Occasionally we hear from some of our Sundeer and Deerfoot owners. They let us know about cruising plans, meeting up with other Dashew designs, and racking up those ocean miles. Russ and Gwen Hobbs, who own Sundeer 60 A Train (pictured above anchored next to Sundeer 64 Touche M’Dear) recently wrote in to give us the scoop.

Just to share, Gwen and I are anchored in Islington Bay on Rangitoto Island in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand. Along with several other boats we weathered a gusting to 50 plus knots blow last night and most of today, with rain and poor viz. Some dragged but A-TRAIN and her original 50 kg Bruce took it in stride as usual and we were “good as, eh!” as they say down here. To make things more interesting, just a boat length ahead of us lies Kailani, formerly Astra, a Deerfoot 62 headed for New Caledonia on the next window, sporting a new suit of sails and looking great despite being dragged down on by an unattended boat yesterday…We were hauled out last month at the same time as Eagles Wings, a Sundeer 56 in Whangarei, and cruised with Touche M’Dear, a Sundeer 64 and her lovely family crew, just a week before that. Two weeks earlier we were on Wakaroa, the famous Deerfoot 76, in the Bay of Islands with her new and excited owners. Then we got to visit Atlantis, an FPB, at the Whangarei Town Basin. All in all we have seen and met more Dashew boats and their crews here than anywhere. What a cool season it has been for us, and what cool folks we have met along the way who are sharing the same dreams we are. A-TRAIN, after some lavishing and heavy spa treatment here in NZ, will be Fiji bound in the next month or so and we are looking forward to it.

Above, A Train gets the good spa treatment before heading out to sea.

If you’re out there on a Dashew design, don’t forget to drop us a line and let us know about the cruising life! Fair winds…

And for more information on the FPB series, contact Sue Grant: Sue.Grant@Berthon.Co.UK.