MOVING TO THE DARK SIDE

Former yachties Beryl Chalmers and Simon Palmer explain why they sold their beloved sailing yacht in favour of a spacious Dutch steel motor boat

- Beryl Chalmers and Simon Palmer

Having been committed sailors for more than 30 years and the current owners of a beautiful Dufour sailing yacht, we never thought owning a motor boat would appeal to us. But after a couple of frustrating summers with either no wind or too much wind and the occasional ‘mechanical’ failure of our own bodies, we felt it might be time to at least consider it.

The final straw came in 2018 after a particularly gruelling passage across the North Sea. It took us 11 days to sail from West Mersea, Essex, to Holland in the height of our so-called summer – a passage that would normally take us 11 hours. Eleven days of rough passages, rain, wind and heavy swells. It was pure misery. Even the dog had had enough and was now showing considerable reluctance to ever go aboard again. We decided there and then it was time for a change.

By now we were in the south of Holland and getting fed up with waiting for bridges to open. Our mast gave us an air draught of around 60ft, which effectively meant that we were bridge-locked from many of the nicer parts of the country, unless we went the long way round via the main waterways where we’d be sharing the water with massive commercial barges. So we passed the time looking at Dutch motor cruisers instead.

It was like learning a whole new language. We were used to a comfortable and sea-kindly Dufour 38 Classic – a straightforward production boat with basic systems and no bells and whistles. That’s what we understood and what we liked.