General:- Our Yacht Andiamo is a Beneteau First 38, built in 1983, when Beneteau were still building strong thick hulls and using substantial rigging. Although she is a cruiser/racer, with good powerful performance, she is also a “blue water boat” – French Category 1. One of these Yachts, owned by Liza Copeland, has circumnavigated the globe, with her family of four on board - (“Just Cruising” – by Lisa Copeland – ISBN 0-9697690-0-8).
The First 38 was also rviewed in the February 2011 edition of "Yachting Monthly" and was highly acclaimed:- "From the moment you lay eyes upon her racy shape, powerful hull and lofty rig, you know you are looking at a thotoughbread. This boat will take you anywhere safely and at speed".
We have extensively refurbished her, such that the only remaining original major component is the hull! All major systems have been renewed, including the engine, converting the steering to a Whitlock rod system, new standing rigging, sails, instruments, autopilot, radar, galley, upholstery, fridge, warm air heating etc - so in many respects she has a modern feel about her and is very reliable.
We'’ve found her to have excellent sea-keeping qualities and good in strong wind conditions and so we have hung on to her for many years, rather than buying a modern lightweight "floating caravan / large dinghy" and in spite of the temptation of looking at the new boats each year at The boat Show!
She comfortably sleeps a crew of 8 and this can be stretched to a maximum of 10, depending on bunk-sharing arrangements! Andiamo is RYA - licenced and surveyed charter use up to 60 miles off-shore and with a maximum crew of 10. The large diameter wheel and full instrumentation, including radar and chart-plotter at the helm and chart-table positions make for safe sailing, whether short-handed or with a full team.She is set up for short-handed sailing, so is easily managed by two people.
Full Instrumentation, Plotter, auto-pilot and Radar at Helm
Wide Side-Decks:- Allow comfortable and safe sitting, whether crewing or just chilling out!
Internal Layout :- Andiamo offers a warm and welcoming interior with two aft double berth cabins and a double berth forward cabin. For larger crew numbers, the sapcius saloon affers additional sleeping for 2-4 people in one single berth a double berth and a pilot berth.
Internal upholstery is regularly renewed and special thick "super-comfort" matresses used on all sleeping berths. The internal flooring was renewed in 2008. Each cabin is served by a warm air heater outlet, so early and late season sailing holidays are really comfortable ( for winter sailing, we like to air the cabins each night with a 20 munute blast of warm air to keep everything warm and dry and again in the mornings to reduce condensation). A VHF stereo radio is available, together with a CD player with MP3 USB input, IPOD input andIphone Charger. The interior is well-endowed with 240v. and 12v sockets giving ample capacity for charging all those mobile phones, cameras etc.
Chart Table:- A full size chart table to the right of the companion way allows navigation by an extensive range of paper charts or by using the RayMarine Chartplotter, which is fitted with a chart cartridge covering the whole of the Channel area ("Channel Wide"). The 10" Raymarine display also gives the radar plot in PPI form, with either Head-up or North-up options. The radar display can also be overlayed on to the elctronic chart, with good synchronisation, due to the Gyro-stabilised heading sensor in the Autopilot.
All the data on the ST60 intrument suite is also visible at the chart table, via a tri-data repeater plus an ST60 Multi.
Dual-frequency Navtex gives inshore or general weather forecasts and a second GPS acts as a standby duplicate navigation system and feeds the DSC radio.
All systems are mounted on a convenient eye-level consul, which makes for comfortable navigation in the roughest of seas!
Lunch in the Cockpit
The main-sheet track is mounted forward of the companionway, giving ample room in the cockpit for a large party to have lunch and for sailing.
Sunset in Chchester Harbour
The galley:- includes a double sink arrangement with hot and cold water, plus a separate filtered water tap. ( the tea and coffee really do taste better with filtered water!). A Neptune Oven and grill iwth a 2-burner hob allows some quite ambitious cordon bleau cooking ( we have quite a few budding Jamie Olivers use the boat and even the odd F-factor chef!). A deep top-loading fridge allows quite a few days supply of fresh food to be stored, together with wine and beer etc.
Lunch anyone ?
A good-sized table, with fold-down leaves allows thw whole crew to sit and eat together if the weather does not allow dining alfresco! There is a useful wine rack built inside the table!
An Evening Sail in The Solent
In the pilot berth - Nite Nite!
