I
was late to boating and had little previous experience of
motor cruising when I bought Arthur, a 1977 Broom Ocean
- In fact, all that stood to my credit was two boat rental
weekends in 1995 and 1996, and a third one in 2005. How
I had enjoyed those fi rst two weekends afl oat. Unfortunately,
my joy was not shared by my wife or two young sons, aged
6 and 9 at the time. So in 2005 I persuaded my next door
neighbour’s wife to join me on a third rental weekend. No,
not that kind of weekend! We had four teenagers in tow as
well as a French au-pair. That sealed it for me. Aged 59, and
about to retire, I was contemplating the purchase of a boat!
I duly spent the winter of 2005 searching and learning
about motorboats of all shapes and sizes. A dear friend, now deceased, patiently explained port
and starboard, bow and stern and all the other boating terms that were then so alien to me. With
advice from other boat-owners I eventually located a Broom Ocean 37 for sale in Friesland,
northern Holland. Two fl ights saw me hop from my home in Galway on the west coast of Ireland
to Rotterdam, where the agent picked me up and drove us to view Arthur. She, or should that be
he, was to my untrained eye, in pristine condition nestled in a covered boatshed. A report by a
local surveyor helped negotiate a signifi cant reduction in the asking price to around €70,000.
A few weeks later she was on a
low-loader heading for Killaloe on
lower Lough Derg on the Shannon
navigation, Ireland. Arthur had only
had two previous owners, one of
whom named her after his son.
It’s a masculine name but I chose
not to change it.
MAIDEN VOYAGES
For those unfamiliar with this
model she has a roomy and bright
saloon with a V-berth cabin
forward and a twin cabin aft. Both
are equipped with heads, and the
compact galley features a oven and
a three-ring hob. An 80-litre
Isotherm fridge and a Paloma gas
boiler plus a sink and storage
cupboards complete the galley
equipment. Oh what joy I
experienced as I took delivery of
my own boat. Soon to be retired
with a newly acquired boat to help
fi ll my time – what could be better?
A couple of quick lessons gave
me the knowledge to take Arthur to her new home in Portumna at the top of Lough Derg. Mind
you, that passage proved interesting – one of the engines packed up half-way across Lough Derg!
My wife and sons were still uninterested in becoming crew so initially my next door neighbour’s
wife was only too happy to oblige. We enjoyed boating throughout the year so I was delighted
when my boat mechanic suggested that leaving her in the water over winter was fi ne – I mean
what are boats for? In the freezing January of 2011, Arthur and crew even appeared on the
national TV news as a boat that survived the icy winter unscathed when many others suffered
severe frost damage.
Initially, we cruised on the River Shannon (200 miles of fabulous navigable water), principally
on Lough Derg, before extending our cruising grounds to take in Lough Ree. By this time, my
former colleague and good friend Mary Healy had also taken to Arthur like the proverbial duck
Heading across Tralee
Bay. OPPOSITE Leaving
Lawrence Cove
Sh
an
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W
ar
d
