About The Boat

The Boat - MB

Our previous boat was called ‘Fleur’ after Ann-Marie’s childhood teddy bear which had been named after the lady in the ‘Forsyth Saga’.

As the boat is Part 1 registered we needed a unique name so ‘Fleur of Pendle’ was chosen as we are both proud Lancastrians.

Fleur of Pendle is a 2005 Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 35 with a lifting keel and twin rudders.  She has a Volvo Penta MD2030 engine with standard shaft drive and P bracket.  We bought her when she was 1 year old on Windermere.  She was the unwanted purchase of a Motor boat owner who thought he would become a sailor following the introduction of the speed limit.  One year on he bought another motor boat.  Our good fortune was his purchase of many extras such as In-mast furling, holding tank, electric windlass, full cockpit awning, Eberspacer with remote dialling feature and extra batteries.

She is the owner’s version which means she has one very large double aft cabin which currently has a regular King sized memory foam mattress and a large locker accessed through the large heads (toilet) and shower compartment.

Additions since purchase include life-raft, dingy and engine, auto-helm, AIS ,Navtex, Rocna 15 anchor, rope cutter, dan-buoy, life sling, 2 PLBs

 

 

Being a lifting keel with 2 rudders there is no prop wash and slow speed manoeuvring especially in reverse is painful but with judicious use of the throttle and an understanding of the wind and tide can be overcome
We are regularly an entertainment feature as we would rather abort and retry than crack on and crash.

The furling main sail concept has both fans and detractors if you visit any forum but as a short-handed crew we find that providing we reef early and maintains correctly it provides benefits which so far outweigh any shortcomings in performance.

Navigation - Fleur is equipped with a Raymarine C70 chart plotter, with navionics charts, connected to an S60 graphic repeater and the autopilot a Raymarine SPX5 in the cockpit.  A laptop with Open CPN and charts by ‘visitmyharbour’ is also connected to the Raymarine network and AIS, this is my preferred method of passage planning and navigation.

I should at this time give acknowledgement and thanks to Jim Dew, the owner of ‘Full-Circle’ a similar SO 35 who has provided invaluable information and resource to me on the construction, engineering issues and solutions to this design of craft.  He has single-handedly stripped down, re-built and enhanced his own vessel over the years and shared his experiences.

Future modifications - If and when we get to the sunshine power will be an issue.  I have experimented with a Rutland 503 wind generator and found it to be inadequate and noisy.  Reading other peoples experiences I think we will utilise solar panels but will leave the purchase of these until required.   We have a small 4 stroke petrol generator which can be used when required where noise permits to provide both 12 and 240 Volts.  This has not on any of our previous trips needed to be deployed.

A Bimini (sun shade) will be required in warmer climes and we hope to modify the cockpit canopy frame to accomplish this.
 

Fleur is definitely an AWB (Average White Boat) this is the description given by purist to a mass produced, usually French, cruising boat.  As such whilst similar boats have crossed oceans Fleur will be used for what she was designed for which is cruising, sometimes off-shore in predominantly good weather whilst providing a comfortable base in port.

In the next 12 months we will spend more days on shore than at sea, and as such Fleur is a good choice for the mission in hand.  We have no desire to be heroes braving the worst and whilst not having all the time in the world will have more time than we have ever had before.