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by Pete Green
2016 turned into quite a year for Halcyon Yachts. We had our busiest and most successful year to date, delivering hundreds of yachts to various destinations all over the world. Here are a few stories that made the year that little bit more interesting!
Scaramouche
Since 2015, Halcyon Yachts has been supporting Greig City Academy’s dream of entering the Rolex Fastnet Race. The project has created a lot of interest across the sailing community and we were even invited to Buckingham Palace to talk to The Duke of Edinburgh about our exciting plans!
Greig City Academy of Haringey, London is not your ordinary inner city comprehensive school. After buying dinghies from e-bay, salvaging, restoring and sailing a McGregor 26 yacht, they managed to acquire ‘Scaramouche’, a 46 foot German Frers racing yacht, built in 1981 for the Americans to compete in the Admirals Cup. The school’s sailing club have helped restore the yacht to tip-top shape and have decided, after winning class at the 2015 ASTO Small Ships Race in the Solent, to set their goals even higher – their next big adventure is going to be the infamous Rolex Fastnet Race in August 2017.
To date, the school has managed to get 250 pupils through their Level 1 RYA Dinghy certificate. Halcyon Yachts Director Pete Green, an RYA Yachtmaster Ocean and qualified RYA Yacht Master Instructor, has also been helping Greig City Academy himself by skippering Scaramouche on various training sails plus providing continuing support and advice to the school. Halcyon Yachts now have a small team of dedicated skippers that will continue to support the students with their sailing development. They now have their sights set on competing for the 2017 Fastnet Race, so we’ll all have our work cut out making sure everyone is ready!
Hallberg Rassy 53 – A Yacht Delivery to Texas
Early in 2016, Halcyon Yachts successfully delivered a Hallberg Rassy 53 all the way from Gosport to Texas via Las Palmas and Puerto Rico.
The Skipper, a seasoned Trans-Atlantic yachtsman, and 2 crew departed from Gosport during the winter on their 6400 nm epic journey to Texas. The owners came along for the first part of the trip to Gran Canaria and then left the team to take the yacht the rest of the way.
Here’s what the owners said:
“I can’t begin to express my gratitude for allowing us to join the crew for parts of the journey. The experience was AMAZING! That was a first for me and a much-needed learning experience. I now know that I can trust the boat we bought and we both have seen now what she is capable of. Thank you a million times over for that”.
Career Development Scheme – The success of Louis Abbott
20-year-old Louis Abbott completed the Halcyon Yachts Career Development Scheme with us in 2015. During this time, he crossed the Atlantic twice and covered over 15,000 nautical miles.
During 2016, Louis has made the transition from mate to qualified Skipper and has delivered some varied yachts for Halcyon including a Prout Snowgoose catamaran, Westerly Fulmar, Hallberg Rassy 37 and a classic junk yacht called Boleh, which was recently restored through Heritage Lottery funding. For more information about Boleh visit: http://www.bolehproject.com/
Louis has impressed us all with his natural sailing ability and professionalism and has been a great asset to our team. Louis tells us in his own words about the Career Development Scheme and how it helped him:
“I chose Halcyon Yachts because they seemed professional and it looked to be a very personal course. Pete Green has been great and offered me some amazing deliveries and opportunities. The sailing I have had from Halcyon has exceeded all my expectations. My course ended with two amazing trips, one across the Atlantic and the other back to the UK from Greece.
My best experience so far was the whale encounter when sailing north of the Azores! The whale was longer than the boat and stayed close to us for a long time.
My favourite boat I have delivered so far is a tough one because you end up falling for most of the boats you deliver! However two that stand out is the classic junk yacht ‘Boleh’, and the fantastically made Rustler 42. The favourite place I have been with Halcyon is even harder as each has its own charm, however Bermuda stands out for being utterly stunning.
I have learned that it’s not always a sunny and perfect wind day. It can be tough out there sometimes, but if you are thinking of doing something like this, then just do it, it’s incredibly rewarding and I have learned so much.”
An extremely short delivery!
Director of Halcyon Yachts, Pete Green, delivered a Sunseeker a massive 8 miles from Poole Harbour up the Frome River to Ridge Wharf, near Wareham. The boat was meant to be launched in Southampton but was eventually launched in Poole meaning a very short trip to take her to her new home. However the bonus was the owner was able to hop aboard and Pete was able to instruct him on how the vessel operated and also managed to get some man over board drills in too!
Sacqua Star
During August, Halcyon Yachts delivered a Bavaria 41 from Dun Laoghaire to Concarneau in France and return, so her owners could spend the maximum amount of time holidaying on-board sailing the stunning Brittany coastline with their young family. The boat owners have made their passion for sailing into a business by inventing, producing and selling the Sacqua product. We caught up with them at the Southampton Boat Show and they told us all about their new invention.
‘The SACQUA is a new chic lightweight, large-volumed loading product that folds flat to the dimensions of an A3 envelope to fit into the chart table yet opens out into a rectangular large-bellied receptacle which can hold up to 20 kilograms and has a volume of 70 litres, perfect to fit directly into the boat locker. It seals closed quickly and securely with the velcro seal which is ideal for cold, wet fingers or gloves when racing. The carabina feature clips the SACQUA to the boat or the boat keys to the SACQUA. It is water resistant and wipes clean easily.”
Here is a link to find out more about the Sacqua and how you can get your hands on one! http://sacqua.com/#upclose
We are very much looking forward to another successful year!!
Halcyon Yachts Ltd is a dedicated international yacht delivery specialist with highly experienced and qualified crew. For more information or to see details of their recent deliveries please visit http://halcyonyachts.com/