Against expectation, several viewings and subsequent offers were received over winter from as far afield as UK, Nova Scotia, Maine,Texas and Pennsylvania, some interest even coming from Florida. The funniest, ultimately unsuccessful but serious offer came from a gentleman in St. Louis, soon to retire, who put his offer in without even seeing the boat and without consulting his wife or family; when the deposit was not forthcoming we eventually heard that his wife had put her foot down and he was ‘not to buy this boat, nor any other’! So for one reason or another none of those early offers came to fruition until a serious one in February. So we did actually return to Connecticut in March to fit out Follyfin for surveys and sea trial prior to sale ... only to return to UK one week later on one of the last passenger flights out of USA. For obvious reasons, all activity connected with the boat ceased whilst both the USA and the UK reeled from the impact of the pandemic. Luckily, we reached home 5 days before the UK locked down. Coronavirus ensured that all sporting activity including boating (even in USA) went quiet for 3 months.
Towards the end of May more enquiries started coming in and there were several more viewings during June and July. To cut a long story short, by the end of July a firm offer to buy Follyfin was received and accepted, subject to surveys and sea trials, and by the end of August the deal was done: truly a bittersweet moment and the end of an era for us! At this point the Skipper and I wish to acknowledge the extraordinary help of our good friend Cap’n Lee; he managed everything connected with preparing Follyfin for the transfer of ownership, from diplomatically finding his way through a complex set of diagrams, photographs, lists and emails from the Skipper, delving deep into murky corners of the boat to clear the contents, recommissioning of Follyfin for sailing and facilitating the surveys and sea trials, all under remote ‘control’ from North Yorkshire. Really, we couldn’t have done it without you Lee - a million thanks.
The survey reports were highly complimentary with only very minor issues which are to be expected in a10-year old yacht that has sailed over 20,000 nautical miles. The condition of Follyfin is classified as ‘above average’ and ‘very well maintained’. The broker who handled the sale of Follyfin said he had never had so much interest in a single boat: over 30 enquiries. In short, we are very sad to have parted company with her. And we didn’t even get as far as launching her for one last sail! Enough: with Follyfin’s crew having a combined age of almost 150, it was definitely the right thing to do. The Skipper and I (aka First Mate) look forward to new adventures in pastures new. We will not stop sailing but expect to be chartering in the future and hope to welcome some temporary crew to join us!
The past nine sailing seasons have so many happy memories of travels with Follyfin. There follows a brief summary of our adventures on board over approximately 20,000 nautical miles:
2011 - first tentative weekend trips during June and July from Chichester Harbour east and west along the south coast of uk; 10 day trip in September to Channel Islands; over-wintered in Chichester, UK
2012 - circumnavigation of UK (not including Ireland); over-wintered in Hull, UK
2013 - channel crossing, exploring north and south Brittany; over-wintered in Arzal, Brittany, France
2014 - exploration further south in Brittany; over-wintered in Arzal, Brittany, France
2015 - brief return to UK for some fitting out in preparation for Atlantic crossing; crossed Bay of Biscay to northern Spain; sailed gently down west coast of Spain and Portugal; from Portugal sailed to Madeira then the Canary Islands; over-wintered in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
2016 - sailed across the Atlantic from Tenerife to Martinique in Caribbean; sailed south to explore the Windward Islands and thence to Trinidad; over-‘wintered’ (technically the hurricane season June-November) in Chaguaramas, Trinidad
2017 - turned north, sailing back through the Windward Islands, then through the Leeward Islands, including the British Virgin Islands, thence to the Turks & Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, the NE USA as far as the Statue of Liberty; south again to over-winter in Baltimore, USA
2018 - sailed north to New York, then through Long Island Sound, onwards up the east coast, Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Maine; over-wintered in Captain’s Cove Seaport, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA
2019 - further exploration of coastal Maine as far as the Great Beach, 25nm from the Canadian border; over-wintered in Captain’s Cove Seaport, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA
It will be a joy to review the photos from each season, recalling happy times with all our temporary crew - some of whom joined us on more than one occasion. Thanks to all of you, too many to name here but you know who you are: you helped to make our time afloat on Follyfin so enjoyable and memorable. In due course I expect to put up one more post on this blog with some of the stand-out shots to virtually revisit distant shores. So I’m not quite finished yet! Thanks to all you dear followers, those temporary crew, supporters and readers who have shown interest in the travels of Follyfin and her crew.
