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Sadly our first sail was our last sail of the few days we spent in Dale earlier this month. The wind was just too strong to risk going out in Jubilee again, but disappointed as we were, the weather didn't stop us getting out and enjoying the outdoors on foot.

I've loved the Pembrokeshire coast line since I was a small child and I think the Dale peninsula is especially beautiful and unspolit with hardly any commercial activity apart from the shop in Dale itself. It was also time to introduce Jeremy to the area, although he is no stranger to Pembrokeshire, having spent a lot of time as a child further East at Wiseman's Bridge, where he and his brother Steve had a lot of fun sailing in their father's clinker built Twinkle 10 dinghy. 

The circuit of the peninsula using the Pembrokeshire Coast Path  and entirely in the National Park area is around six and a half miles. We started in Dale walking past The Griffin Inn and Dale Yacht Club up the thickly wooded lane that hugs the coast, taking in a lovely view of Jubilee bobbing on the mooring from near Dale Fort.Then on around to the wood framed Castle Beach Bay and the sheltered sands of Watwick Cove.

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A strong historical atmosphere in Mill Bay where Henry Tudor landed in 1485 with his troops from Brittany before the Battle of Bosworth,  and then onto the cluster of Coast Guard houses and the Light House at St Ann's Head, wondering at the rock  amazing formation in Cobblers Hole and looking down the scary and aptly named Vommit Hole. From then on the coast gets far more rugged as you face the open sea and we faced a bracing, cutting Atlantic wind  and rain at Welshman's Bay and then ultimately West Dale from where you also get a view across the peninsula's waist to Dale Castle and Dale village, the  relatively sheltered waterway of Dale Roads and Milford Haven and the Cleddau bridges beyond.

The next day was no better in terms of wind, in fact it was even stronger. So walking boots on again and piling the dogs in the camper van we trundled the few miles over to Martin's Haven for another great walk around the wild and stunningly rugged Deer Park opposite Skomer Island where the BBC were currently filming the Puffins for their Spring Watch programme. I don't think I could ever tire of the heart stoppingly beautiful views from here towards Skomer, Skokholm and Grassholm islands and across St Brides Bay to St Davids. We spent a happy hour in the middle of our walk sitting in a sheltered hollow  in the cliffs with our flask of coffee looking out to a white capped sea with swooping sea birds.

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Monday 6th June the big day had arrived -  all being well we would sail Jubilee for the first time today!

We set off in our camper van for West Wales crossing fingers that the weather would be kind and allow us to get out on the water. We arrived in Dale to blue skies and sparkling seas, but a fairly stiff breeze. Rowing out in Fair Chance the tender, we decided maybe it would be best to try sailing only under mizzen and jib for this first time while we got used to handling Jubilee. As we rowed out we noticed a few more Drascombes on their moorings 'Rainbow Child' ( a 21 '9" Coaster  a small cruiser, with a 2 berth cabin and spray hood ); 'Gilpie' and  'Benbow 11' ( both18' 9" Luggers);  and 'Eildh' (21' 9" Long Boat). Hopefully we'll get to meet their crews soon - all appear to be members of the Drascombe Association like us!

Climbing aboard, apart from a lot of bird mess and half eaten crabs left by seagulls, Jubilee seemed none the worse for her week on the mooring. There was no water to pump out, meaning the bung and the tonneau cover had done their respective jobs. I prepared the mizzen, slotting on the bumkin while Jez bolted on the rudder and engine and we motored gently out of the moorings.

Safely away from other boats  Jez cut the engine and I tentatively unfurled the jib and put down the centre plate. We were  actually under sail for the first time! Although missing the extra drive, speed and excitement that comes with hoisting the main, we still made reasonable progress tacking back and fore across the Haven with only the mizzen and jib, although going about proved a little difficult in the strong wind without the momentum created by a main sail to take you round. We spent a happy couple of hours within the relatively safe confines of Dale, deciding it safer not to venture beyond Dale Fort on the point, before motoring back on to the mooring.

