To my relief the journey ‘home’ went very smoothly and Caraway was lifted off the trailer and chocked up on a patch of grass at Rossiters yard in Christchurch. Just a 30 minute walk from our new house. Rossiters is a friendly yard with a lot of interesting history. Unlike most ports I’ve been at in the Med, Rossiters has a tradition of boat building. They are famous for their Pintail and Curlew yachts and more recently for building ocean going rowing boats. It’s a real nice thing to be back amongst real boat people and away from the Play-Boys of the Rivierra. This yard represents everything I love above boat yards and that which is so often missing in the glossy Med. An assortment of old boats in various states of repair & disrepair, piles of bits of wood, boxes of boat bits, machinery and people busy at work or standing around discussing boats. As I was pottering about a man said to me in passing, “think it’ll turn out brighter later?”. Yes, I said, optimistically only for it to rain heavily within the hour.. oh to be back in England!

There yard is situated right in the heart of Christchurch on a spit of land between channels of the river. There are boats moored either side of the yard. There is a big covered shed where boat work is done and there is a well stocked chandlers and offices in the middle. I am delighted to note that there doesn’t seem to be a motor boat sales office in the vicinity.

Caraway laid up at Rossiters yard.

Caraway is conveniently situated next to a power point so I’ve got the battery charger on a timer to keep the batteries topped up. The mast is laid up on a proper rack nearby and I will store the boom there too. (Boom was stowed in the cabin for the journey).

The next job is to clear out all my tools and excess gear and store them in my garage. I’ll get the dinghy out of the quarter berth and take sails and ropes home for cleaning and and storage. That will give me space to work on her and give her a proper clean out.

I’ll winterise the engine and get it ready for the spring. The next tasks will be:-

1) Strip the anti-foul and Copper-coat the hull.

2) Re-paint the top sides.

3) Polish gel coat and repair

4) Strip and pain the mast and replace rigging.

5) Re-do all varnish

6) Grease the folding prop and rudder pintles.

I plan to ask for quotes from the yard for some of the above work as if they can do it for a reasonable price it will save me a lot of trouble. Plus, they have a covered shed so painting will not be troubled by weather conditions. It’s the painting that I can’t really do properly. I don’t have a spray machine for a start and it’s one of those jobs that if you do it all the time you get much better at it. I might be able to save costs by doing the prep myself. I’ll talk to the guys in the yard about it.