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http://www.mysailing.com.auwas the same feeling a mother gets looking
at their new baby for the first time.
Her exterior was immaculate, so streamlined
and beautiful and the interior had such great
potential that I turned to Reece and said, “this
is our boat. Let’s buy it.”
As with any boat we have had, we had some
work to do to get Barnaby up to live-aboard
standards. Fortunately, the boat was dry-docked
and the whole exterior was repainted only a
few months before we bought her due to an
insurance job when she got hit by another boat.
This meant that she also got surveyed and
antifouled at the same time. The fantastic news
was that because of this we did not need to get
her surveyed again in order to buy her. Reece
rang the surveyor and the boatyard to pick their
brains about any issues and there was nothing
we didn’t already know about.
We took her for a test sail in winds gusting 15
knots to 20 knots and she did not even hesitate.
We only had the mainsail up and she got up to
5kn to 6kn. The heeling was a lot less severe than
in our first boat, a 27" Columbia.
The Columbia was a great boat to learn to sail
on, but we decided an upgrade was necessary to
do some more serious sailing. We wanted to sail
not just around Lake Macquarie our home port,
but sail north to the Whitsundays and south to
Tasmania and round to Western Australia.
We realised how much easier the trip would
be in a bigger boat, especially if we want to take
anyone with us or get away from the coast and
head for Lord Howe Island.
Being an ex-racing yacht, Barnaby draws 2.4
metres but, because she sits so heavy in the
water, she sails just beautifully.
The most important things we needed to do
in order to be able to live aboard were replacing
the electronics and the gimbal oven. The rest is
largely cosmetic: a new spray dodger, bimini and
new upholstery throughout.Looks good even when at anchor.