I bought 'Fairweather' in November 2001. She had been owned by a Mr Peter Aylwood and had been kept whilst owned by him at the Elephant Boat Yard on the Hamble at Swanwick.

The owner had died and 'Fairweather' had been placed on the market, but for some reason had not sold. I viewed her (albeit she was looking rather neglected) and had a chat with the yard manager Brian. He told me that she had been maintained by the yard for many years and added that if he was in the position to, he would buy her himself! Anyway I had her surveyed and was impressed by what the surveyer David Hopkins had to say, and bought her.

She really is a lovely boat to own, strong, powerful and with a good turn of speed. With the shelter of her half wheelhouse she is the sort of boat that you can go places in and arrive in good shape.

I cruise her from Wicor Marine at Portchester near Portsmouth, a well run yard with good moorings, facilities and staff.

I sail mainly single handed but find her easy to handle. I generaly manage a Channel crossing or two during the smmer, or a trip to the Westcountry. Most of my sailing however is in the Solent.

I have addec plenty of upgrades over the 6 years I have sailed her, and these include:

Davits/ New Self tailing winches/ New GPS and plotter (Yeoman)/ Wheelhouse cover/4 x AGM batteries/Mast steps/DSC Radio/Adverc charging optimiser/New Genoa and Main Sail/New interior reading lights (halogen)/Air X windgenerator/Flemming wind vane self steering/ New Standing rigging/New running rigging/All old paint and anti foul slurry blasted off her under water sections./New masthead tricolour and anchor light/New wind speed and direction indicator.

These are in addition to the recent upgrades and work carried out by the previous owner which included:

New Stainless steel diesel tanks/Engine rebuild (now 600hrs ago)/ New anchor windlass/  New cooker. 

I run a Yahoo Group for Halberdier Owners which you can reach via the following link:

 http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Halberdiers/

The 2008 season included a first attempt at the Round the Island Race in my own boat and the weather was perfect. South westerly about 20 + kts. We did very well finishing in the top 1/4 on corrected time.

Actually it was probably the high point of the summer as the weather was of course generally awful.

A couple of planned trips to France came to naught due to strong winds.

This winter I have planned to have all the old pant stripped off the hull. She was painted about 18years ago with single pack paint and is now looking pretty tatty. Whilst I have her out of the water I am also getting the bottom blasted again ( 1st done when I bought her).. and then having her epoxied.

The Flemming wind vane selfsteeing was rather less than totally successful, which suprissed me. I just did not have enough grunt to steer the old boat, also it was always in the way of either the mizzen or the dinghy on the davits. I think it may go back from whence it came ... E-Bay 

Great little boats these...dinghy like handling and performance, and decent accomodation as well.

I bought this boat as a bit of a fill in after selling Malika and buying something a bit 'grander'. In fact she gave me some of the best sailingI have ever enjoyed.  

I bought Malika as a Hull and superstructure, with the proceeds from the sale of Sarka.

She was in the front garden of a chap in Reading, so I built a 3 ton trailer and had the boat craned out and onto it. This was the 1st of many moves, and although I had originally intended to have her built in 12months the eventual build time was nearer 10 years!!

Picture to follow

Its was about this time that we also started building a family and the arrival of 4 kids put severe pressure on the resources department.

Thge building and launching of Malika is a long story and included such items as casting her lead keel and other adventures....To be continued  

This is a picture of my Folkboat 'Sarka'. The only boat I have ever really regreted buying. She was a 'coldmoulded' version by Jeremy Rodgers and was really more like a wooden Contessa.

Dispite having a recent survey she was going soft all over the place, I spent the first summer of ownership patching her up...she sailed very nicely but I sold her on with no regrets. 

I bought this Yachting Monthly 3 Tonner as a 95% complete project in 1976. A bit of a learning curve for me as a 22year old who had never really even held a saw before. But as you can see she looked very nice. Most of the work was completed at Timm's Boat yard on the Thames at Staines and we sailed her around to her mooring at Emsworth the next summer.

In 1975 I sailed to the Baliaric Islands in this little boat. Departed Weymouth May and returned finally on the night of 5th November across the Channel from Guernsey. 

If you want to read about this trip it was written up in Twin keeler Magazine. 

www.twin-keeler.org/newsletter/twinkeeler1_2005.pdf

I have been sailing in one form or other since I was 7 years old.

So have loaded a few photos below. This is me at the age of 14 sailing the family GP 14, I sailed all year round in this boat, in just jeans and woolly jumpers.