Firstly I would like to introduce myself to the members of AOA. My name is Simon and I am the proud new owner of yacht Solone.
Back in May I began negotiations to buy an Atalanta Solone, some of you may have seen her advertised here on the AOA for sale page. Well I did what everyone tells you not to do , purchased her in full without even seeing her. Its not the first time I have done this and I can honestly say its payed off for me on both occasions.
Solone is in my opinion in fantastic condition and is a credit to her previous owner the late Kieth Veiwing.
Having bought her my next step was the business of getting her from Christchurch Dorset to s France where I live . I was well aware of a friend who comes and goes from my town here who was in the business of buying up old landrovers and shipping them back to the UK. So a few phone calls later and the deal was done. I met up with Chris at the boat yard in Dorset , renovated the bearings and had 4 new heavy duty tires fitted to the atalanta trailer which hadn’t moved from the yard in twenty years, and that was it , Chris attached her up to his range rover and two days later arrived here at my home in France.
For any of you who may be wondering as to why I chose an Atalanta, well the main reason is that I’m a lover of wood. I,m a cabinet maker out here and have my workshop within my home which is an old textile mill, so we have plenty of space. The other reason being that the cost of an all year mooring down here is out of my pocket. So a trailable yacht is perfect. I live one hour from the Med near the city of Narbonne , there a plenty of moorings available for around 300 euros per month so for this year I’m planning launching in August and September . If I can manage it , and if I feel competant enough with Solone I may try to head off to Palma . But it all depends on my family commitments right now.
For now I’m just getting on with renewing the varnish and touching up any paintwork. The great thing about being here is the weather allows you to start and finish varnishing / painting . And you know that the wood is proper dry. Last month we had temperatures of 34 deg which was too hot to do any work but I was happy to see that the heat doesn’t seem to affect the laminates of hot moulded boats,Unlike a traditionally constructed planked wooden boats.
I guess time will tell , but as a measure I do keep the Sun off with a tarporlin.
That rope looks handly for the canals. You look well placed for a short trip up to carcasonne. But very pretty, more pictures when you can? She looks loaded with extras.