Category: General

The forecast is for sun and light breezes. Our passengers, a family of four on holiday in the area,  join us at Falmouth Marina. We don’t hesitate to leave the dock and within minutes we are under sail in Falmouth harbour. We have set our mainsail and foresail, and lower a leeboard into the water. We are moving along nicely and the engine is switched off.

Continue reading “A day sailing trip in Falmouth, a fun family day out on the water”

Last month, Drifter was issued with her Maritime and Coastguard certificate, which is a mandatory document for carrying passengers. This shows that the vessel meets or exceeds very strict safety requirements. We worked with a Dutch surveyor over many months, discussing the best ways to implement the requirements in a sympathetic manner and the result is that Drifter has fully retained its beauty and charm, whilst becoming a fully certified vessel for carrying between 6-8 passengers under sail. Continue reading “Congratulations! Drifter now available for day sailing in Falmouth.”

Some people look at Drifters spars, rigging and winches and express how complicated and hard it must be to manage under sail. These people are mostly those with modern yachts fitted with shining patent high tech equipment which rightly or wrongly, they believe to be an advancement with regard to ease of use and offering them more versatility.  There may be some truth in that, but in our own experience of sailing modern yachts, when problems occur with that much advanced equipment, it often results in stressful moments and expensive repairs. Continue reading “Getting under sail in Falmouth, Cornwall!”

Durgerdam, near Amsterdam.

It has been a few months since we purchased ‘Drifter’ in the pretty town of Hindeloopen, Friesland.  Our first few weeks were  spent in the ‘Skipshelling  Blom’ boatyard that built the barge in 1976. The Blom family are still running things today as they have for nearly 3 generations. They made us very welcome and took great interest in our plans to bring the barge to the UK. Continue reading “Leaving the Netherlands”

A sailing barge is perhaps an unusual sight in the South West of the UK, but is one of the most recognised and admired types of sailing boat in the Netherlands. Continue reading “A Dutch sailing barge in the South West?”