I have never been known for my literary prowess so here goes.
I (Helen), have been boating since the age of 12. The first boat my parents owned was a Norman 23 called Manta, which we purchased from a long standing member of South Yorkshire Boat Club. After being moored for a few months at Thorne, Doncaster until a mooring became available at the boat club we joined SYBC and moved Manta to her new mooring. Our first holiday was on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal with a destination of Foulridge Tunnel. It was certainly an experience tackling the locks at Bingley. For a family of four and a small dog we quickly realised a larger boat was needed, so after a year my father purchased our second and last family boat, a Seamaster 27 called Kriskerry, also purchased from another member.
Peter's boating life started at a similar age along with his family. His first boat was a Colvic 26 'Amphora' which was acquired as mouldings and then fitted out by Tower Marine Boroughbridge and Peter's dad. This boat was a large part of their lives for 12 years travelling as far as Holland and Belguim. They then purchased a Degroot 33 called Hannah D. They had only had Hannah D a year before she was gutted by fire (arsonists), they then had to buy her back from the insurance company and start over again by refitting her out, fortunately they were only out of action for one season in 1991. Since then Peter's dad now owns a Aquastar 33 aft cockpit originally named Avalon. Since there appears to be several Avalon's known to Goole Docks he decided to rename her 'Crambeck'.
I shall not bore you with the details of how myself and Peter got together, however we purchased our first boat Chelmer a Seamaster 813 from Boroughbridge. We had many River Trent holidays and travelled as far as Bedford in her. She was a fantastic little starter boat.
As our family started to grow then so did the boat, an Ocean 30 'Oceans Eleven'. We both envisaged ourselves still boating on Oceans Eleven when the kids had flown the nest, but after 5 years of owning her and having to rebuild our finances from nothing Peter travelled to Portugal to acquire Luro.
Luro was our pride and joy. At last we no longer travelled at displacement speeds, we now had a fast sports cruiser which could achieve speeds of up to 33 knots. She visited the Norfolk Broads, Wells, Lowestoft and even travelled as far north as Amble. She knew no bounds and tackled everything we threw at her. Our last holiday on her was August 2013. Myself and Peter had been discussing a larger boat as more space was needed for our two daughters and not forgetting our two Jack Russell's. Whilst visiting Kings Lynn on their opening weekend of their new visitor pontoons we all made a long tedious journey using public transport to Norfolk Yacht Agency Brundall to look at a Falcon Velici 34. The space on this boat was just what we needed as a family, but unfortunately the raised helm position wasn't to our liking and she needed too much money spending on her as she was very tired inside. We got back to Luro at Kings Lynn having a greater appreciation for her, however the seed was now set for a larger model Seawings the 355!
We had seen Moonshine at Grimsby over the past few years and never thought we would ever be able to afford a boat of this calibre, but as most things go you only live once and after losing my dad the year previously thought it's no good just talking about it and dreaming. Luro was taken down by road to Norfolk Yacht Agency last September and sold shortly thereafter, releasing the much needed funds to buy Moonshine which had been for sale for the last 2 years. Her engines were in good condition but she just lacked a bit of internal tlc. Fortunatly for us her previous owner had used her at sea and realised the importance of engine and outdrive maintainance.
After having been a member of SYBC for 28 years, leaving the club was going to be a wrench as our new vessel has a beam measurement of 12'. Unfortunately for us the club has a length and beam restriction of 37' x 11' 6". Therefore we had to obtain a new mooring which was close to home. Thankfully at the time we purchased Moonshine several moorings were available at Goole Boathouse (formally known as Smiths yard), there is usually a waiting list but we managed to secure a mooring immediately. We were very lucky, as the moorings are quite cheap in relation to what commercial marina's charge. We also have found that since we do not frequent a club house as regular as we used to, we have found this is almost self financing the extra spent on moorings. We have recently secured our mooring for a full year after initially being on a quarterly contract and are really happy here. The only thing these moorings lack are shower and toilet facilities, but since we have good facilities on board we can't complain. There is also the added freedom to lift out as and when you want for a period of time to suit you at reasonable rates, along with the freedom for our dogs to be off lead to burn off a bit off energy in front of the canal moorings.
We now hope to be the proud owners of Moonshine for many years to come.
