Keeping an old boat in good order gives you a never ending job list. Make that boat a beautifully engineered Swan and the systems are more complex (and expensive) and the standards of the original build set a very high bar for whatever you do. Luckily half the fun of boat ownership, for me, is that sort of work. Growing up in a sailing club that was definitely of the do it yourself mentality has left me with ambitions that, in my fifties, my skills are starting to catch up on.
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Last minute maintenance
Before we could get away for the late may Bank holiday there was a pile of work to be done: the usual spring clean below and cleaning all the upholstery. I was also able to finally fix the forward bunk hinges. One had failed on each side and Nautor had supplied some replacements over the…
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Over engineering a pig stick
I became a member of the Royal Cruising Club (RCC) this year. The club has been very welcoming and has a thriving online community, as well as regular events and meet ups. It is of course the home of the RCC Pilotage Foundation, the publishers of most of the pilot books I’ve depended upon for…
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Propeller Pain
One of the over winter projects was tackling the vibration we’d noticed from the propellor last summer. It had got bad enough that we’d had a diver check that it wasn’t fouled. We have a Max Prop. It’s a clever feathering prop design, where the pitch can be adjusted – and even be different ahead…
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Winter Upgrades
Trouper went into Nautor’s Hamble yard for a mini-refit in late October 2025. The main job was to remove the rig and renew the rather elderly rod rigging. There were a few jobs that it made sense otherwise do at the same time, such as replacing the radar, as it is only possible to re-run…
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Lessons learned and what to change
This post has taken a while to be published so describes the autumn 2025 position, on our return from the Brittany trip. This trip had a few purposes: So how’ve we done? The first two I think we’ve achieved. We’re still talking to each other, and talking about future trips, indeed we’re both very clear…
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Risk perception and back in the English Channel
As someone who has spent a lot of time teaching people to use powerboats safely it is interesting to see the French approach to risk management and safety. The UK has a sad history of accidents resulting in deaths and serious injury from using powerboats, especially RIBs. That’s resulted in an approach to managing them…
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Morbihan
We’d chosen the anchorage on the Auray as it was the spot favoured by George Millar in his book Oyster River about a summer cruising the Morbihan. It’s a lovely read (though out of print) describing a summer on his 50′ wooden yawl sometime in the late 50s. Both he, and his wife Isabel, are…
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Grey in Roscoff
We left Cherbourg on Wednesday, filling up with diesel before we left at the self service pumps. The 300Euro maximum for a card transaction filled one tank and took the other to 92% so we left it at that and headed off. We took a fair tide to Cap de la Hauge and saw a…
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Lifeboating won’t let me go
I stood down form the RNLI lifeboat crew at Tower after over 20 years on the crew last month. As we left for Cherbourg we found a young man at about 0615 in the morning swimming well over 2 miles offshore. He was struggling a bit and was glad of a ride back into Chichester……
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Trouper’s Atlantic France Trip Preparations
Over the last few years I’ve invested a lot of time, effort, and a fair bit of money into getting Trouper set up for extended cruising. We’ve installed a new engine, a large Lithium Iron Phosphate battery bank with a large alternator to charge it, and a hostable array of solar panels. Our plan has…