More pics of Jez and my first sail under mizzen and jib

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Having done the refurbishment needed, we then had to decide where to sail Jubilee. We have Llandegfedd Reserveoir just a few miles away, this was where I learnt to sail as a child, but there was also the option of putting her down in Dale in Pembrokeshire on a disused swing mooring that brother Jon has there. In the end we opted for the mooring as Jubilee is quite a heavy boat to pull in and out of the water each time she's used. We also both liked the idea of  doing some safe sea sailing and the protected waters of Dale are ideal for this and are where I learned to sail solo in the little Goblin many years ago.

Putting Jubilee on a mooring was another learning curve for me. Swinging moorings are provided in rivers, estuaries, harbours or in other areas of sheltered water. They consist of a buoy which is attached by chains to a heavy sinker which lies on the river or sea bed. Your boat is attached to the buoy and will then swing around in the water according to the direction of the tide - hence the name. To get to your boat you need to use a small craft like a dinghy or inflatable tender. A mooring in a tidal area may mean that the boat is high and dry for some period of time  If you choose to moor your boat in tidal water then you may come across the terms Mud Berth, Half Tide, and All States Of Tide. A Mud Berth is where the tide will go out and leave your boat sitting in the mud until the tide comes in again, which restricts the times as to when you can use your boat.  Half Tide is when the tide will be in at your mooring for about half the time of the full tide. All States Of Tide means that your boat will be afloat all of the time, moorings in these areas tend to be more expensive than the mud berths as you can use your boat at any time.The mooring we have taken on in shares with Jon really only dries out on very low Spring or Neap Tides so Jubilee would be useable most of the time.

As I write however, we are still awaiting some essential maintenance work to be done to the mooring - there needs to be a very low tide for this to happen and we may have to wait another couple of weeks. In the meantime Dad has allowed us to put Jubilee temporarily on his mooring. This is a little further out so its an All States of Tide Mooring and it never dries out even on the lowest tide.

The pics below are of us with Jubilee on a very exciting launch day in Dale at the end of May and Jubilee sitting on Dad's mooring. The other boat  you can see us using as a tender in the pics is Dad's beautiful wooden rowingboat 'Fair Chance'. Built to order by a boat yard in Milford Haven a few years ago.

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Coming soon next BLOG: With any luck the next installment will actually be about us having a go sailing Jubilee for the first time this week!

Having a boat fit to sail is one thing, but you have to have some means of getting it to water. We live a few hundred yards from the River Usk but its no good for sailing so a strong, roadworthy trailer is an essential. The trailer Jubilee was on when we got her from Alan had seen better days and one of the support stanchions had snapped due to vibration and rust during the journey back to Wales. Brother Jon had patched this up and had got her down to Pembrokeshire last summer, but it was clear that the trailer wasn't going to stand up to much more use and after a few sails over the summer, Jubilee was sitting on the old trailer chained to my brother's caravan in a field covered with a sheet.

To get her home to do the work on her we needed to get a new trailer for her, but research via the web showed a good road trailer new would be around £800 - £1,000.Oh dear, I thought, too much money, lets have a look for a second hand one. As we don't live in an area with boat yards Ebay and other websites seemed to be the best option so last November I began to look out for one . Ebay came up trumps fairly quickly - a second hand trailer which looked like it would fit the bill with swinging rollers, winch and some bunked support stanchion/brackets. I bid on it and got it for £250. Great!!, But the downside was it was up in Manchester. Still, worth the trip we thought and Jeremy had just had a new towbar fitted to the landrover and I got a lighting board and no plate again on Ebay so we were all set.

Off we went the following weekend to pick it up, a full day out but quite exciting, thinking about getting Jubilee back. Its always a risk buying something you haven't seen but the trailer looked perfect for the job when we got there. and had just had an overhaul and new wheel bearings fittted. It had been made bespoke to carry a speed boat which the young chap selling had bought second hand. The speed boat had since been transferred to a very fancy trailer with a full swinging cradle, leaving the one we bought surplus to requirement.

A quick rub down to remove a few spots of surface rust and a couple of coats of galvanised paint (again purchased on Ebay) and the trailer was as good as new. Jon later reduced the height of the rear support stanchions with a hacksaw and refitted them as the hull of the speed boat it had been made for had been much taller and narrower in the base.

The pic shows Jez and Jon loading Jubilee on to the trailer prior to bringing her home for us to do the work on her in March.

