Ouch!

Sadly, a couple of weeks before the BCYC Cowes Classic Regatta 2011, and only a few weeks after Marelle had been moved to Deacons Y pontoon, I had a phone-call from Deacons that all boat owners must dread. A neighbouring berth holder, in a Sigma, had collided with Marelle's stern while manoeuvring to moor up, and Deacons were calling to let us know, and to pass on his contact details.

I phoned Martin, and he spoke to Deacons and to the other berth holder. At this stage, the damage to Marelle was described as minor. Alas, when Martin dinghied out to her to have a look, it was clear that she had taken a massive hit, which had sprung the toe rail off the aft port quarter, and scraped the varnish down to the wood, through our carefully applied 20 coats.

This was heart-breaking.

We still attended the BCYC Classic Regatta, but felt like we had had the stuffing knocked out of us – on top of the problems left over by the work at Universal, we now had this to deal with. The other regatta entrants were polite and sympathetic, but Marelle looked very dilapidated, with no winches, sails, instruments, navigation lights, broken roller furling, and a smashed aft port quarter. Her saving grace (but also providing a stark contrast to the rest) was Martin's fantastic varnish on the topsides, and this was complimented widely, but I am sure I heard a few sniggers and comments behind our backs.

The insurance company asked for two quotes for the repair, so we asked Deacons to quote, and Fairlie Restorations. Fairlie visited Marelle to have a look while we were at the regatta, and gave us every impression that they would provide the second quote, including sending a statement of work, but a couple of months later refused to do it, saying they were 'too busy'. Too friendly with Universal Marina more like.

Despondent, time passed and we hardly visited Marelle. Then one weekend, Martin's brother and his family came down to visit, and they took Marelle down the river to spend the weekend at Port Hamble with some friends. Unfortunately, Martin hurt his back really badly while manoeuvring Marelle out of a tricky spot in the marina and shouting at me, and with his brother and a friend on board, still had to steer Marelle back up river and to her berth at Deacons while in a great deal of pain. He managed it, but for months afterwards would not visit Marelle and raged about everything that had happened, and talked regularly of selling her.

At the same time as all this was going on, Universal Yacht Care and Avia Willment decided to sue us for the outstanding bill for the work on Marelle, that had resulted in so many problems and breakages. This was all the more upsetting as we had worked so closely with the yard in the past, on Sarila's restoration, that Mike and Claire Barnes who run Universal Yacht Care were guests at our wedding at Chewton Glen, just the year before.

Martin blamed me for the situation with Universal Yacht Care, as despite him being there every day, requesting extra work from them and letting them give work on other boats priority, I was supposed to be managing the work they were doing, while working full time elsewhere. I had trusted our friends; too much it turns out – and now our dream of restoring Marelle to be our 'forever' boat was turning into a mess of arguments, solicitors' letters, and guilt over the half-finished state she was now in. I paid the outstanding bill and withdrew my defence of the claim – life is too short and leisure time too precious to squander like this.

Eventually, the time came to decide where to keep Marelle in 2012. With so many problems to sort out, access via dinghy (with the pontoon at Deacons being mid-river), and the nasty experience of being damaged by another boat, not to mention the strong tide in that part of the river and the proximity to the bridge which makes mooring up a game of russian roulette in a long-keeled boat, I decided that we should move Marelle to Premier Swanwick Marina. I hoped that with easier access to her, we could make some progress in the repairs and reassembly, and maybe start to enjoy some time on the boat.

The transfer across from Deacons to Premier did not work out quite as I had thought – due to Marelle lying idle for so long, we had to get her moved over by one of the marina workboats. Not realising this would be necessary, I had not booked this in advance, and in the end Martin had to plead for help from the marinas as we had to get moved over by April 1^st when the new berthing year started. Deacons were unable to help us, but Premier were fantastic and fitted us in after the end of their working day, and even refused any payment, for this move or for a subsequent one within Premier Swanwick Marina from the temporary berth to our permanent one for the year. Quite a shock to be the recipients of such kindness!

Martin called Berthons in Lymington and spoke to Sue, whom we'd met before while looking at boats in Berthons Marina, and who had always been very generous with her advice and time. Sue recommended that we ask the Elephant Boatyard, next to Deacons, to provide the second quote. Elephant are famous for their work on wooden boats, and Martin soon arranged for Tom from Elephant to visit Marelle. His quote came out at slightly less than the quote from Deacons, and we sent both off to our insurers.