Christmas Newsletter 2019

Christmas Newsletter 2019

As 2019 draws to a close, we would like to extend our best wishes for the holiday season and pass on our thanks for your continued custom over the past year and into the new season.

In the Marina and Chandlery Office, Lyn Murray and Neil Donaldson have been a welcome addition to the staff and we now have a settled team in place ready to welcome you to Ardfern Yacht Centre next year. We are busy completing the refurbishment of the Marina Office and look forward to showing you the new look in 2020.

It has also been a busy year for the Workshop & Boatyard. In managing one of the few remaining full- service yards still operating in Scotland, Bob and James have been working tirelessly to ensure that their full schedule of jobs is completed in time for the start of the season. To help with the workload, we have brought in Shaun Doy as a trainee engineer, while Richard Coley has joined the team as a yard hand and Ian Burton is a new addition to the rigging team. A fond farewell – John MacInnes finally lived up to his threat/promise and retired, although he hasn’t exactly embraced the pipe & baffies lifestyle and makes a welcome reappearance at Ardfern in between his many retirement jobs!

Freshly painted Sparkman & Stephens

The highlights of the workshop’s year saw a stunning finish achieved on the topsides paint of a Sparkman & Stephens sailing yacht along with an equally impressive finish to the topsides of an X-42 yacht (vinyl wrapping rather than painting). The engineers oversaw an exercise in logistics to replace the batteries in a Dutch motor sailer (where each of the dozen batteries weighed over 100kg and there was no direct access to the battery compartment) and fitted a new Perkins engine to a Swan 49. Meanwhile the riggers were as industrious as ever, replacing running and standing rigging on various vessels from a MacGregor 26 to a Rustler 42. The boatbuilding, rigging, engineering and yard teams have all earned their two-week break over the festive period.

We extend a warm welcome to all new boats and owners that have arrived at Ardfern this year, and we hope that you have many happy seasons with us. We also wish happy sailing to the many visiting boats we saw this year, with an open invitation to come back for a visit in the future.

Next year we are looking forward to celebrating Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters 2020, as well as supporting West Coast Waters year-long series of events.

We will be hosting an open day at Ardfern Yacht Centre on Easter Saturday 11th April where you can drop in for technical advice from marine specialists and suppliers, meet the staff and, of course, pick up those must-have items from our chandlery.

We are looking forward to helping celebrate the Clyde Cruising Club’s 110th anniversary and hope to make as much of a success of it as the fondly remembered centenary celebrations hosted at Ardfern Yacht Centre in 2010. Along with the many CCC events planned, we will continue to actively support west
coast racing regattas and events.

Following the great success of the ‘Pop-Up’ Restaurants run by Lucy Gladstone at the yacht centre this summer, visitors to Ardfern will be looking forward to Lucy’s new venture as she opens the doors on the newly rebuilt and soon to be renamed Crafty Kitchen. More news on this will be published in January.

Despite our best intentions to have the new toilet & shower facilities built this winter, some unavoidable delays left us unable to guarantee that the project would be completed for the new season. So, regrettably, we have had to postpone the building of the new toilet/shower and laundry block until next year. We now propose to start the building work in September 2020 and have the new building open in time for the
2021 season.

We will be revamping our website and developing our social media presence early next year – which will ensure you can keep up to date with news of all that’s happening at Ardfern Yacht Centre.

Merry Christmas and very best wishes for the New Year, 
from Fraser and all the team at Ardfern Yacht Centre

Boats tucked away for winter at Ardfern Yacht Centre