I’m very excited to introduce you to our new boat, Ruby May. She is a 39ft twin helmed Beneteau Cyclades. A beautifully maintained sailing yacht with a fair few miles under her keel.
Starting life over in the US, she was custom built as a reserve boat for charter company, Sun Sail. Based in the Caribbean for a couple of seasons, she was never called upon, and was sold to a sailor from the UK. Bringing her to the UK, across the Atlantic, he kept her in South West Wales for a number of years, regularly sailing out in the Irish Sea, and all around that beautiful stretch of coast.
She’s perfect for the type of sailing we do – lots of room for friends and family, capable of doing blue water. She’s a perfect step up from our Colvic Liberator, which just didn’t have the space we needed, abeit we will miss her.
We’ve spent the last few weeks kitting her out, and making her ours. Adding everything from new safety gear, through to a paddle wheel (I have never seen a boat without a paddle wheel before!!!), and everything in between. We’ve only managed a very short 5-mile trip on her so far, but we’re planning a longer shake down sail soon, so watch this space for lots of upcoming adventures!
Beautiful boat. Where do I look to find similar? How long did it take? I imagine boats like this are very rare. I looked at flotilla yachts once and they were normally a mess. Battered and unloved. Especially by Sunsail. Now I’ve been searching for 5 years.
Hi Andrew, She is beautiful – thank you 🙂
We found her on Boat Shed. We’d been searching for a little while, and then we got lucky. My advice is just to keep persevering and the right boat will come along. Charter boats do generate mixed views, as they can often be battered, but equally are often well maintained. We got very lucky with this one, in that she was never actually used as a charter, but was on standby for Sunsail as a ‘spare’ and didn’t get called up. So she has all the benefits of a great layout, and everything we need, but with a solid history.
Keep searching and you will get the perfect boat for you! Good luck!
Paddle wheel? what sort of paddle wheel?
A log, so we know our speed through the water…
of course; did you fit a retractable one, you know the one that shoots water up your arm… even the Airmar flap valve type still does it…
haha! Yes. Much easier, if there are any issues.
if you leave it down during April/May when the baby barnacles are looking for somewhere protected to settle, you may find that a smear of vaseline on a tissue gently forced round the inside of the wheel chamber, and on the paddles, discourages them; they do not have to grow very much before they can stop the wheel turning.
Of course if you are competing to see who can withdraw it and plug it with the minimum up the arm, then of course that should never be an issue… will it be on your ‘leaving the boat’ checklist? Best delegated to the kids…..