About "Susan J" and her history

“Susan J” is a sea kindly boat, with an efficient,  traditional, gaff cutter, rig enabling her to keep up to the wind when needed.  She has never had a topsail.  She is cosy down below, with 4 berths, 2 in the saloon and a double in the fore cabin, all with some standing room.  A well equipped galley, Taylor paraffin stove and private heads, ensures a high degree of comfort.  The small quarter berth has been adapted to provide a more permanent navigation area and extra stowage.

Some history:

Susan J” is a Heard 28.  She has a GRP hull, based on a Falmouth Working Boat, designed by Percy Dalton.  She was built, in 1991, at “Gaffers & Luggers”, Tregatreath Yacht Yard, Mylor Bridge, in Cornwall, by Martin Heard.  The hull was then fitted out by Traditional Yacht Services on the Isle of White in 1992, by her first owners, who, we understand, sailed her both from the Solent and to the Mediterranean via the French canals. 

She came into the care of the Shaw family in 1999 and, following a major refit in 2002, including a new bowsprit and re epoxying of her hull, she was sailed around Great Britain in 2003.  Mike and Dan Shaw maintained her meticulously, over their stewardship and cruised her extensively along the South Coast from their base in Poole, with several trips to France and Holland, the Round the Island Race and she took part in the Netherlands Old Gaffers Association 10^th anniversary rally in 2014.  Where David first, unwittingly met her, while crewing on "Bonita".  

After a brisk sail from Cowes to Poole in August 2016, we became her third custodians in April 2017 and she brought us, safely, from Poole back to her “roots”, in the SW, where she is now moored in the Helford River. In our first two seasons, she has  attended Falmouth Classics and joined the OGA “South by Sou’ West” cruise at Plymouth, reaching the Scillies, in August 2017.  In 2018, following installation of a new Beta 30 engine, she attended the SW OGA Plymouth Festival of Sail and the OGA55 rally in the Solent.

After much encouragement by Mike Becket, of "Bonita" and admiring their's and other blogs. In April 2019, David decided to start a blog about our own on going exploits aboard "Susan J".  Our adventures since acquiring her in 2017, will be added in due course, while our adventures going forward may appear in this blog.