At Last Rose out marks the end of the season

Having dithered at the start of the year about relaunching my mothers Boat- "The Rose of Argyll" we eventually made up our minds and quickly popped her in just after easter. She had sat a lonely figure in the big empty boat shed at Barcaldine as all her colleagues had been put out for the season long before her. However there were a couple of benefits, firstly we missed some early damp weather when we would not have used her anyway and secondly it meant when we started dithering in September about when she should be removed from the water and where she would be wintered the 6 month insurance leaked into November.

Eventually after much discussion we decided that we would bring her out at Eriska and winter her outside with the intention of moving her into Chays maintenance shed at the start of spring for any remedial work. Initially the idea had been to reuse the old metal trailer which my father had had remodeled to take her but it soon became clear that if we used this method she was only going to be moved seldom and short distances so we have invested in a new trailer for her. However it all seemed to be conspiring against us as the weather for taking her out has not been great and the final straw came when the agricultural engineers came calling to take our old Massey 135 away for its decade service and rebuild- leaving us only with Chays Landorver which we all thought too weak.

However fortune favors the brave and with 3 days left on the insurance we arranged to borrow a digger from the golf course work and planned to take the boat out with a chain of power. Amazingly having trhen set ourselves one afternoon of a window, the wind dropped the tide seemed to slow and the boat hit the trailer dead centre first time and within 30 seconds the boat, trailer and landrover were all up off the beach. As soon as it was out the water and on the road the trusty landrover could cope on its own and the digger could be dismissed an returned to Golf Course construction duty! So today Rose was washed and wintered and is back down next to the Clay Pigeon Shooting- lonely but safe for the winer ahead. the good news is that she will be inside in a couple of months for the annual paint and polish and then hopefully we will be able to reverse the process and get her back to sea ready for another year!!