Julian Megson Ocean Ventures

On Saturday 9 August I signed on the dotted line and took possession of my new boat, a Hurley 24/70 called ‘Ragamuffun’. I’ve been on the lookout for a new boat for a while but it was quite unexpected to find the right boat whilst I was on holiday. We passed the boat yard in Bangor North Wales and decided to take a look around. My wife, Fiona, was looking through the catalogue of boats for sale when she came accross ‘Ragamuffin’. She instantly fell for the boat, not because of the specification, the size or even the way she looked, but because of the name! There is obviously more to buying a boat that just the name, but before I knew it she was arranging a viewing with a member of staff. I trailed both my enthusiastic wife, my daughter Megan and broker through the yard to where ‘Ragamuffin’ was layed up. She was a Hurley 24. A bit tatty here and there but overall she looked well. I should state at this point that I was looking out for a Hurley 22, the smaller cousin of the Hurley 24, so I was pleasantly surprised to be looking at a bigger boat by the same designer.

I decided to think about it for a while and made a couple of visits to the boatyard to take another look before making up my mind. When we got home from our holiday we decided to make an offer and after some bartering we struck a deal. She was mine.