And in with the new
I'm having a bit of a guilt trip this morning! Brigantia has been a great little boat for us and we've had tremendous fun owning her but I've always claimed, and meant, that she was a tool, a means to an end, and that I had no great emotional attachment to her.
I lied!
I've realised this morning that I've become rather fond of the old girl and I'm going to be a little bit sorry to part company with her. Needs must though and the new boat is bigger and better in every way. She's also much more suitable for the patterns of use that are appealing to Jane
One of the many things Brigantia has taught us is that we both like to go somewhere, to a destination. We're simply not inclined to just "go for a sail" and arrive back where we started out from. Frankly, we can't see the point. Once we're out there, I much prefer to get to where we're going by sail but I've no particular hangup about motoring if needs must - and after a couple of hours tacking to and fro clawing slowly up to windward I am pretty much guaranteed to run out of patience and start the engine!
We've also now come to realise that a lot of our cruising is likely to be the sort of "hop and stop" strategy we've developed this past week. A day at sea, and even then keeping passage lengths down as much as possible, followed by two nights in port. At sea, Jane is happy on deck in benign conditions but soon retires to her bunk when it gets a bit lively - and rightly so as there's no point in being miserable and I'm happy to get on with it calling for help if and when I need it.
With some quite short passages it's been a superbly relaxing holiday. What we lack is comfort on board when in harbour or at anchor. Almost anything is possible aboard Brigantia but everything tends to be a bit of an effort because of the lack of space and particularly headroom.
So what of this new boat then?
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She's a very early Sabre 27 Mk.II built in 1969/70 by Marcon. As you'd expect, she's 27 feet long (actually an inch more but who cares?) and she's just over 9 feet in the beam - she's quite beamy which makes for a lot of space down below.
She has an unusual layout for a Sabre having been fitted out by shipwrights, ostensibly for the 1970 boat show as a show boat before Marcon changed their minds and decided to fit Mk.II Sabres with a moulded interior
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She is in fantastic condition. Her previous owner was an electrical engineer, her current owner is a marine engineer and it shows.
The systems are comprehensive and comprehensively documented - schematics of fresh water systems, salt water systems and so on, wiring diagrams and so on. She's a lot more complicated than her predecessor!
The hull is a fairly conventional bilge keel design of the era. Like the Islander 23, the keels are encapsulated (moulded as part of the hull) rather than bolt on which is, in my opinion, a very good thing. You don't get the problems with strained hull/keel joints, corroding keel bolts and leaking seams that you get with bolt on keels
It also makes her suitable for a drying mud berth (something I wouldn't inflict on a Centaur for example)
On deck, she's very well sorted with almost everything brought back to the cockpit. I know it's not everybody's up of tea but I'm not as agile as I'd like to be and Jane isn't a sailor (yet) so I'm effectively single handed a lot of the time. Being able to reef from the safety of the cockpit is therefore very much to my liking! She has all the essential gear and then some. The anchor windlass is powered which is luxury on a boat of this size.
She even has storm sails! Not that we ever plan to use them. Nor do we ever plan to use the four man liferaft not included in the original inventory but which is staying aboard by negotiation. It needs a service but otherwise appears sound. Also included by separate agreement is the spinnaker and brand new suffer and the roller stands and gear for lowering and stowing the mast on deck
Apart from the storm jib, storm trysail and spinnaker already mentioned, she comes with a recent mainsail and genoa, a number two jib and the current owner has offered us free gratis the two previous mainsail and genoas out of his loft which are old but serviceable
There's loads more, I could go on and on just about the deck gear!
The essential bits ...
The engine. Yes, I know she's a sailing boat and we'll sail whenever we can but I simply refuse to get hung up about hitting the button and starting the engine when the sailing ceases to be fun and becomes a tiresome chore!
So a Beta Marine 20hp diesel fitted new in 2009 with around 400 hours on it gets a huge massive whopping great thumbs up from me!
(Jane shrugged and said "it's an engine, so what?"!)
On the other hand ...
