New sprayhood and other things

It's been a busy few months since I troubled these pages - busy on plenty of non-boating things.  Drascombing activities have been happening, however.  The first was the arrival last week of my  Christmas present of a new sprayhood.

New sprayhood

The original canvas sprayhood was made by a company called Cover2cover in West Sussex.  When I tried to contact them before the yuletide season, their website seemed to be non-functioning.  So, I ordered one from Churchouse Boats.  Mine had to be slightly made slightly differently since it had to incorporate a zip fastening arrangement to attach to my existing cockpit tent, rather different from most Drascombes which use velcro. I don't really use the cockpit tent but, you never know, I may do in future.
The new sprayhood is made from a material called 'weathermax'.  It is altogether lighter and feels less sturdy than the original canvas, but I hope that is just a perception and that it withstands the ravages of usage. Time will tell.  It seems to fit reasonably well.  I may have a go at adjusting the frame just to see if I can achieve slightly more tension in the window area.
And, yes, it's a change in colour scheme from the previous pale cream colour.  Hopefully, this one will look cleaner for longer...!

I've also been busy on association business, organising rallies for the fiftieth anniversary of the first Drascombe.  The East Coast version for this will be held at Suffolk Yacht Harbour on the River Orwell, 9-11 June.
Also, we held our inaugural east coast winter gathering at Southwold on the first Saturday in January.  I thought no-one would turn up but, in the event, it was a merry throng!  We met at Southwold harbour and ate in the Harbour Inn who served us exceptionally well!  It looks as though this will have to be added to the calendar as an annual fixture...

East coast Drascombe gathering, Saturday 7th January, Harbour Inn, Southwold

I'm also selling my old BIC 245 tender on ebay since I doubt very much if I'll ever use it again.  This year, as last, I'll continue to 'trailer-sail' Daisy II rather than use a mooring so I can't see the need for another tender for the foreseeable future.  In the mean time, I still have the Seahopper and an inflatable kayak if I ever need some sort of means of accessing shore.  The thing about Drascombes is that they tend to pull up ashore quite nicely themselves without the need for a tender.