The Boat

The Round Britain Adventure was first thought of before we bought our first boat in early 2007 so she was chosen very much with the Round Britain trip in mind. We wanted something that would be comfortable and safe for the children so a centre cockpit was essential for us. Our initial diligence on the trip suggested that we would need to use drying harbours on a number of occasions so initially a bilge keeler was considered. However, this was dismissed given the few times that we would need to take the ground in normal course. High performance wasn't nearly as important as safety, solid construction and good sailing qualities in hard weather and high seas. After lots of research we opted for a 1986 Hallberg-Rassy 352 (tall rig version) that was in good underlying condition but had been neglected a bit over the previous few years. The HR 352 keeps all the ropes at the mast with the resultant advantage of a cockpit pretty much free of ropes which is great for families, the downside is that all reefing and hoisting is done on the foredeck.
 
With a year and a half to work our way through the long list of repairs, renewals and upgrades we had time to get her just the way we wanted.
 

 
For the trip we also carried three 25ltr jerry cans of water and one of diesel (none of which were required). Our boat has a cockpit cover which saw a great deal of use due to the wet summer. It was invaluable in giving us more dry space when in harbour and we tended to put it up as soon as we saw poor weather approaching. Sadly we only used our bimini a couple of times!