Christmas 2020 & New Year 2021 Opening Times

Festive Opening Times

Over the festive period the chandlery will be open for collections between 1200 and 1300 from Monday 28th December to Thursday 31st, and again from Monday 4th January 2021 to 6th January.   If you would like to order items for collection please ring the office on 01852 500247 and leave a message if we are unavailable or email office@ardfernyacht.co.uk 

We are making regular checks of boats ashore and afloat, and will monitor emails and telephone messages throughout the day, while we will respond to any order requests as soon as possible.

Once the workshop reopens on Thursday 7th January chandlery collections can be arranged for any time during weekday working hours.

Festive opening times

 

Christine Wood, making waves in a Topper.

Christine on the water during the Topper Winter Championships
 at Weymouth

Craignish Boat Club and Clyde Cruising Club Dinghy Section member Christine Wood has been battling her way through the national rankings to make the GBR Topper National Squad and RYA Scottish Academy Sailor of the Year during the 2014 & 2015 seasons. Christine's family have had a long association with Ardfern Yacht Centre and the local area with the family yacht 'Rainbow' a familiar sight on the pontoons and in local waters. Competing in her final season with the GBR Topper National Squad we are pleased to be giving Christine some support during the 2016 season as she starts to make the transition to the larger, more competitive Laser dinghy class where her battle to climb the rankings starts again.

'The level of commitment required by the young sailors and their families to compete at this level nationally is staggering. Such enthusiasm for the sport has to be encouraged; dinghy sailors today are the next generation of cruising sailors and we have to keep an eye on the future. We are proud to be supporting a young Scottish sailor who shows such commitment and passion' commented Joanna Ashton, Director of Ardfern Yacht Centre.

During the 2016 season Christine will be competing in both Topper and Laser events and we wish her the best of luck. To stay up to date with her results at the various events follow her dedicated Facebook Page.

Christine Wood - GBR Topper National Squad

Workshop news

It's Winter.

Honestly, it is. The sun is splitting the trees and the calendar says mid-October so it is technically an unseasonably warm Autumn. But as far as we are concerned, there are only two seasons per year: boating season and winter.

The other sign of winter is the non-stop procession of boats arriving to have their masts unstepped before being moved round to the slip where China collects them in his company car (a 40T Sublift) and takes them to their allocated winter storage space. We've got 60+ boats out already and there is about the same again still to come. We have started the winter maintenance work on the boats, and we have a long long list of other works and estimates for work to complete that will keep us all busy well into next year. 

We will showcase some of the works being carried out over the next wee while, and introduce some of our staff along the way.

Re-inventing the wheel....

One of the problems that needed addressed as part of the ongoing refurbishment of the Grand Banks Eastbay 43 currently residing in our shed, was to fix the 'wobbly wheel' at the helm station. Initially, it was thought that it had loosened on the spindle over time and tightening up the locking nut and maybe packing it out with a couple of shims would do the trick. However, this was only part of the problem. On removing the wheel for closer examination we noticed that not only were the spokes loose where they connected into the hub, but it would be impossible to repair them without first dismantling the wheel.

A couple of phone calls and a few emails later, we had confirmation from Grand Banks shipbuilders yard in Singapore that the problem was with the joints between the spokes and hub, and they sent us this photograph to fully explain the problem:

Next stage in the process was to ask Grand Banks for the price for a replacement wheel to be shipped to us. On being told that it would cost $3,600 + VAT + shipping, we swiftly moved onto the next stage in the process and re-visited the idea of repairing the wheel. Engineering and boat-building ideas were bandied about before we settled on designing, manufacturing and fitting two polished stainless steel plates on either side of the hub that would overlap onto the base of each of the spokes and allow us to pin the plates, the spokes and the hub together.

Work in progress cutting the plates and drilling for fitting

Plates were fitted to the wheel, the keyway was marked and cut, before final polishing and fitting to the wheel.

The boat is still in the shed with other works ongoing, so the wheel is currently sitting in the workshop office. But the project is nearing completion and our next few blogs will have further details and pictures of the extensive works carried out - and some photos of the end result when she is fully fitted out and back in the water again.

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...