1818
Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:59 pm
Boat #1818 was bought by Andrew Hannah on 18 August 2008.
It first came into the Carter family when I bought it from Scotland on the Bank Holiday Monday on the 26 Aug 1996. I wrote an article on how I bought it which was in the Dart 15 magazine. It still makes quite good reading so here it is:
Day Trip
(or how I bought my sixth Dart 15)
It had been a short trip to America and I was still waking up at 3am in the mornings. On the trip home Friday night, Kennedy airport was having a storm which delayed our incoming flight but not the transatlantic flight which left without us! That meant the 10.55pm Virgin flight was our last option, but at least we talked our way into the lounge for snacks and bevies. After a two hour delay on the runway we took off and made it to Heathrow after noon Saturday, some 6 hours later than plan. I walked in at home at 3pm and before I had put my case down son, George, waving Yachts and Yachting said
“look dad 1818 is for sale at £****, can we ring up?”.
Well it was not what I had in mind but the price did look good so after some lunch I made the call.
“Yes, I have still got it”, said the owner, “and it has only been sailed 6 times”. “Seems a good price”, said I.
“ Well I live in Scotland and I thought it would put people off”
It turned out that Donald lives at Inverness and while he was prepared to deliver it he was concerned that he might travel hundreds of miles to find it was not what the buyer had in mind.
“Well I suppose I could pick it up Monday (Bank Holiday weekend) but I am too late to get the cash out of the building society”
After some discussion Bank Holiday Monday seemed the best alternative. Donald was prepared to give a discount if we picked it up and would accept a post dated cheque if he took my picture for security, so it was agreed. I had been looking forward to sailing Sunday, it being one of the rare occasions when George was home, so Sunday dawned and off to Grafham we went. Home for an early dinner and we were ready to set off at 6.30pm Sunday evening.
For long journeys you have got to be in the right state of mind. I like to set my sights and go for it. I hate stops unless absolutely essential. Having 2 drivers (well after getting me into this crazy scheme, George could not refuse) was handy - especially since I had had a week with little sleep and was not sure which country’s time I was on. The A1 was clear and we made good time. We made Doncaster in about 2 hours and were speeding past Newcastle in 3 hours. At quarter to mid-night we were driving through Edinburgh, blast we missed the ring road! Edinburgh was just 320 miles - the same distance from Stevenage as Pentewan. By now George was driving and we headed out to find the highlands. The famous Forth Rail bridge could not be seen in the dark but we kept trucking to Perth and then on up. It has been 28 years since I last visited Scotland and the weather had not changed. It was absolutely teeming down! The roads, however, have got much better and the A9 was really good. By 1.30am we were 50 miles from Inverness so we got out the sleeping bags and stopped in a layby for some shuteye. At 7am we got up and had breakfast. It was still teeming down.
“Fancy having to sort out and tie a boat on the roof rack in this?”
We then did the last part of the journey getting to Donald Ingram’s house soon after 9am. Fortunately, on the long downhill stretch into Inverness the sky brightened and the rain stopped revealing that it was only the highlands that were getting the soaking.
Donald lives in a fisherman’s cottage on the seashore of the Moray Firth at Avoch on the Black Isle (pictures). As the cottage is part of a terrace, he has no direct access to the back garden. He was concerned about leaving the Dart 15 outside on the sea shore so he had remodelled the inside of the cottage moving the bathroom and toilet so that all the doors were in a straight line. This enabled the hulls to be carried through the cottage to the back garden. Thus each time Donald wanted to go sailing he would carry the entire boat through the house in pieces, assemble it, sail and then reverse the process at the end of the day. Can you wonder that the boat had only been sailed 6 times? This together with the total lack of like craft had caused Donald to lose interest.
Anyway we loaded up the boat on the roof rack, paid the money, took our photos and set off home and to see the sights we missed the night before. It was George’s first visit to Scotland and the scenery is impressive. It being Bank Holiday Monday the traffic was quite heavy but we made quite decent time. We rolled in to the drive at home just after 8pm after setting a new Carter record of 1048 miles in less than 26 hours.
Bob Carter, Events Secretary
Technophile 1818
So I now owned 1818 and I passed 1808 "Techno Trousers" on to George and we sold 1724 "Grand Slam" which had been George's boat for the last couple of years.
1818 is a fast boat and as luck would have it I won the National Championships with it in 1997.
Just to complete the story in November 1998 Martin Barson emigrated to the USA and I bought #1864 "Someone Else's Problem". So I passed 1818 on to George and sold Techno Trousers (with which George won the 1998 Nationals). So George has owned 1818 since Dec 1998. He has won the Nationals with it 10 times consecutively and I have once.
