LOOKING TO SEAWARD

Gilbert Park swaps his ageing Mitchell 28 for a soft-riding Seaward 29

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Owning a boat that is nearly 20 years old does involve quite a lot of maintenance, and my Mitchell 28, Let's Go, has needed almost constant attention as she’s grown older.

She's been a great sea boat and has taken me many, many miles in safety but as I've aged, I've found some of the maintenance tasks and replacements more difficult. For over a year then, I had been keeping an eye out for a newer, less demanding replacement.

THE MITCHELL 28

Three things coincided to make me change boats. One of the windows in the forward cabin had started to leak. Having read some of the articles about restoring windows, I was worried that this was a job beyond my capabilities. I got a quote from various marine windows companies and it was over £10,000! The next thing that happened was a magazine asked me to comment on the Maritime and Coastguard Agency Marine Guidance Note 436 entitled: “Whole-Body Vibration: Guidance on Mitigating Against the Effects of Shocks and Impacts on Small Vessels”.