Component quality - Motorhomes vs Boats

[Peppadog]

Which brings us neatly back to the thread. We are agreeing that, as with motorhome construction, they don't build em like they used to!

That's why I bought an older Hymer. Pre 2010, and why I bought a newly built Sadler 32 in 2016, but designed in the late 70's. You would need to be very knowledgable to see any differences! And its good for more than a weeks charter in the Ionian or Med...

 

[Garry - June]

So. We’ve exhausted the subject of build quality between boats and motorhomes. Discovered there are a fair number of us that have, or had boats as well. So there must be similarities?

Well they both inspire a freedom to go where you please I think. Going from Marina to Marina, home or abroad is not dissimilar to going from site to site. There are probably as many live aboards in the boating world as full timers in ‘vans etc.

A good point however we have found that since we have swapped to wheels we actually see much much more....we sailed the Algarve coast and apart from anchoring in bays went from Marina to marina...now in the van we have revisited these places but have discovered so much more in-between..places we never knew existed and that we couldn't visit or reach when on the boat..

 

[Offagain]

Hi. Yes we know the windmill, the place we are thinking about was straight up from the town a rather difficult path along side a fence good fun when coming back down, we used to go in to the harbour in our RIB tie it up to a lampost never had any trouble it was always still there when we came back, the lady that owned the restaurant was a fabulous cook.

There were some really good places to put in to, we liked Meganissi though taverna Spilia at the far end not Panos & Babis's bar, we never felt welcome at Panos whilst at Steve & Gerry's they always made an effort, don't know why but they would let us use the electric hook up, fill up with water and use their washing machines and showers but never charged us, we did of course eat in the taverna most afternoons and every night, I did make them some 6" dia stainless rings for their harbour wall which might have helped, that and Chris always wearing a bikini when taking the lines to tie up to lazy lines.

Nidri despite being busy it is also a good place to tie up, we used to get on the Neilson Quay or tie up to a hotel floating pontoon think it was The Armonia.
As it was Chris was still working so I spent a lot of time out there on my own, Chris would fly to various islands were I would pick her up sail for a couple of weeks and then drop her at wherever we were and she would fly home, after 10 years keeping the boat in Levkas we moved it up to Gouvia Marina on Corfu which was easier for Chris to nip out to on Easyjet, the sailing got a bit boring for me so we put the Catalina up for sale thinking it would take a long time to sell her instead quite the opposite, we advertised her on the Tuesday and she was sold before the weekend, a chap and his wife flew in from Italy looked at her and said ok we'll buy.

So after sailing yachts for most of our lives we are now land lubbers enjoying our motorhome and touring the world, all in all not a bad life.

Have a fabulous time on your road trip, hope putting the boat to bed all goes ok, Cleopatra is a good yard from what I remember.

The place you mention was Chef John’s which, as I said previously, closed down several years ago due to his death.
Since having our own boat, not being on charter, we have been waved away from Babi’s so used to go to Steve’s (Gerry has also passed away) even though they were both grumpy buggers! Plus we don’t really like going in bows to and there are only a 3 or 4 spaces where it’s deep enough to be stern on. Having said that, we rarely go there at all as it’s often full of flotillas and charters as it’s so close to lots of their bases.
Neilsen no longer operate out of Nidri - they haven’t run any flotillas at all here for a couple of years - and the various pontoons there are used by Sailing Holidays (the Iris hotel), Skorpios yachts and Nisos, who I think have moved from Nikiana. IBA have one too.
We like Gouvia marina but on Corfu on of our favourite harbours is Mandraki, the only place the skipper will agree to go bows to if necessary!

Apologies for the thread drift chuns!

 

[Molly A]

My YC berth neighbour, Lieutenant Mike Parsons (Army retired) owns C32 Pelican, one of the Army training school boats. He ended his career teaching on Pelican and put in the winning bid to buy her when the Army decided they needed bigger boats and went for Sigma 33's.

Mike has organised many club cruises to France and the Channel Islands. There often twenty boats attending.

