A Falcon in Loch Ness

Prolific boat owner Clive Marsh charters a roomy 36ft Van de Stadt steel ketch for a pleasant cruise on Scotland’s Caledonian Canal

- Clive Marsh

Sometimes people like to join me on my little boating adventures and I find that I need a bigger boat. On these occasions I generally hire a good sized boat with enough space for us all to enjoy some private moments.

In particular I don’t think that seven people sharing a single heads compartment works too well after a few days so a boat between 35ft and 45ft in length with two heads is about the minimum size for me with a group.

I do remember on one occasion sharing a 32ft racing yacht with seven jolly chaps. We pulled into Portsmouth for a curry and a few beers before sleeping on board to get an early start for Solent racing the next day. Realising we only had one loo I slipped away and spent the night in a hotel. I’d already done enough bonding like this to last a lifetime. When I arrived back early in the morning the best option was to stay in the cockpit upwind of the jolly sailors below who were suffering from a variety of unpleasant conditions.

Roomy ketch

Bearing this in mind when I realised that there would be six of us sharing a sail boat for our Inverness to Fort William adventure I hired a roomy 36ft Van de Stadt ketch with a separate skipper’s quarters and en suite aft.

The Falcon is a 36ft heavy fin/long keel steel ketch, with in mast reefing on the main, roller reefing for the jib, slab reefing on the mizzen and wheel steering. The engine room boasted a 65hp Bukh which never faltered.