Our ownership from 2011.

2011 We purchase Timshel Westerly Oceanlord OD81

 

In March 2011 we sold our Westerly Discus “Discussion” that we had owned for 19 years and set to look for an Oceanlord to buy.  One of the closest available was “Timshel” based in Schevenigen, Holland.

We flew out to see the boat in April and eventually signed the papers and bought her from Landa Endlich and Erwin Zwignenburg on 22^nd June.  This made us her 3^rd owners and she had been Dutch registered and based in Holland since new.  Timshel had been moved to the yard at Dintelmond for some problems shown up in the pre-purchase survey (rudder, mast step and gas locker) to be fixed.  We knew we would also have to deal with the problem of the deteriorating teak deck and also the internal headlining that was falling down in several places, but decided to do this later.

We flew out again in July ready to bring her back to Scotland.  The broker, Rick de Buis, kindly picked us up from the train station and also collected the liferaft which had been serviced and delivered us to our new boat.

We spent a week furiously working on the boat, one important item was changing the Dutch registration on the transom for our new SSR number and putting up our new Red Ensign.  Finally we set off – but which way to go to escape to the sea.  Concerned about the height of the fixed bridge at the Roompot sluis we decided to go out the way she came in via Stellendam, though this route still involved going under 1 fixed bridge and through several opening ones and lock gates etc.

It took 2 days to get to the sea, then we stopped at Ostend where we were delayed by weather (a NE gale), then Calais where we were delayed by a SW gale (lots of changing of courtesy flags), then straight across the shipping lanes towards Dover stopping at Sovereign Harbour then Hayling Island where we used to sail our Westerly Centaur and where my parents and brother still stay. It was good to catch up with family and to show them our new boat.  Quite a shock sailing in these shallow waters in our new fin keeled boat compared to the Centaur with the twin keels and 3 foot draft.  We ran out of holiday time and left Timshel at Harold Hayles yard at Yarmouth Isle of Wight for 3 weeks.  We got the rigging (which was probably original) replaced by Spencers of Cowes and the anchor winch and chain replaced with new, and also the starter motor serviced and the solenoid rewound as despite a new start button fitted by the previous owner this was still giving problems.

We returned in August with our friend Malcolm and headed for Scotland.

Progress was slow at first and we stopped at Studland Bay and Portland then luckily an easterly wind sped us on to Land End. We anchored off Arklow for a few hours sleep, then stopped at Howth for the night and Bangor very briefly in the middle of the night for fuel.

The engine starting problem reasserted itself off Howth and Steve and Malcolm spent some time making sparks with spanners across the battery terminals before Steve worked out exactly where the spanner should go.  We finally arrived at our berth in Kip marina 8 days later.

TIMSHEL 2012

Lift in Spring 2012

New propeller

The new propeller, a Darglow feather stream, replaced the old very worn Volvo folding prop.  It improved both speed (we can now do 6-7 knots) and manoeuvrability.

Summer Holiday 2012

Sometimes the weather was nice enough to eat at the (refurbished) cockpit table.

and sometimes not ..

The Halfwinder (cruising chute) was hoisted

	We had the Island of Taransay to ourselves

Traditionally you can put heather on the bow after you sail north of Ardnamurchan Point (the westernmost bit of mainland Britain)

Sunset Over Mull

The nephews came sailing – and fishing, catching lots of mackerel.

Lift out November 2012 2013 Cruise to The Small Isles and Skye, back via Crinan Canal We sailed north again round the Mull of Kintyre to Gigha.  Moored in Tinkers Hole and visited the Small Isles and Skye, Tobermory (twice) then back to Oban to pick up the nephews, Andrew and Dylan, and their minders (my sister Wendy and brother-in-law Chris) as crew for the final week.  The weather was not ideal – very wet and sometimes windy.  The boys seemed unperturbed by this and spent a lot of time fishing. Steve was a good (bad?) uncle and taught them to pay pontoon (for matchsticks) which they loved.  We went to Puilladobhrain, Craobh Haven (boys caught huge mackerel in the marina) then headed for the Crinan Canal.  Everyone enjoyed the leisurely passage through in company with the Norweigan Halberg Rassy, Tir na Noir, with Finn, Randi, Astrid (age 8) and the hamster aboard.  And they were heading for the Caribbean! We called in at Tarbert.  At last the sun came out and everyone enjoyed visiting the Seafood festival.  Our last night was spent at Wreck Bay, Kyles of Bute and for our last day it was really hot!  Whiter than white limbs were exposed to to the sun.  Some of us even went for a swim (in wetsuits). 2014 Timshel’s big refit  At the beginning of April Timshel set off south on a low loader to the TLC Boat Repair yard at Conwy to get a new teak deck (at last) and much more.  Very strange seeing her off! Replacing the deck meant taking off absolutely every fitting so we took the opportunity while she was in the yard to get a lot more stuff done – including replacing all the headlining (it would have fallen down anyway), replacing all window and hatch glass, replacing seacocks and engine mounts, copper coat antifouling and installing a lot of new equipment (Hydrovane self steering, watermaker, AIS, new wind charger, towed charger, new fridge, holding tank, new toilets, replacing seacocks and engine mounts) with the expert woodworkers there to make good everything). Possibly we asked them to do too much and it all took ages, much longer than initially planned.  The new teak deck and other woodwork was exemplary, most of the other stuff was OK.  Barry produced a great engineering solution for the hatch through the aft deck for the emergency tiller.   Timshel was launched right at the end of August but no way was she ready.  We finally got her operational at the end of the 2nd week of September.  Perhaps we should have stayed in Conwy longer and got more of the “snags” fixed, but we feared that the good weather was bound to break soon.  Having escaped the drying Conwy river with it’s fierce tides we spent 1 night at an anchorage on the North coast of Anglesey before making for the Isle of Man, then direct to Campbelltown.  We then had a week or so around the Clyde.  In fact only on the last day as we returned to Inverkip was it grey and raining.  The gales arrived a few days later.  The new Hydrovane steering and new transmitting AIS worked well, and I think the windcharger was giving us amps.  Unfortunately a few pieces of kit seemed to have died during the period laid up (Autohelm 7000, smart alternator regulator). Soon after the new windcharger also failed (luckily the manufacturer fixed it under guarantee) and the 240V mains charger burnt out.  So there is more work to do but the boat does look beautiful.