Trailer sorted, that left the engine. Again new engines are expensive so at first I thought get secondhand. Again I turned to Ebay and other marine websites, but not knowing much about engines I wasn't really sure what I was looking for when buying second hand (or new for that matter).I quickly read up on different engines (isn't the web brill) and learned the difference between two stroke and four stroke. I learned that the reccommended engine horse power for a Drascombe Dabber is 2-4 HP. There was a huge variance in price for second hand engines. Mine and Jeremy's overall concern was to get something reliable, essential for sailors with rusty skills we thought,  but how can you do that as a novice buying secondhand unseen and untested? Anyway this being the case  we decided just out of interest to look at new engines. Good secondhand engines appeared to be about £350-£650  so if we could get something within that price bracket new we'd be laughing.

Eventually Ebay came up trumps again - with a link to Barnet Marine from whom we got a brand new Yamaha F 2.5 (Four stroke 2,5 HP) for £485 which appeared to be at least £100 cheaper than anywhere else.

Coming soon Next Blog: All about moorings.........

Jubilee's exterior hull appearance enhanced, it was now time to tackle her inner depths. We decided against painting the gelcoat surfaces of the upper inner hull and decks as they had come up pretty well with a good scrub with Flash. The areas under the duckboards, and the innersides of the lockers however, were very bad and were given a coat of pale grey deck paint.

The perished and/or missing locker edging trims were all replaced. I found a brill firm on the Internet, Seals Direct that supplies edging strips by the metre. Adding these really made a difference to the finished look.

The duckboards were sanded and given a coat of varnish with some Coelan antislip beads added.

We oiled the centreplate housing and belaying pins but decided to give the gunwhales and other wood two coats of yacht varnish as we'd done with the spars, mast and rudder.

Before and after pics below.

Coming soon next BLOG: Inside Out - see you then.........

The Drascombe boats story starts in the early 1960s with John Watkinson, a former Royal Navy officer, building a boat for himself and his family. John's requirements were for a daysailer, capable of being trailed, stable (to counterract his wife's tendency to seasickness), and safe; but capable of giving an experienced sailor a lively and exciting sail. The boat that John hand-built in a barn on his farm at Drascombe Barton was inspired by the working boats of England's North-East coast, which themselves can trace an ancestry back to the Vikings.

The Drascombe Dabber was first introduced to the range in 1972.

The Dabber is the smallest of the split-rig Drascombes. 15’ 6" long, she carries 118  Sq Ft of sail  on  three sails - a jib, mizzen and mainsail with the help of a bowsprit & a bumkin, both  removable for stowage & transport. An outboard motor in it’s own well, usually 2-4hp, will push it along when the wind drops or it is perfectly capable of being rowed from either, or both, of two positions. Equipped with a centre-plate, she draws only 8" with the plate up, 3’ 0" with it down.

Look at 1970s Drascombe brochure. My Father would have made his selection based on this information

As befits her name Jubilee's colour scheme was a patriotic  red, white and blue. Red on the underside of the hull, white waterline and navy blue above the water line, oiled wooden gunwhales and varnished spars. A set of white sails was specially ordered to complement the scheme and in addition to the standard set of tan sails supplied with every Drascombe. Dad was thrilled when she arrived with both sets of sails and both sets are still in serviceable use today.

Jubilee gave my Father and Mother several happy years of sailing in Dale in Pembrokeshire before she was sold to my Father's friend Alan when Dad upgraded to the slightly bigger 22ft Drascombe Drifter with a small cabin. For many years after she was towed down each summer from Bishop Auckland  in the North East of England and used during their month long holiday in Dale.  During the 90's however due to work commitments followed by ill health Alan could not use Jubilee very much and she was stored in a barn pretty much unused for 10-15 years. In February 2008 I received a phone call from Alan asking if my brother Jonathan and I would like to have Jubilee and share the use  of her and that spring Jubilee came back into the care of my family.

The rest of this story is still unfolding - how Jubilee has been restored over the last few months and mine and my partner Jeremy's attempts to get to grips with sailing her. I will be writing a regular update on our adventures.

Thanks to  Honnor Marine  the Drascombe Association UK,  Church House Boats and  Drascombe Association Netherlands for information and links included here.