To Begin at the Beginning

Q. Why do three men wish to buy a boat? Why do three men wish to buy a junk-rigged boat? What do these three men know about sailing a junk-rigged boat?

A. Dunno. Dunno. Nothing.

Great start.

Let's begin at the beginning. I have had a fascination for the junk rig for some years. Don't ask me why but my interest was sparked by an ex-naval commander who once told me that the junk rig was the most efficient, easiest to sail and cheapest to maintain rig ever developed. Further reading suggested that, not only was he right but that there was a small but significant group of junk rig nuts worldwide, some of whom made their own sails, some of whom had circumnavigated the globe and made other scary voyages under the said rig and a couple of whom had even done super-duper boffin type studies at university to explain how this bag of wind propelled vessels of varying size and tonnage on long, long ocean voyages. They had degrees and everything.

Junk rig supporters are a slightly eccentric bunch who shrug off the derision of their Bermudan rigged brethren to sail in a reportedly more relaxed fashion utilising a sail design that has been used in the far east for many centuries on both coastal and ocean going cargo ships. It's combination of simplicity, comparative cheapness, ease of maintenance and repair has ensured it's survival despite new developments in high tech sail materials and rigging. In short, it seems to be a criminally overlooked, tried and tested mode of propulsion and ideal for simple relaxed cruising.

My own interest was put on hold while I lived in the middle of the country where puddle sailing was the order of the day. On moving nearer to the coast in Dorset I made some initial enquiries but had another brief hiccough when illness intervened curtailing sailing ambitions.

Illness banished by the combined forces of the NHS and supportive CAM I returned to thinking about cruising the Jurassic coast and what craft would fit the bill for such a pastime. Lo and behold, springing as if called forth from the universal lucky bag, came Missy Moto.

As it turned out MM was a Newbridge Coromandel sail number 17 and was currently languishing in Lydney on the River Severn in Glouscestershire.

The Coromandel was a junk rigged version of the famous Corribee the boat in which Ellen McArthur circumnavigated the UK whilst she was still a foetus. The hull is therefore a proven and seaworthy design onto which Newbridge grafted a junk rig to make an unusual sailing boat of manageable proportions with the required rig. To cap it all, Newbridge Boats, although now no more, were built in Dorset so Missy Moto would be returning to her birthplace or thereabouts.
Mentioning my mild obsession to my other half's cousin, also a sailor, I somewhat dragooned him in to going halves with the boat if she should prove suitable (I hadn't even seen her at this stage). The germ of an idea was growing nicely.

We intended to have a short touring holiday in North Wales in June 2011 and went via Lydney Harbour where the Lydney Yacht Club were having their open day and MM's current owner was doing a sterling job cooking for the assembled club members and visitors. We camped in their car park for the night being entertained by watching arriving boats navigate the horrendous tidal flow of the Severn and, as they shot across it into the safety of the harbour, receiving rounds of applause varying in intensity according to how hairy the entrance was. I figured if MM could survive here then she must be some little boat. We had a brief squint at the little craft but it was raining, Paul (the owner) was busy and I had no clue what to look for having never bought or thought about a boat bigger than a sailing dinghy so it was a slightly off-putting experience made even more so by my sneaky other half not putting up any resistance so devolving the whole responsibility to me knowing as she did so that this would cause me to have serious second thoughts. She was right.

We spent an interesting ten days or so on the Llynn Peninsula and returned via Lydney Harbour again mainly as an overnight stop and to have one last look at MM before I reluctantly shelved thoughts of Jurassic Coastal cruising.

Shortly after we arrived back in Swanage some chiropractor friends visited and John suggested he come into the MM partnership to which I agreed with alacrity. We now had three members to spread the cost between. I have subsequently realised that that was not really my decision to make and that Dave should have been consulted but democracy is not my strong point something that's going to have to change I suspect.

When I had arrived back in Swanage I realised that, although I have sailed various dinghies and windsurfing equipment for over 40 years, I knew absolutely nothing about cruising sailing and the general mechanics of how it all worked and I determined to find out about moorings, winter lay-ups and all the attendant gubbins attached to boat ownership. As a preliminary foray into this I quizzed some Swanage Sailing Club members about moorings and their availability etc. How did one go about getting one, how much did they cost, how did one maintain them. Just by chance, I was told, there was one available (in fact they were just about to lay it that very day), it was first come first served and it was within budget. 'I'll have it', I heard myself say. Now we had a mooring but no boat.

So there we were, Tony(me), Dave and John proud owners of a mooring but no boat so, since John, already shirking his responsibilities, was going on holiday, Dave and I agreed to meet in Lydney together with a friend with extensive boating experience to check out MM with a view to purchase. (John's involvement had lowered the risk significantly and meant that this really was a no-brainer much to Lynda's chagrin - the 'resist by not resisting' strategy had clearly failed this time.) Dave is an engineer as is Tim, our nautically experienced oppo, so they fine-toothed the little boat, we examined the sails, battens, yard, boom and finally the trailer. Finding nothing amiss we made an offer and got a massive £100 off the asking price. We now owned a boat.

All we have to do now is to get her to Dave's so he can make some reinforcing for the anchor roller and take stock of her general condition and make three lists 1.Things to do immediately. 2.Things to do this winter. 3.Things we'd like to do but can't afford. Simples.