PLANNING FOR 2009

This year we would like to do a bit of a trip , you know sort of challenge ourselves , the boat is fantastic , but what of the crew , will he do it singlehanded ? , yes i want to , but any crew to help would be great , . At the moment we are based in Gruissan in the south of France , , and yes we did sail her down from Hull to falmouth and then accross the big bay to Spain and Portugal and then into the Med and ultimatley up to France , last year i did a bit of singlehanding around the balierics , loverley it was to . So onto the plan for this year , I fancy sailing down the costa brava etc and costa del sol and back out into the atlantic , a bit the the algarve would be nice , and then a trip to Madeira , its only a few hundred miles , yes that sounds great , leave about april time then come back later in the year ,,,,, thats it then , settled , first of all I need to do a bit of work on Simo . I went to the boat show , and spent a few bob , i got a chart plotter , a.i.s and met up with a few old mates , anyway now i have to get the goodies installed in the boat and am hoping my old mate from Nevian , nr Narbonne will give me a hand , with the wiring and all that nmea nonsense , . Ive got a place on the wall at the Zone Technich in Gruissan and next week plan to take the mast out , for revarnishing and of course to run the new cable for the antenna up the mast i plan to take a few pics of everything i do for the trip and on the trip , also take some video , I am planning on one of the head gear camera's so i can film at any time ,,, the reason is when it gets rough ,, and trust me it does sometimes ,, the last thing you think about is getting the video camera out , and really thats what everybody wants to see , crazy really but it's fact , and the truth is you are crapping yourself and wondering if you or the boat are going to be able to handle it all , so if your with me , here goes, lets enjoy the trip .......

1962 AND THE LAUNCH OF A LITTLE YACHT

SOME PICS FROM THE PAST

PHILIP OLIVER AND HIS Daughter launching Simo

SIMO A BRIEF HISTORY

Simo was built in 1961 by Percy, M, See , in a little town called Fareham Hampshire . she was built for a dashing young chap called Phillip Oliver who smoked a pipe and we understand was quite wealthy . We understand that he sailed Simo down to Portugal and the Mediterranean quite a few times for long periods , in fact he even got a mention in
Peter Woolass 's blue book for a trip from Casablanca to Falmouth a trip of 1000 miles and that was in 1963 , The history remains a little patchy whilst Philip Oliver owned Simo from 1961 to approximately 1989 a total of 28 years . Now that is a long time in anybody's life, and we have one or two copy's of letters from Philips daughter whose name is Janet , that were handed down when the yacht was brought by the second owners in her history , these letters were from the Algarve region in Portugal , and by the tone it was quite obvious that Philips life was sailing . I am now going to add some rumour , or hearsay to the story and although nothing will ever be proved either for or against, it makes the history just a little more interesting, It would seem that Philip Oliver was in the gambling set in London and had many friends in that set , it would seem that Simo was in Newhaven on that dark and dusky night when Lord Lucan disapeard after a train of events in Belgravia that left a nanny dead and the Lucans mother badly injured Lord Lucan Dissaperad , and the ford corsair that he had borrowed was finally found abandoned three days after the event , IN NEWHAVEN, , well we heard a tale that this little yacht went out that night and it was a dirty filthy night and there were two people on board , when the little yacht returned , there was only one person ,,, ok we have seached the yacht for some clue but nothing , i will say though, that we had had Simo for three years before we found a secret compartment ,, sorry guys , nothing in it

ME ON A BIGGER BOAT

THIS IS ME IN MAJORCA ANOTHER GLASS OF WINE PLEASE COS

2009

SAILING IN 2009 WITH SIMO