I understand most or all the Army boats of the day were all named after birds. Can anyone confirm that?

The joint services CO32s were named things like Hornet or Bugler, both red hulled boats. Ours was white and had a standard lay out instead of pipe cots which was how the normal sail training boats were equipped.

 

[Molly A]

Just one small correction Molly. All the yachts at Haslar were used by all ranks and none were exclusively for officers. I also had a Contessa for a while and I rate it as one of the best ever but the accommadation was always a trade off for sailing qualities. It's a bit like a MH - horses for courses.

To our knowledge, and backed up by all her log books which we possess she was exclusively used by the officers . We have also met many people who have come up to us , very excited to see her as they learned to sail on her! Who knows, we can only go by what we were told and by the information in the log books which spanned her years at JSC Ifdifferi. Eiither way she was a completely different lay out to the others and much more lightly used, as evidenced by her second owner who left us with comprehensive notes on his purchase decision. The most important rhing is she was beautiful, strong and seaworthy and we loved her very much and had a fantastic time with her.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Molly A]

My Contessa 32 was ex Royal Signals, and it was a worn out dog! We set to work and it became a little floating palace. So much so that when the racing boys came aboard they would say something like "Don't let my wife see this!".

Yup, we had that on many occasions. When we won RTI in tbe Contessa class we were fully laden with our normal cruising gear and tons of beer and wine, which we got stuck into on tbe way home to Lymington! Happy Days!

 

[nicholsong]

I was the 16 year old Purser on 56ft. Avalanche during my first Baltic cruise out of BKYC, 1964. I shared the Skipper's cabin with Lt. COL Townsend, a truly lovely man! That trip was the start of my love affair with classic yachts.

John

I was getting worried till I got to 'with classic yachts'

Sorry had to laugh.

Geoff

 

[nicholsong]

Most of you who have sailed in Greek waters seem to have favoured the Ionian. I transited the Ionian in 1987 but preferred(for 30 years) the rough'n'tumble of the Aegean - almost no marinas, so fit in with the fishermen, no flotillas and the charter boats tended to be crewed by quite experienced crews, well if not at the start they were at the end in Meltemi season.

My Westerly 33 (build no. 104 1978) looked after me very well. My N&B Arto (2003) is doing the same, including our recent trip to Greece which included ports and bays I had sailed into.

Geoff

 

[robnchris]

Most of you who have sailed in Greek waters seem to have favoured the Ionian. I transited the Ionian in 1987 but preferred(for 30 years) the rough'n'tumble of the Aegean - almost no marinas, so fit in with the fishermen, no flotillas and the charter boats tended to be crewed by quite experienced crews, well if not at the start they were at the end in Meltemi season.

My Westerly 33 (build no. 104 1978) looked after me very well. My N&B Arto (2003) is doing the same, including our recent trip to Greece which included ports and bays I had sailed into.

Geoff

I remember the Westerly 33 being quoted by a couple of Yacht magazines to being the best value boat for Mediterranean, good sea keeping qualities, open decks, good sized cockpit and voluminous below decks.
We over wintered in the Ionian, am easy place to get flights back to the UK, a regular cruise would be Gouvia to Chania on Crete visting whatever islands took our fancy along the way.

 

[Molly A]

Most of you who have sailed in Greek waters seem to have favoured the Ionian. I transited the Ionian in 1987 but preferred(for 30 years) the rough'n'tumble of the Aegean - almost no marinas, so fit in with the fishermen, no flotillas and the charter boats tended to be crewed by quite experienced crews, well if not at the start they were at the end in Meltemi season.

My Westerly 33 (build no. 104 1978) looked after me very well. My N&B Arto (2003) is doing the same, including our recent trip to Greece which included ports and bays I had sailed into.

Geoff

There are still only a handful of marinas in the Ionian, which we rarely use, generally for only a couple of days before we lift out. The Aegean is on the list for next year maybe, now my partner has his Greek residency and we can have more than the 90 days in Schengen.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}