A passion for power and sail
Keith Wheeler charts his lifetime of boat ownership under sail and motor
As a Midlander living far from the sea, my teens were spent racing my Firefly dinghy mostly around a midland reservoir – usually with little success but a lot of fun nevertheless. It was sold when I went off to university but I continued sailing a wide range of other people’s dinghies until work and marriage intervened.
My father-in-law and I eventually hired a couple of kayak moulds and built ourselves a small single and a large double kayak. Unfortunately he didn’t fit the single, so he modified the cockpit with a jigsaw despite my warning about possible dire consequences. The sea trial was in a shallow river and the memory of him holding the paddle aloft with water up to his armpits and the astonished look on his face as the kayak sat on the bottom will live with the family forever!
We then found a sunk and abandoned dory and after suitable enquiries salvaged it. We cut out the all the waterlogged foam and replaced it with sealed plastic drinks bottles, added a new floor, six inches of freeboard and a GRP cabin (having knocked up a female mould in hardboard). A couple of bunks plus an old 25hp Gale outboard and we were off to
a newly acquired mooring in Dale, Pembrokeshire. We’d owned the boat for a season when someone asked if we wanted to sell it (for more than the enterprise had cost us) – so we did.
The money was put to an Express Pirate kit, a great little boat by Ian Proctor which I fitted out in my single garage. The rubbing strakes had to wait until she emerged from the garage before they were fitted – it was that tight. I modified the interior to take four bunks instead of three, losing some locker capacity but gaining the ability to accommodate the next child.
We based this twin keeler at Dale but at the start of each season we ‘went foreign’ towing the boat over to the East Coast for a week of Swallows and Amazons stuff. The boat is still in the family – it’s now owned by my brother-in-law.
As the kids grew we then bought an old Hurley 22 twin keeler which, while a great little boat, I quickly decided didn’t really offer me the space I was looking for and so after a season it was sold. Still short of money I bought an unfinished project in the form of a Colvic Watson 23ft 6in motor-sailer to get the desired living space. Shortly after that my business began to grow rapidly which meant I had no time to carry out the necessary work. The boat either had to languish in the local farmyard or I had to move it to a boatyard to have it completed – but that is a tale in itself!
While the lengthy fit-out was happening I still needed to get afloat so went looking for a small, cheap boat to fill the gap in my sailing. While in the yard I was distracted in my search by an Etap 20 trailer sailer with lift keel and the bonus that she was unsinkable – a key benefit as I pointed out to my wife given we had two children under seven by then. One of our most memorable trips was when we trailed the boat to southern Brittany using her as a caravan en route. Compact is an apt description of the cabin, particularly if you want to fit in two adults, two children and luggage for a fortnight. But what a memorable holiday.
I eventually got delivery of the lovely little Colvic Watson which took me down the Trent at Nottingham and across to the Netherlands where we kept her for a year before returning to the UK.
Then an old pal was boating regularly with me when the family weren’t able to come so we decided to buy a boat together and settled on a Southerly 105. With the big tides of the Bristol Channel you need something that is able to take the ground otherwise your choice of harbours is limited so its swing keel was perfect. We substantially refitted and modified the boat and she took us to Ireland, Southern Brittany, the West Country and the Solent accommodating my wife and children as well as Colin and his wife in comfort. The Southerly was a quick passagemaker and the flat aft cabin roof which ran the full width of the boat plus a great cockpit made for lots of outside space. After 11 years Colin decided he wanted to do other things and we sold the Southerly after many happy times together.
By now my children had grown and left home and I wanted a boat my wife (not a great seafarer) felt happy on and I had always admired the Fisher 25 Ketch. I bought one in Plymouth and fully intending to return to Milford Haven contacted David Freeman, the designer, who sent me plans and specification for fitting bilge plates. I thought I would just have one season in the West Country before returning to Wales and this one season turned into eight. The Fisher allowed me to explore the upper reaches of the Tamar, the Fal etc, as well as being a capable if steady passagemaker. Dartmouth to Poole in 12 hours in comfort in October – there are many who would be delighted with that.
What motivated me to migrate to power was simply the fact that my wife hated life at 45° and being out of sight of land. (Apparently this is a recurring theme amongst other ex-raggies I have spoken to who are now motorboat owners!). Once we retired, I decided a compromise was needed if we were going to do any extended boating together and a proper motorboat seemed like the answer.
I needed one that could do North Sea crossings in safety so that I could get to the European waterway network and the flat water that would appeal to my wife. I needed a good sea boat that could reduce its air draught and produce little wash at displacement speed. It also needed to be comfortable to live on for three months at a time so I bought a Broom 33. I had it for nine years and it took me to France, Belgium and the Netherlands from its base on the River Yare in Norfolk.
Earlier this year we traded up to a Broom 41 that has more outside entertaining space, better facilities for guests and bigger engines allowing for faster passage times. Bought in Plymouth, I had the engines serviced and a few jobs done before setting off to Tobermory in the Inner Hebrides – a totally self-indulgent trip for me before this fabulous boat settles to her primary role of getting to and cruising the European waterways.