The galley really floated Jane's boat (see what I did there?)!
It's really very clever and one of the best small(ish) boat galley arrangements I've seen. You tuck yourself into a standing space to port of the engine box where you can wedge yourself in at sea and be out of the way of people coming in and out. You can sit down on the engine box too (and the current owner showed us the trick of stealing a small filler cushion from the starboard L-settee for extra comfort!)
There's a decent sized fridge under the deceptively small lift up panel aft of the taps with a sophisticated control system, hot and cold running water, loads of storage and, which gets my full approval, the current owner ditched the tired gas cooker in favour of a spirit stove
The only downside being the lack of an oven. You can get an Origo with an oven although they're not easy to track down as few chandlers stock them. That's because they are the best part of a grand which is a huge amount of money for some pressed stainless steel and a few fiddly bits. After a minor domestic (!) it was agreed that we would stick with the two burner and purchase a Cobb charcoal oven. Jane did totally agree that avoiding gas was much to be preferred (although the gas pipework from the aft end of the cockpit to the cooker space is in situ and in good condition so the option is there)
Turning to starboard we find my bit! The navigation area.
Now I'll hold my hands up and admit that this is the one aspect of the fit out that is a little disappointing because there's nowhere to sit at the nav table and it's a little awkward to work at standing up too.
I'm also yet to be convinced by the somewhat intrusive swinging clamp arrangement for the chart plotter (just visible in the top right hand corner of the picture)
It's going to take me a while to figure out all the electrics. There's lots of switches! They are all nicely old fashioned which I like but spread about in several different locations which I don't like so much
There's DSC VHF (Icom, might get swapped for the Standard Horizon on Brigantia if I can be bothered with the faff of changing the MMSI numbers over), NASA AIS receiver, Raymarine chart plotter, the full set of Autohelm instruments including a fluxgate compass, two tiller pilots (!), the lot
I have experimented already with removing the cushion and locker lid underneath the chart table and it does provide a usable sized footwell making sitting at the table possible. However, that comes at the loss of a significantly large locker so we'll have to see.
The nav table is removable too to make way for the quarter berth. I doubt we'll use it very often though as it'll surely be easier to use the saloon settee berths and we're not likely to want a fifth berth very often!
Comfort on board ...
The essential bits ...
The engine. Yes, I know she's a sailing boat and we'll sail whenever we can but I simply refuse to get hung up about hitting the button and starting the engine when the sailing ceases to be fun and becomes a tiresome chore!So a Beta Marine 20hp diesel fitted new in 2009 with around 400 hours on it gets a huge massive whopping great thumbs up from me!
(Jane shrugged and said "it's an engine, so what?"!)
On the other hand ...The galley really floated Jane's boat (see what I did there?)!
It's really very clever and one of the best small(ish) boat galley arrangements I've seen. You tuck yourself into a standing space to port of the engine box where you can wedge yourself in at sea and be out of the way of people coming in and out. You can sit down on the engine box too (and the current owner showed us the trick of stealing a small filler cushion from the starboard L-settee for extra comfort!)
There's a decent sized fridge under the deceptively small lift up panel aft of the taps with a sophisticated control system, hot and cold running water, loads of storage and, which gets my full approval, the current owner ditched the tired gas cooker in favour of a spirit stove
The only downside being the lack of an oven. You can get an Origo with an oven although they're not easy to track down as few chandlers stock them. That's because they are the best part of a grand which is a huge amount of money for some pressed stainless steel and a few fiddly bits. After a minor domestic (!) it was agreed that we would stick with the two burner and purchase a Cobb charcoal oven. Jane did totally agree that avoiding gas was much to be preferred (although the gas pipework from the aft end of the cockpit to the cooker space is in situ and in good condition so the option is there)
Turning to starboard we find my bit! The navigation area.
Now I'll hold my hands up and admit that this is the one aspect of the fit out that is a little disappointing because there's nowhere to sit at the nav table and it's a little awkward to work at standing up too.