So there is not much to live up to Andrew!
It first came into the Carter family when I bought it from Scotland on the Bank Holiday Monday on the 26 Aug 1996. I wrote an article on how I bought it which was in the Dart 15 magazine. It still makes quite good reading so here it is:
Day Trip
(or how I bought my sixth Dart 15)
It had been a short trip to America and I was still waking up at 3am in the mornings. On the trip home Friday night, Kennedy airport was having a storm which delayed our incoming flight but not the transatlantic flight which left without us! That meant the 10.55pm Virgin flight was our last option, but at least we talked our way into the lounge for snacks and bevies. After a two hour delay on the runway we took off and made it to Heathrow after noon Saturday, some 6 hours later than plan. I walked in at home at 3pm and before I had put my case down son, George, waving Yachts and Yachting said
“look dad 1818 is for sale at £****, can we ring up?”.
Well it was not what I had in mind but the price did look good so after some lunch I made the call.
“Yes, I have still got it”, said the owner, “and it has only been sailed 6 times”. “Seems a good price”, said I.
“ Well I live in Scotland and I thought it would put people off”
It turned out that Donald lives at Inverness and while he was prepared to deliver it he was concerned that he might travel hundreds of miles to find it was not what the buyer had in mind.
“Well I suppose I could pick it up Monday (Bank Holiday weekend) but I am too late to get the cash out of the building society”
After some discussion Bank Holiday Monday seemed the best alternative. Donald was prepared to give a discount if we picked it up and would accept a post dated cheque if he took my picture for security, so it was agreed. I had been looking forward to sailing Sunday, it being one of the rare occasions when George was home, so Sunday dawned and off to Grafham we went. Home for an early dinner and we were ready to set off at 6.30pm Sunday evening.
For long journeys you have got to be in the right state of mind. I like to set my sights and go for it. I hate stops unless absolutely essential. Having 2 drivers (well after getting me into this crazy scheme, George could not refuse) was handy - especially since I had had a week with little sleep and was not sure which country’s time I was on. The A1 was clear and we made good time. We made Doncaster in about 2 hours and were speeding past Newcastle in 3 hours. At quarter to mid-night we were driving through Edinburgh, blast we missed the ring road! Edinburgh was just 320 miles - the same distance from Stevenage as Pentewan. By now George was driving and we headed out to find the highlands. The famous Forth Rail bridge could not be seen in the dark but we kept trucking to Perth and then on up. It has been 28 years since I last visited Scotland and the weather had not changed. It was absolutely teeming down! The roads, however, have got much better and the A9 was really good. By 1.30am we were 50 miles from Inverness so we got out the sleeping bags and stopped in a layby for some shuteye. At 7am we got up and had breakfast. It was still teeming down.
“Fancy having to sort out and tie a boat on the roof rack in this?”
We then did the last part of the journey getting to Donald Ingram’s house soon after 9am. Fortunately, on the long downhill stretch into Inverness the sky brightened and the rain stopped revealing that it was only the highlands that were getting the soaking.
Donald lives in a fisherman’s cottage on the seashore of the Moray Firth at Avoch on the Black Isle (pictures). As the cottage is part of a terrace, he has no direct access to the back garden. He was concerned about leaving the Dart 15 outside on the sea shore so he had remodelled the inside of the cottage moving the bathroom and toilet so that all the doors were in a straight line. This enabled the hulls to be carried through the cottage to the back garden. Thus each time Donald wanted to go sailing he would carry the entire boat through the house in pieces, assemble it, sail and then reverse the process at the end of the day. Can you wonder that the boat had only been sailed 6 times? This together with the total lack of like craft had caused Donald to lose interest.
Anyway we loaded up the boat on the roof rack, paid the money, took our photos and set off home and to see the sights we missed the night before. It was George’s first visit to Scotland and the scenery is impressive. It being Bank Holiday Monday the traffic was quite heavy but we made quite decent time. We rolled in to the drive at home just after 8pm after setting a new Carter record of 1048 miles in less than 26 hours.
Bob Carter, Events Secretary
Technophile 1818
So I now owned 1818 and I passed 1808 "Techno Trousers" on to George and we sold 1724 "Grand Slam" which had been George's boat for the last couple of years.
1818 is a fast boat and as luck would have it I won the National Championships with it in 1997.
Just to complete the story in November 1998 Martin Barson emigrated to the USA and I bought #1864 "Someone Else's Problem". So I passed 1818 on to George and sold Techno Trousers (with which George won the 1998 Nationals). So George has owned 1818 since Dec 1998. He has won the Nationals with it 10 times consecutively and I have once.
So there is not much to live up to Andrew!
