Finding the Boat 

Finding the Boat

This blog is going to be about me and my boat. I have decided to do this having seen lots of interesting stuff on my dad's boat Lugg at lugg.blogeasy.com.

I hadn't sailed for 9 years until I started crewing on a J109 called Joyride in the Warsash Spring series. I generally got the task of manning the mast, and enjoyed myself. More of that later, I am sure. Anyway, the bug was back, and I decided that I really needed a dinghy of my own. The hunt was on.

I started by looking at what classes were out there and available on a modest budget. It seemed to make sense to get a boat that could be cruised as well as raced, and so I started looking for Enterprises, Wayfarers and the like. It soon became clear that finding a good one would be difficult.

Whist cruising e-bay I came across an ad for N2699 - it read like this:

National 12 no. 2699 high performance racing dinghy




National 12 no. 2699 high performance racing dinghy for sale, wooden hull design similar to China Doll but with slightly larger planing area so planes early, and very good into wind. Beautifully made and in immaculate condition, a joy to sail. This is a one off design that has won many races. Full rigging, sails etc. and measurement form included. Ready to race. (Low picture res. looks like imperfections in the boat, this is not the case! Please e-mail for some higher res. shots).

I e-mailed the seller and asked for the high resolution shots and was very impressed with what I saw. I sent them on to my dad and he also thought it was nice, so as the auction progressed I considered bidding. With about 5 minutes to go, there were no bids so I stuck in a low-ish bid (above the minimum) and tried my luck. No-one bid against me, but unfortunately the reserve was not met!

I consoled myself with the fact that a National 12 is not really a practical cruising dinghy - in fact it is quite the opposite - an all out racing machine!

Anyway, I thought I would ask what the reserve was and see if it was affordable. In the meant time I was cruising boatsandoutboards.com and spotted the boat advertised on there for £1500 so I decided it was probably too much for me. It turned out the reserve had been much lower - £500 - and I could have it for that. Unfortunately, there was no trailer so I started to look for one and then gave up, assuming it had probably been sold.

A few days later the seller contacted me and said he would take £300 as he wanted to get rid of it. Bargain! I borrowed a trailer, and on Saturday 23rd April we went and collected the boat from deepest Wiltshire (just outside Bath in fact).

When we arrived at the sellers house we saw the boat upside down on some scaffolding frame work. She looked really smart with shiny varnish over the entire clinker hull. When we turned her over it was clear that she was in beautiful condition - I couldn't believe my luck! We got her the 120 or so miles home and left her in my works car park - security cameras watching all comings and goings!

Things were looking good...