Bigger yacht??

In resent weeks a few yachts have come onto the market which would have suited us. Having been converted from fin keel to bilge keel we don’t want to go back, not many bigger yachts have bilge keels. The cut off seems to be about 35ft possibly because of the yachts weight at that size.

We have been spoilt with our Sadler which were designed to sail well even with bilge keels or as Sadler called them twin keels. Many of the Westerly’s look like the bilge keels are an after thought!

Anyway a few weeks ago a very nice twin keel Sadler 34 came on the market which had been completely updated since 2017, I saw the add 2 days after it was posted and contacted the owner by which time there was an interested buyer flying back from the Med to see her. Needless to say the yacht was sold inside a week so I mist out. There was another Sadler 34 up London way, although 10 years younger the present owners hadn’t spent any money on her during the last 10 years so she was in need of a major refit, having seen her details we weren’t interested in looking partly because of the 6.5hr drive one way. I told the agent she was overpriced, he suggested putting in an offer. We thought about it a little longer but having priced up work she would need, we decided against. Sailing friends were suggesting a very low offer but refits aren’t just money they are time as well. It had taken us 6 years so far to update Elektra and not finished yet, we didn’t want to start again!

Then a Sadler 290 came on the market. S290s are a more modern design, we had looked at these a few years before but with only 48 built they didn’t come on the market very often and we couldn’t find any. I enquired about this 290 but being 60k she was out of our price range.

Looking at all these yachts got me thinking of just how much time and money I had spent updating Elektra and I went to the effort of writing it all down. You sort out a job but you don’t remember what it was like before. Looking at the list made me think, why change now we have the yacht nearly like we want her?

So there it is, after looking and pondering about buying a bigger yacht we have decided we are happy with Elektra.

Elektra had a new furling gear in the late summer and I ordered new set of sails at the end of the summer, these were delivered the day before Elektra was pulled out for the winter, so ready for next season. Our solar frame was always an add hoc arrangement and we had thought of replacing it but we never had the funs. So this winter a new frame has been ordered and 2 new 80W solar panels are also on their way.

Then after arranging all this another excellent bilge keel Sadler 34 came on the market at the end of November, everything had been updated in resent years, for a little while this chucked a spanner in the works while we decided what to do! I contacted the owner and we were going to view but after a day or two Vicki and I confirmed to each other, we were happy to continue to sail Elektra until age or bad health stops us, she is big enough.