Category Archives: Uncategorized

If your engine has been in place since the year dot, the alignment between the gearbox and prop shaft flanges won’t be keeping you awake at night. However, what if your old engine mounts are no longer up to the … Continue reading →

The Heritage Crafts Association now lists traditional wooden boat building on its Red List as an ‘endangered craft’. This means that there are serious concerns about its ongoing viability. Boat building joins other skills, including canal art, oar and spar … Continue reading →

The Dutch love sailing boats and they are very knowledgeable. The most usual question that they ask us about our  Finesse 24 is, “Did you sail her across the North Sea?” And we have to confess that we did not. … Continue reading →

Our Finesse has separate starter and leisure batteries. When we bought her, she had one of those large rotary switches connecting the single alternator to either battery, both batteries or none. This was a level of complexity that was way … Continue reading →

Because it is a wooden boat, a Finesse is always a bargain these days. Who wants to spend their precious time maintaining a vessel made from trees? As someone once wrote, who how long would a fine dining table last … Continue reading →

I took the opportunity of buying a couple of second-hand Tufnol winches last year (2022), to make it possible to pull in Lady Christina’s foresail boom in a blow. The sheet arrangement gave only a 2:1 purchase, but a ratio … Continue reading →

Bilge pumps: what do you need and where should they be placed? The most common place for an automatic electric pump is in the small gap behind the keel case, in front of the T&G bulkhead that divides the accommodation … Continue reading →

Having recently bought ‘Erika’, Finesse 24 with sail No16, Jim Hughan sailed her from  Cardigan to Howth (south of Dublin), departing Sunday 25th July 2023 from the estuary of the Teifi river. The next step was on to Ardglass (south … Continue reading →

Everything looked fine on deck- the surveyor had passed over the area just one month previously- but there had been warning signs.   Rainwater had been finding its way down the sampson post in the chain locker, and there had … Continue reading →

The main sliding hatch over the companionway receives quite a beating over the years, what with UV, heat, rain and general wear. Eventually the outer ply(s) can start to crack up as the varnish gives up the ghost. The capture … Continue reading →