Six of us chartered Cloud Nine on a bareboat basis at the end of August 2021 and had a wonderful time. The boat was great. There was masses of room and she sailed well. Most importantly, everything that mattered worked well. The engine, sails, electrics, windlass, fridge, and heads all worked fine with no problems at all. And even if something had gone wrong there were plenty of spares and tools on board.  A very different situation to some of my previous charters!

Cloud nine is easy to handle and very responsive once underway. She needs to be moving well through the water before she responds much to the rudder in reverse, but bow thrusters get round that problem. There is an electric winch for the clew outhaul and mainsheet which makes things very easy. The dinghy is held on davits which makes going ashore easy in remote anchorages. The bimini keeps the morning dew off the cockpit seats. Tacking was easy, she hove-to well, and happily sailed goose-winged. We never got the chance to sail her in very heavy weather, but I imagine that she would be fine. There seemed to be lots of power in the windlass with plenty of anchor chain.

We were fortunate to have some excellent Scottish weather. The main problem being the lack of wind in the first week. Motoring long distances though proved no problem as she has very big fuel tanks, and good fuel economy. Her freshwater tanks were massive, and we were out for 10 days without topping up before we got low. The galley was well equipped with an excellent new fridge. All this allowed us to extensively explore the many more remote anchorages in the Hebrides without having to worry about supplies. I don’t think that I could ever tire of these waters— they really are wonderful!

She is a boat well suited and well equipped for sailing in Hebridean waters, and I would love to charter her again.