Practical Boat Owner t http://www.pbo.co.uk 37
EBAY TO ATLANTIC RALLY
After that first trip, Lymington became
one of our favourite places and the
following year we ventured further, visiting
Beaulieu, Newtown Creek, Cowes and a
little excursion up the River Hamble. We
went quite a way up, astonished at the
number of boats there.
By now I was taking my Day Skipper
qualification, which would open up a
world of opportunity to travel. My goal was
crossing the Channel to France, but just
the thought of it left Jan in a cold sweat. I
started telling everyone we were going to
sail off around the world. Nobody believed
me but I’m a determined individual; I
wanted to sail the Atlantic.
So I began buying books on the subject,
watching the video blogs of people who
were out there crossing the oceans;
ordinary people who had made the break.
In one book there was a scoring system,
which indicated if your boat was capable
of crossing oceans. I was most surprised
at the high score Twenty 20 got.
Making improvements
The interior needed to be updated even
though it had been done not that long
ago. We started with the forward cabin
V-berth. It always had a strange smell and
a dribble of dark brown liquid which came
in to the locker beneath the bed.
I removed a panel against the bulkhead
to reveal a damp patch. I poked my finger
in and it went straight through to the
fibreglass on the outside. Further
investigation showed that the water was
getting in where a U bracket had been in
the anchor locker but had not been sealed
when removed. Years of water sitting
between the two skins of fibreglass had
dissolved the plywood. It was easy to
remove – I just scooped it out with my
hand and used a screwdriver to scrape it
out of the edges. This would be my first
attempt at glassfibre repair work.
Replacing the whole bulkhead was
relatively easy, so I took the opportunity to
replace the anchor locker divider and
windlass shelf which was also rotting
Much of the boat’s woodwork looked
tatty, but with some TLC was soon
looking like proper brightwork again
Jan Dearden at the helm of Twenty 20 – as
her confidence has grown so has her love
of the sailing lifebetween the glassfibre. It was not as difficult
as I imagined and it was soon painted up
with additional battens strengthening it
and several extra layers of glassfibre
inside and out. I also strengthened other
hull bonding at various locations in the
boat which I thought looked insufficient.
A new carpet for front and rear cabin
sides made a huge difference making it
light and fresh. New covers and a paint
job on some roof panels and it was better
than new. I also took the opportunity to
insulate the boat. Not only for the cold but
for hotter climates to keep the heat out.
Each time we completed one task we
appeared to add two more, but there were
fewer essential fixes and more
enhancements, including modern
instruments and more storage.
Once I had passed both my theory and
practical Day Skipper we ventured over
the Channel, stretching my new skills and
extending our cruising ground. We did
three weeks of beautiful French cruising
for two summers in a row, which only left
us wanting more, plus there were
weekends sailing to Lulworth Cove or just
in to Weymouth if the weather was poor.
It became a way of life which was spoilt
only by the need to go back to work.
Never a day went by that I wasn’t doing
something be it repairing, upgrading oradding bits that make life easier. I began
to appreciate what Twenty 20 had to offer
and what she lacked would be relatively
easy to fit.Learning from experience
They say you learn more from your
mistakes than from your successes and
the cross-Channel cruises probably taught
us the most. On our very first crossing,
heading for Braye Harbour, Alderney, I
had put a waypoint on the chart at the end
of the lead-in line into Braye Harbour,
probably about half a mile from the harbour
entrance. This left us a fair distance to go
across the tide to reach the harbour shelter.
It’s the kind of mistake you only make once.
At the waypoint, we altered course to
follow the line in, but the current had other
ideas. Even though we were motor-sailing
towards the harbour, we continued
south-west toward the race that passes
between Alderney and the rocky crags of
Berhou. At full throttle we inched back on
course, taking an hour to cover barely any
distance, before we managed to get to the
shelter of Braye Harbour.
The rest of our vacation was spent day
sailing from one beautiful French harbour
to another. We opted out of the return trip
to Alderney via the Swinge, deciding to go
around the east cost of Alderney and
down to Braye, this time aiming as close
as possible to the harbour entrance. By
the time we had picked up our mooring