I have
owned a boat of some description for around [many] years. It all
started when I was about 11 years old, when I made a canoe out of
a cheese box and some canvas that I scrounged from the local
railway yard. I finished up upside down in the local canal and
then burned my best school trousers trying to dry them in front
of the gas fire before my parents arrived home. The incident
didn't deter me from my interest in boats and boating, and living
in such proximity to the river Usk and the Bristol Channel I
found myself having a keen interest in a lifeboat conversion
being undertaken by an older boy (Benny Davies) and his father
who lived close by. I remember that the power unit was an Austin
7 engine and gear box, and if you tried to drive in anything
lower than 4th. gear the engine over heated or the boat went
backwards with the current. It was some years later that
circumstances allowed me to actively resume my interests. It was
after I was married and all ready had two small sons of about
4&6 years of age.
I
built a small power boat a VENTURER and called her BABS , A great
deal of time and love went into making that boat and I was
particularly proud of the "finish". I will never forget
one time during construction when I was steaming the 5mm. ply
around to the stem. It was late at night and as I poured the
steaming boiling water and clamped down, the water was freezing
as it hit the floor of the garage. But I didn't seem to notice
the freezing cold. It was as good as any professionally built boat
of that time. with 7 coats of polyurethane varnish on her decks
she "gleamed". We had some lovely times with that boat
but it was stolen one night all ready loaded up in preparation
for the start of another holiday the following day. I was heart
broken and despite its being featured on "Police Five"
on television no trace of it was ever found. That was in about
1967 and even to this day I look at every passing similar boat
expecting to find it, I would most definitely recognize her since
I would knew every screw and nail in her. We went several years
without a boat and time for another holiday was coming shortly so
I decided to make a small wooden pram dingy designed by Barry
Bucknell of TV Diy fame, driven by a small 1 1/2 hp. Seagull
engine which I still own, it gave us such pleasure that I felt
that I just had to make another power boat that we could all
enjoy together.
Inspired
by an article in the magazine "Practical
Boat Owner" describing how
some-one had made a small boat on a "Sea-Safe" hull ,I
contacted the fabricators on the south coast and arranged
delivery of a moulding. That boat BABS2 became quite well known
in Newquay Dyfed where we now had a permanent berth. That boat
served us several years and proved her description sea-safe a
number of times, and in particular on one occasion when we towed
a small open boat of very green anglers back to shore in some
mountainous seas! I soon felt the need to have something a little
bigger and safer so we made a journey down to see a Mr. Wilson at
New Milton on the edge of the New Forest
. Mr
Wilson had not long entered the world of fabricating boats in the
relatively new GRP but had all ready earned the reputation of
building a very strong hull the now well known AQUA-STAR. It
was here that I first met the young Geoff Wilson. Babs and I hit
it off with him straight away. We explained our needs and
financial limitations and Geoff went out of his way to satisfy
those needs . We signed an order for a 20ft. hull and bonded
superstructure with floors and a Yanmar PMX8 fitted. Geoff was
delighted and explained that ours was the first order of its kind
that he had taken. I would mention that his father was not over enamoured with me saying that he was not in the business of
supplying " Boat Kits" The finished boat BABSIII was a
cracking boat and created a lot of interest locally. We kept her
in active service for 11 years before selling her on. Shortly
after its arrival in Newquay two of the local fishermen (one was
Winston Evans O.B.E.) also purchased AQUA-STARS. I always felt I
should have asked Geoff for some commission.
The
time had arrived to go the whole hog and buy a ready made craft
.So off to the Southampton boat show we all went. We arrived home
with the copy of a signed order for an 8 metre Sports Fishing
Boat, built by "Briscoe Marine " of Manchester. The Invader 772 or 'Babs IV', which is the craft which
we were to use some years later for our first trip to the
Mediterranean. Prior to this trip we had been largely
'day boaters' enjoying our favourite pastime of fishing for
mackerel and sea bass in the Cardigan bay. Our boat was well
known to most of the boating fraternity in the bay but the
longest trip we had ever done was about 80 miles and had been
from Newquay in Dyfed, where we had normally berthed the boat, to
Milford Haven for repairs and service during the winter, at the
nearest Volvo Penta dealer. These trips only took 3 hours 40
minutes at full steam (26 Knots). We hadn't even had to sleep on
her before !!
You
will no doubt appreciate from this description of my experience
that although a keen novice at map reading and navigation I had
never really had cause to use these skills, relying more on
experience and the seat of my pants to locate the best spots for
fishing and diving. Though I must confess that having installed a
simple Dinghy DECCA I was completely sold on modern navionics
when one night we were caught out at sea in the dark and the
DECCA brought us directly to the harbour within a matter of yards.
Please read on to hear how we prepared for and made the
crossing to Calais.
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