From the beginning...
My very first boat was an old and very decrepit Kingfisher 20, bought cheaply from an ad on Gumtree. Her maiden voyage in my ownership ended badly when the wooden tiller snapped off at the rudder stock and resulted in a tow into port from the wonderful RNLI. She was very much a project boat, and I was initially enthusiastic about giving her a new lease of life, but sadly I never completed her much-needed refit. Lack of time and money and a less-than-happy wife meant she was eventually sold on. During my short period of ownership though, I came to appreciate her thoughtful design and brick shit house construction, and I had a yearning for her bigger sister, the 26, in junk rig form, a dream I didn't think would ever come true. Over the following years, a few(!) boats passed through my hands, some good, some bad, and I learnt a lot about boats, and how to repair them. I'm sure I'm not alone amongst many other boat owners that I'm often to be found wasting idle hours br