Valuation Survey of 1973 Tequila Sport 24

Spider Pig was sitting on her road trailer when I inspected her yesterday down at The Sussex Yacht Club in Shoreham on the UK South Coast. Built in 1973, she is a quarter ton club racing yacht, built by Oivier Gibert who later became Gibsea or Gibert Marine. Under her first owner, she was named 'Ichabod', then later 'Born to Run'.

The current owners of Spider Pig are members of the Brighton Marina Yacht Club and intend to race her from there. The club's Frostbite Series that runs through January and February will most likely be their first. Judging by the bare, low profile deck and exposed cockpit of Spider Pig, the frostbite is going to reach every appendage of the five or so friends that will be crewing her.

Spider Pig, a Tequila Sport 24

Since buying her in early 2011, the boat has undergone a fairly substantial refit, with areas of the coachroof and foredeck being re-cored after the original balsa core had become rotten through moisture ingress. Her cockpit bares only a minor resemblance to the original after much of the cockpit moulding was taken out and replaced by a cleverly designed and built sandwich structure.

New cockpit of Spider Pig

A fine addition to the boat, and a great improvement over the original, is the new Jefa rudder that they had custom built. The blade profile was modelled in CAD and then CNC milled to shape and to fit around the aluminium stock. The assembly was then overlaminated with GRP and faired to give a very smooth and light rudder.

I intend to keep a close eye on the  Brighton Marina Yacht Club website in the New Year. The boat still needs a few hours spending on finishing off the re-fit, but she looks like she'll give a lot of smiles per pound and the bigger boats a run for their money.

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Pre-purchase Survey of Beneteau 50 in Swanwick, Southampton, Hampshire

I had a very long but interesting day last week surveying this very nice 2001 Beneteau 50 at Ancasta Brokers in Swanwick, Hampshire. This blue water cruiser was designed by Bruce Farr and had the shoal fin keel option, giving a draft of only 1.8 metres. She was very well equipped with a Panda Fisher generator, Brunton Autoprop, bow thruster, liferaft and EPIRB. The interior was very nicely finished with cream leather upholstery and woodwork that hadn't seen too much heavy use. Similarly, the teak deck hadn't received much hard wear, although the caulking was standing proud of the planking, suggesting that successive scrubbings with a stiff broom had worn back the teak. A light sanding should rectify that pretty quickly.

A few years ago I had an excellent delivery cruise from Ramsgate to Corfu on a Beneteau similar to this. Unfortunately my berth was in the forepeak accomodation. Although very spacious and comfortable whilst on her mooring, I have vivid memories of lying on my bunk in rough seas and to occasionally find myself in mid-air as the bow slammed into the troughs. I soon relocated myself to the saloon. Here I was continually being disturbed by the change of watch, but at least my bed didn't move so much.

For details of our pre-purchase surveys, take a look at our website at Fieldhouse Yacht Surveys. Feel free to email us or telephone us to discuss your specific requirements.