Ho-hum.
I then called Darthaven to rearrange the servicing
and in conversation, mentioned fuelling on the
River Dart on the way to the yard (I’m meticulous
about always leaving the tank chock-full through
winter to reduce the chance of condensation and
thus the dreaded diesel bug). They pointed out
that due to winter hours, the fuel barge wasn’t
open on Thursdays...
I wasn’t about to try to rearrange with Dartside
back to Friday having just persuaded them to move
it to Thursday, so the only way forward would be
to bring the boat to the River Dart on Wednesday,
fuel it and leave it overnight at Darthaven Marina.
The wind was light and the forecast sea
conditions ‘smooth to slight’. But the remnants of
a recent strong onshore wind meant it sure didn’t
feel slight! I arrived at Dartmouth decidedly soggy,
boat covered in salt – no way to store it for the
winter. After giving it a good hose off, I realised
there was only one thing for it – come down
early the following morning and give it a thorough
clean before moving it upriver to the boatyard.
It was midday and I’d just finished when Dartside
called: the travel hoist had suffered a puncture
and was out of action. Choices were, head back
to Torbay or bring it up and leave it on a deep-waterswinging mooring till the hoist was fixed and they
could retrieve it. Just to mix things up a little further,
due to staff illness and the fact that health and
safety decreed (quite sensibly) that there should
be two people involved in the boat movement and
two on the crane, it might be a few days before they
could get to it.
I said I’d come back down and bring it in for them.
Which is how a lift arranged for Friday ended up
moving to Thursday, taking in Wednesday, and then
happening on Friday anyway.
Next year I think I’ll just go with the day they
offer me...For this month’s video recommendation,
search ‘Princess V70 Sport Yacht Tour’ for
the best brokerage video I’ve ever seen,
courtesy of Denison Yachting in AmericaA strong onshore wind meant I arrived in
Dartmouth decidedly soggy, boat covered
in salt – no way to store it for winter35NICK BURNHAM: I have a peculiar gift for overcomplicating things, but surely
the task of arranging a seasonal lift-out for my boat was straightforward?
THE BORN AGAIN
BOAT OWNER
COLUMNSThe saga of arranging a
lift-out was far from sereneSmuggler’s Blues
2 prepares for
hibernation