Like most cruising sailors I claim that I do not race. Well this is only true to an extent for when another yacht starts to overhaul me I instinctively pay more attention to my sheets and trim to get every extra fraction of speed that I can.

It was on one such occasion when sailing my Robert Tucker Silhouette (a boat that always got me there eventually) that my sailing mate Maurice sped past me in his new Sailfish 18.

So, being the sort of sailor who changes boats as often as he changes his cars I started to look for a Sailfish and it wasn’t long before I found one about 80 miles away.

She was owned jointly by a woman and her seafaring husband and had spent most of her time on their front lawn while the husband was away at sea.

The woman told me that she wanted to get the boat off the lawn and that her husband had asked her to sell it. I wondered… but who was I to question?

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