And so began the Odyssey. It started as a dream many years ago that we would sail off to New Zealand and who knows – perhaps sail back again.
As retirement approached, we started looking at boats with a more objective purpose and Rupert Knox-Johnston, nephew of Sir Robin, persuaded us of the virtues of an Oyster. This was more than four years ago now, but it was not until late last autumn that we saw an Oyster 55 which was to become ours. The previous owner wanted to keep her name, so we decided to re-christen her Moonbeam, which is an anagram using the children’s names, or Moonbeam of Dartmouth, to be more precise.
I had fallen in love with her because she was undoubtedly the most pristine Oyster 55, we had seen, and I had seen lots of them. Her level of equipment, recent new engine, generator, and rigging were powerful reasons. However, just like buying a second-hand house the plan was to be vetoed by Sarah unless I agreed to a new kitchen, bathrooms, and curtains throughout.
In accordance with the Seaman planning model, we managed to buy Moonbeam whilst we still had Bagatel, our trusty Moody 34. The trouble was that Bagatel was lying in Vila Real de Santo Antonio on the South coast of Portugal on the border with Spain, and Moonbeam needed to go home to Fox’s in Ipswich for the refit of her galley and heads.
Moonbeam was lying in Lymington where she had been out of commission for over 18 months. This was because her previous owner collected Oysters. In addition to Moonbeam, he had a 62 in Berthon’s marina and a 72 in build.
It took ten days in the worst weather in May to get her ready for the water, as all the sea cocks needed servicing, new safety gear installed, along with 101 other things, but when she was finally put back in the water, the sun came out – what a good sign!
Several days passed before I worked up the courage to move her from the tightest berth in Berthon’s marina, with the previous owner’s 62 wedging us in. However, it was done with Sol Blytt-Jordens’ help. Sarah and I recognised that we would have to get used to her size whist being short-handed and therefore decided to dispatch to Ipswich via Brighton and Dover, ourselves.
It had been many years since I had sailed anything bigger than our Moody and with just two of us on board my heart rate didn’t spend much time under 160. It was worse than learning to fly a 747.
However, when we called Brighton for a berth one of the advantages of having a big boat became apparent. We were told to berth on the hammerhead just inside the entrance. Once we were safely tied up, Sarah met another yachtsman on the pontoon who said, “that’s a big boat for just the two of you to handle – but I expect you are used to it.” Little did he know!
Ipswich
Anyhow, two days later she was safely berthed in Ipswich and so started a four-to-five-week refit that took four months.
Meanwhile we flew down to Vila Real to bring Bagatel home. Needless to say, that we had timed this so that we had to beat into the Northerly Trades that settle in on the West coast of the Iberian Peninsula at this time of year! However, we got her home with only two unplanned diversions in time for Moody’s, (now Premier Yachts) autumn sale. I spent a week polishing her and giving her new lines and anti-fouling and she sold at top price within three weeks. This supported our long-held view that if you look after a boat she will look after you, or maybe the Gods were smiling on us….
When we arrived back at Fox’s at the end of July, it was to find that only the forward heads had been completed and the galley stripped. Essentially it looked as though they were afraid of stripping the aft heads without my oversight.
I had asked them to put the shower/heads module from the Oyster 53 into the rear heads. Fox’s had obtained the mould tool and made the module, but it was still in the workshop. After we gave the go-ahead and I moved onto the boat after I had finished working on Bagatel, I asked Ralph Catchpole, the manager for his help and things started moving apace. The module was cut into pieces with only the bottom 16” remaining intact. It was then re-built in situ. Jordan did an amazing job, and if you didn’t know where to look you would not believe it wasn’t built in when she was first constructed. This was a brilliant success as other 55 owners are considering the same refit. The galley looks superb in its new blue Corian, which has brought it up-to-date and when the new curtains arrived the expenditure was well worthwhile, even though it ran to £15k over budget!
Whilst this was going on, I polished the hull, re-painted her lines, and eliminated the lower boot top because she obviously sat low on her lines. Jonathan Baker, owner of Arabella, another 55 which was also in refit helped with lots of useful advice and good ideas. She was anti-fouled, the instruments re-fitted in alcantara, a new computer and GPS installed along with an Iridium sat phone that proceeded to give problems from the outset.
In addition, I re-vamped my fibre-glass skills, last used when fitting out our first boat ‘Pooh Bear Too’ and spent many, many hours upside down in the bilges getting to know her insides intimately. I replaced all the hatch covers; the engine and generator were serviced, and numerous maintenance tasks completed with the only happy interruption of going to our daughter Gemma’s marriage to Simon.
At last, we were (nearly) ready and we finally departed Fox’s on 5th October bound for Boulogne (actually any destination outside the twelve-mile limit because I did not want to overstay my time in the UK). David Barker, Sarah’s brother, who planned to sail the Atlantic with us and our son Tom, made up the crew. Sadly, the pleasant start to the week, whilst we were getting her ready deteriorated into an un-forecast gale and we abandoned the trip when Dover coastguard put out an imminent storm warning. So, after seven hours and 40 miles we were back in Ipswich having picked up a buoy in the river.