Sadly, after much deliberation, I have decided to offer up Drumler for sale. Please e-mail me on r.reed@godliman.com with any offers or requests for viewings. She is currently laid up at Robertsons Boatyard in Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK.

Perceptive readers may have noticed that this site has not been updated since before the Covid lockdown. The reason is that, on 28th August 2019, I was informed by Robertsons that Drumler had been damaged during a storm on the 10th August. They wrote:

“During the exceptionally high winds on Saturday 10th August, part of the boatyard’s large metal framed mast store was uplifted by the wind and travelled some distance within the yard. This unfortunately resulted in some damage to Drumler.

We have inspected Drumler and our assessment of the damage is as follows:

Damage to aft cockpit combing
Damage to boom crutch
One or two small cosmetic areas of damage

As a guide, we estimate that the cost to repair the damage to Drumler would be around £ 2,400 +VAT.”

Bad news indeed – particularly as I had just spent quite a lot with Robertsone to bring her back to her full glory, both inside and out. But the real kicker was that Robertsons’ Insurers said that any damage caused to customer’s boats from this exceptional weather event was not covered by their policy, rather that boat owners need to make a claim against their own insurance policy.

They pointed out “Our Terms and Conditions of Business do state that vessels are kept at the boatyard at the sole risk of the owner and ask that customers ensure that their vessels are adequately insured”.

Unfortunately, since Drumler had been laid up at Robertson’s for several months, I had allowed my Insurance to lapse – assuming she was safe in the boaryard, and not having read the small print in their Terms and Condition.

Since it was already the end of the sailing season, I thought I would deal with it in the spring, and then Covid hit, work first became precarious and then very busy, etc, etc and two more years went by.

By the time I got around to dealing with the issue in early 2023, the bill for repair had risen to £3,750 + VAT.

Meanwhile, poor Drumler has been languishing in the boatyard, un-sailed and un-loved. I feel I owe it to the little ship to pass her to someone who has more time and money to look after her. I remain busy at work and still have teenage children who need ferrying around at weekends so the reality is I do not have the time to put her through her paces.

She will need fixing up – a recent quote was around £8,000 to get her back up to tip top condition – and so I am happy to consider any offers taking this into account.