Tony and Rachelle came to stay chez nous in Aubeterre. Lovely week, including a wine tour to Blaye (Monconseil Gazin) and a couple of canoe trips down the Dronne. Ofcourse, there was a bit of discussion about the boat.
Some of the discussion was about unknowns, such as how long we would be able to spend in EU waters per year post-Brexit. But some discussions were downright practical: should we have a 2 cabin-2 head version, so that we would have more storage; the need for a wind generator (and/or possibly solar panels); the need for a hard bottomed dinghy (much more stable); the need for a davit to hoist and lower the outboard, which should be at least 4hp; the type of anchor, and type of liferaft.
Alix is still keen to have the 3-cabin version (for eventual better resale), so that means we will have to find ways of storing/securing many items: the two cockpit lockers are quite small. We decided that a single pole should support the wind generator and the davit. I decided that a hard bottomed boat may be too heavy (although we could use a cradle to hoist it on deck with the halyard), and that I would investigate dinghies with separately inflatable bottoms. We though that we might be limited to a Delta anchor (not a Rocna) due to the bowsprit configuration.
All very useful stuff! In the meantime we have been pushing Richard (at Greek Sails) to get a quote to us. However, we are not his day job and he is very busy with the flotilla. I am worried about how responsive he would be able to be for any calls for help next year? Alix, reluctantly agrees, and so for that reason we have decided to go with Chris at Sunbird: he has been very quick and responsive to our queries to date.
