The race is on....

The story so far....

A few weeks ago, Guy was allowed out from behind his desk in the chandlery to go and helm a Sonata One Design on one of the race days during the 2014 Scottish Series at Tarbert. He completed four races on the Friday of the race meeting. First race - he placed seventh. Second race - he placed seventh. Third race - he placed third. And in the fourth race he placed first. So, in less than a day he took a boat he hadn't sailed before, with a crew he hadn't met before, and beat everyone else in the race.

This weekend, Mark has managed to escape from his desk now too, and is on board a Westerly Storm 33 taking part in this year's Round Mull Race. He knows the boat having sailed it before, he knows the crew having gone drinking with most of them before, but he doesn't get out on the water as often as Guy does and so might be a bit rusty. So, the question is, will he do as well as Guy did when he went racing, or will there be any number of excuses presented to his staff on his return to work on Tuesday without any sort of trophy whatsoever????

Given that Guy is sitting beside me as I type this, we are anticipating the latter scenario and so have decided to see if we can't make things slightly easier for Mark by drawing up a list of excuses for his epic failure for him to choose from.....

1.  As general manager of Ardfern Yacht Centre, and being aware of the need to keep staff morale high, I chose not to win any races to let Guy feel better about himself.

2.  We were so hungover after the Friday night that we were lucky to be able to find Mull never mind manage to sail all the way around it.

3. As Ardfern Yacht Centre are co-sponsoring the Round Mull Race, it wouldn't look right if I won - a bit like hosting a raffle and winning the main prize - it's not the done thing!. 

Any other suggestions as to what Mark's excuse might be? Or are we doing him a huge disservice and we should be building a trophy cabinet for his office before Tuesday? !!

Anyone for some cucumber sandwiches and a glass of Pimms?

We had a glamorous new arrival at Ardfern Yacht Centre recently - a Hinckley T34 Picnic Boat. Built in the US of A and shipped over the Atlantic, she arrived on the back of a low loader, under wraps and waiting to be commissioned.

Chris Jordan of Hinckley Yachts also turned up, 

not via a container ship or a low loader as his employers obviously think more highly of him than that and, once the boat was off the transport and on her cradle, started the unwrapping. One big football net (soccer net if you are reading this at Hinckley HQ and wondering where on earth Chris has got to) and an awful lot of plastic later, and the boat was uncovered and attracting some admiring glances.

Chris then got to work commissioning engines, fitting the mast and electronics antennas, and readying the boat for launch

Once Chris gave the go-ahead, we shoved it down the slipway using a couple of crowbars and some strategically placed kicks*, and she took to the water first time (at least on this side of the Atlantic) and gracefully sidled up to her berth under her own steam. Steam might be understating it a bit as she is powered by twin Yanmar V8s pumping out 320hp through twin Hamilton 274 jets!

And here she is heading out for her initial sea trials - with a couple of our staff along for the ride using the "we need to know how everything works just in case we need to move her sometimes" excuse. And the review from our staff is that it is a very smooth and quiet ride, a beautifully built and finished boat but, on the downside, they couldn't find any sandwiches!

And the last words from Chris before he headed off to commission the next Hinckley were "other than home, there haven't been many more beautiful places than Ardfern that I've visited, hope to come back one day soon, but preferably when there aren't any midges!"

*we can assure all owners who keep their boat with us, and any owners who may be considering bringing their boat to Ardfern Yacht Centre, that we don't actually use crowbars or kick boats down the slipway to launch them. We are very careful and attentive with all boats and only nudge them slightly with our foot every so often...

A busy start to 2014 at Ardfern

A BUSY START TO THE 2014 SEASON AT ARDFERN

.....AND WITH AN INTERNATIONAL TWIST.

That's the rain on now, so summer must be just around the corner! Having completed around 200 boat launches this year, and with a brief respite before they all want lifted back out again, we thought this would be a good time to pass on some of our news about what has been happening in the workshop so far this year.

The spring of 2014 has been busier than normal at Ardfern Yacht Centre. Just about all the 130+ boats we've had wintered ashore in our yard have now been recommissioned, antifouled, upgrades and renovations completed and chucked back in the water (when I say chucked, I mean carefully placed back on the water by the gentle caress of our 40T Sublift), most of the bigger boats that have wintered afloat have also had a brief visit to dry land for some maintenance and, unfortunately for the owners, we have also had a few boats in our sheds for repair work after some unintended visits to dry land!

Some of our visitors have come from far off lands - some with critical issues that we've managed to live up to our reputation and find solutions for, others with (in the grand scheme of things) slightly less than critical issues but which we have still managed to help resolve - you can decide for yourself what degree of urgency each of the following jobs arrived at the workshop with with....

1. The Finnish Sail Training Swan 65' Vahine called in for a quick crew change and repairs to her Harken furling gear. Vahine had left Finland during the late summer of 2013 and headed over to the Caribbean for a winter cruising in warmer climes, with an ever changing crew of young Finnish sailors aboard. Prior to leaving the Caribbean the Harken furling gear suffered a bearing failure leaving the system completely inoperable. Due to their busy schedule, and the need to have Vahine back in Scandinavia for her summer commitments, the boat couldn't stay in the Caribbean to await repairs. So began an exercise for the crew to find a port that had rigging expertise and high-reach facilities to repair the furling gear in tandem with the Harken technical experts despatching the necessary parts to meet up with the boat.  After failing to make the repairs in the Caribbean, Azores or Ireland, a call from the skipper to Ardfern Yacht Centre had us organising our rigging crew, clearing a berth, and arranging delivery of the parts from Harken. When Vahine turned up, we had the furling gear system stripped, cleaned, re-assembled and back in operation ready for the boat to depart Ardfern the following morning. To quote the skipper 'It all came together perfectly at Ardfern'. Actually, that's just a soundbite, the full Finnish/Scottish translated comment from the skipper was that it was fantastic how it all came together perfectly at Ardfern, he was so impressed by our rigging team, and he was especially pleased at how quickly we had fixed the problem because it meant he could now go to the pub!

Finnish Sail Training Vessel 'Vahine' 

2. From the other side of the Atlantic we have the American yacht 'Toodle-oo' now ashore following a light grounding while enjoying the delights of the 'Whisky Isle'. Having lost steerage following the incident, passage was made to Ardfern under tow. Now safely ashore and with the damaged rudder removed, ourselves and the skipper are now awaiting delivery of a complete new unit arriving all the way from China! The technical aspects of this job aren't complex, but we have had to have the patience of a whole busload of saints when dealing with the Customs & Excise Helpline and trying to track down the correct forms and codes to use!

'Toodle-oo' along side before slipping

3. Skipper of the sailing yacht Cinquante, heading across the Irish Sea, called us with the opening line "you probably won't be able to help but.....". Three phone calls, two photographs, some texts, a visit to the chandlery, an envelope and press-ganging of a friend into acting as courier as part of their own sailing voyage and disaster was averted as the replacement hinge for the cockpit table was on its way......

Our yard facilities have also seen regular use over the winter months by other local marine businesses - Crinan based fishing boat 'Golden West' was re-launched recently after having a new engine fitted.

 'Golden West' heading down the slip

We will keep you up to date with stories of interest and news from the yard over the summer season, and we look forward to seeing you all in Ardfern during this coming summer, wherever you home port is.