Where am I now?

Fate works in strange ways, and for me it has led to me buying Fintail. I first came across her last summer, when she came on the market over in Spain. It was love at first sight, but unfortunately the timing was wrong, so I had to let her go. Then by a very stange turn of events, she came back on the market a few weeks ago at a much reduced price and I was given first refusal. Needless to say, that I wasn't going to miss out a second time.

So what is Fintail? She is a 28ft gaff rigged, venus ketch. She was built by her previous owner Peter Storr back in Shoreham in the mid 80's/ early 90's. It was always his dream to build a boat and he took 8 years to convert fintail from a tree into the boat that she is today. His achievement was truely incredible, with the hull construction pretty much bomb proof, and his attention to detail was absolutely meticulous. Sadly Peter passed away last year, so Fintail needed a new owner to look after her, and take her on the long passages that she was always built for. So over to me then!

She will certainly keep me busy, as there has been no maintainence done for the last year. So I think I'll be sanding and painting for a while. Fortunately the hull structure is completely sound, so its a great starting point and will keep me out of mischief.

The broker moved her round to her new home for me on Sunday. So she is now less than a 10 minute bike ride from the house in Spain, and only a minutes walk from the cafe that I normally use. Not that I'll have any money to spare on things like lunch in cafes for a while.

I haven't taken her out for a sail yet, as i'm still not on top form, but there is plenty of time for that in the months and years ahead. In the mean time, I am back in the UK to try and get myself sorted. Then I'll be back to Spain to get to work.

I don't like to beg and pleed, but if anyone finds themselves with a bit of time to spare and fancies some sanding and painting in the sun (who knows, maybe even some sailing), then please give me a shout, and any help will be greatly appreciated.

I'll let you know how things go.

In the mean time, I'll leave you with a quote from Fintails intitial survey which I think sums her up quite well.
'A very extraordinary, heavy weather, long-distance, cruising hull. Massively overbuilt for normal use. It appears to have been well thought out and painstakingly constructed'.