I'm also yet to be convinced by the somewhat intrusive swinging clamp arrangement for the chart plotter (just visible in the top right hand corner of the picture)
It's going to take me a while to figure out all the electrics. There's lots of switches! They are all nicely old fashioned which I like but spread about in several different locations which I don't like so much
There's DSC VHF (Icom, might get swapped for the Standard Horizon on Brigantia if I can be bothered with the faff of changing the MMSI numbers over), NASA AIS receiver, Raymarine chart plotter, the full set of Autohelm instruments including a fluxgate compass, two tiller pilots (!), the lot
I have experimented already with removing the cushion and locker lid underneath the chart table and it does provide a usable sized footwell making sitting at the table possible. However, that comes at the loss of a significantly large locker so we'll have to see.
The nav table is removable too to make way for the quarter berth. I doubt we'll use it very often though as it'll surely be easier to use the saloon settee berths and we're not likely to want a fifth berth very often!
Comfort on board ...
Let's start with the cockpit (of which we are lacking slightly in the photo department) - it's spacious, and has lockers all over the place. There's a huge locker to port, a fairly big one to starboard, a simply ginormous on under the floor and some small ones in the coamings! There's a cockpit table, cockpit cushions and, best of all, a proper cockpit tent! It's a whole extra room out there!
Entering the cabin, we've already looked at the galley to port and the nav station / quarter berth to starboard and ahead of us is the main selling point of the boat ... the saloon!
Entering the cabin, we've already looked at the galley to port and the nav station / quarter berth to starboard and ahead of us is the main selling point of the boat ... the saloon!
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It deserves a big picture, it's a fabulous space for a 27 footer. There's a single settee to port with lockers behind and under with a trotter box into the aft cupboard in the heads compartment to make a full length berth - we anticipate that with the use of a lee cloth (already on board in a locker somewhere!) this will be the usual "sea berth" than Jane retires to when we're about to cross the Spitway!
To starboard there's an 'L' shaped settee which is longer and therefore makes a single berth without needing a trotter box. There's a substantial freestanding table which can be secured in various positions although we're not totally convinced by it as yet! We're going to live with it for a while and then decide whether to keep it or make a new more suitable table for our needs - it isn't, for example, really large enough to seat four people for dinner but if it was it would be too big the rest of the time. A simple answer might just be to fit a drop leaf extension to one side of the existing table.
There is the shell of a Victory paraffin heater on the forward bulkhead. Unfortunately, it contains a paraffin wick lamp rather than the proper pressurised heater unit. Whilst this will give out some heat it's not as effective. It is, however, a good deal easier to use! Again, we shall see whether it suffices as an occasional heater (we have thoughts on heating anyway which I'll come to later)
The Victory looks nice and appropriate but it's in the way of one of my key improvement ideas so it might yet be removed or possibly mounted on a removable or swing-away back board. This is because I plan (at some point) to make up a filler board and cushion to allow the starboard settee to be turned into an occasional double.
There's fixed and movable oil lamps all over the place, fresh clean upholstery, enough wood to be woody with enough cream on the cabin sides and deckhead to prevent the space being dark. We loved it! Oh and there's plenty of storage too
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There's a couple of cupboard above and below the port berth trotter box with a narrow hanging cupboard forward and a shelf above
To starboard is the necessary item itself with a drop down sink behind - like the galley there is hot and cold running water (sheer luxury!)
She does not have a shower and fitting one would be tricky. However I had an idea on that score but it turns out the current owner has beaten me to it and there's the connectors, hose and fittings for a cockpit shower already installed! That'll do me
The "V" berth is a "V" berth, what more can one say? It is reasonably generous at 7' long and the foot end isn't as narrow as some so it should be quite comfortable for Jane and I. We'll probably spend the money on shaped sheets and duvets in due course but we'll manage with Tescos Value finest for now!
There's much discussion ongoing about moorings and the future of Brigantia. Not to mention the name of the new boat (it's very unlikely she'll be called "Erbas" for much longer). Watch this space!
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