BEWARE BOAT MODIFICATIONS

Make sure that your boat structure, something that is often taken for granted, is sound. You must get it properly surveyed on purchase, re-surveyed at least every five years and immediately on grounding. I chat to boat builders, surveyors and search the web to see if a particular production boat has had common issues over the years. You might, for example, discover a particular ‘tell’ to look out for on boats built after a certain year due to a change in production procedures. Scout the local club or RNLI station for any gossip of collision or grounding that requires clarification.

Be very, very wary of modifications. Imagine watching your bow standing on end and looking down the companionway to see a wave engulfing the accommodation. Not something any of us would want or expect to see – I bet Escoffier filled his boots! But big boots they are for Escoffier is the real deal as a seasoned competitive sailor with the sea in his DNA. His brother is a commercial fisherman on the notorious Plateau des Minquiers and his father has won the Transat Jacques Vabre three times as well as the Route du Rhumb. Having studied engineering and mechanics in structures he will be searching for answers as to the catastrophic failure of his boat. Exotic in nature, one has to wonder if retrofitting foils to an old boat with the huge elevation in shock loads will have played its part. His bewildered post-rescue comment that they had added 200kg of structure might be telling, in that it was at the forefront of his stunned mind.