GHOST

Finally we've seen her in the flesh, the yacht that is. Thursday the 11th of January, and an hour before the London boat show is to close for the night. Kat and I walked up together and introduced ourselves to "GHOST". That's what we have decided to call our new Hanse 470e. First impressions.. "my god that's big". All 12.2 tonnes of her sitting up on blocks at the boat show.
The rudder is taller than me and the hull, a dull copper colour from the newly applied copper antifouling, stands well above my head. Up on to the stand at deck height and we instantly fall in love with her clean lines. The colour too is better than we had imagined. Light grey hull with dark grey water lines. Next to the homogenous white hulls of nearly every other boat, she looks stunning.
Straight to the front of the queue, "hey we own it", onto the clean transom and straight to the starboard helm. It doesn't get much better than this and for me particularly I stand and reflect on the last 5 years, and every second was worth it. Teak everywhere, flush coach roof and retractable cleats...she's very "wallyesq". The interior is equally impressive; space is the best way to describe it. Champagne came out we shared the moment with our friends from Hanse and it was time to leave.
We returned on the weekend with friends and in particular some of the crew for the Fastnet: Lee, Sal, JP and Laura. Already we have a full crew for the campagin and confirmed a skipper, Stuart, for the season. It is all quickly becoming a reality. In between introducing people to GHOST, we spent considerable time selecting electronics and safety equipment. While to most this would be mind numbing, I found it fascinating although fatiguing.
This morning Ghost arrived at Hamble Point by truck, her new home and now begins the commissioning process. We expect to see her go in the water in mid February before we take final delivery after sea trails on the 17th of March. Life's good!!