tophatyachts.com

I have found the stories of people's experiences with repairing and using their boats to be very helpful. So, with seemingly endless repairs to Windchaser plus a few cruises thrown in, I am writing them up and illustrating them as part of a new blog. I am hoping it will be easy for people to see what needed doing, what was done and whether the outcome worked or not. Also with the cruising, I hope people can gain more insight into just how good a pocket cruiser the Top Hat is.

My blog has references back to the forum as being part of this forum has been very helpful to me with my ownership of a Top Hat.

I have also been going through some of my old threads in this forum and noticed some of my pictures have gone missing. That was from me doing some sorting out on Photobucket and stuffing something up. Whoops. However, I have chased up the pics on my computer and been putting them back in the posts. The information this forum contains is valuable so I was pleased to get those pictures of repairs back in where they should be.

If you are interested in seeing the blog starting to take shape, you may like to check out the Boating Stuff section here: https://mildadventurer.wordpress.com/boating/

cheers

troppo

Good one Louis,
I read your rudder and keel repairs again, oh the memories.
Had Blue Moon up on the slip last week (for the first time since ive owned her), thankfully no major discoveries or surprises,
cheers

Hi Shaun, yes plenty of memories with the repair of keel and rudder. Now when I go to do some repair job with epoxy, it seems so much easier than just a couple of years ago. I am taking my learning for granted but when I go back and think about it, the experiences I have had certainly taught me a lot.

With Blue Moon, that is excellent news. No surprises when ya boat comes out on the slip is very good news indeed.

Louis
troppo

Good stuff Louis,

Always good to see things start to come together. With Dulcamara, she just gets slipped and cleaned for now. Until I have more time to do some serious re-fitting of the interior. She's solid, but a bit tatty is all.

Nice to see there were no surprised on your Junk Shaun!

Just found with my blog that I had some pages set as 'private' when they were supposed to be public. Hehe, plenty to learn. I'll be putting up new material often, it is from my old diary notes so I am glad I can back date them. Unfortunately it means if someone looks for a new post it won't be right at the top of the list, they might not realise some of my new posts are dated from years back.

Michael, solid but tatty sounds far better than pretty but unsafe.

troppo

We humans are a weird bunch. Excellent insect story Louis, very funny and alarmingly identifiable.
When I first slept on Sundowner (yes, I'm her new owner) I thought I was going to be carried away into the night by the little beasts.

Thanks for sharing...
Lachlan

Thank you Lachlan for providing me with some feedback. Spending time on the water in a boat, especially when anchoring out overnight, provides plenty of opportunities for interesting experiences. Speaking for myself, boating experiences have given me insight into myself and helped me grow in confidence. Nothing like getting out on the water I reckon.

What's your plan of attack with the insects? Coils? Mesh?

Louis
troppo

Excellent read Louis. I could picture your struggles in Townsville, as I have often stayed in a hotel across the water from your berth and looked at the boats in the marina.

The story though, is a common one, buying a boat away from your home port and trying to sail it home. My conclusion is that it is best to calculate in the price to land transport a new boat to your home port. Too difficult to sort out everything when you are away from home and resources. Unfortunately there are many stories of people buying a boat and setting out straight away- then getting into grief. Seems like almost every other week I read a similar story. Good that you survived and it only cost you $10K!

Hi Ian, thank you for your comments. I quite liked Townsville as a place, didn't like how hot and humid it got in summer.

With buying a boat away from home and ending up with problems, I agree with you that it is a common one. I feel somewhat embarrassed at the mistakes I made, oddly enough that provides me with some motivation to share my story. Perhaps it will prove useful to someone else who is contemplating buying a boat from some distance away.

cheers

Louis
troppo