RANSEL III

SHE 36’ - RANSEL III REFIT


We found our SHE 36’ with her pale blue hull at a Yacht Broker in Hindeloopen, a small town along the IJsselmeer in 1999. Previously my wife and sail mate” Pauline and I owned a Dutch build yacht “Victoire 855” . Although quite new, we had the experience that this was not the right design for our plans to sail more regularly on the North Sea. We were looking for a bigger more suitable yacht however we had limited budget. It was the summer of 1999 and as always when we visiting any harbor, we were interested in “yachts for sale”. To be honest, I am not a DIY enthusiast. I had no interest in investing time on an old yacht. My wife Pauline saw her first, berthed between all kinds of nicely presented, more recent yachts. For me this old yacht was not love at first sight, however my wife Pauline was immediately interested. This yacht might just be the one we were looking for, and of course Pauline was right, what a nice elegant designed hull, the typical flush deck, the layout of the deck and cockpit. This really was what we were looking for!


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The SHE looked quite neglected, however under the pollution, decomposing leaves and green algae, we recognized a “beauty”. The (first) owner was too old to sail her anymore and his son had been trying to sell her for quite some time. The price was high for us but not unreasonable. We were convinced the asking price might be negotiated. The typical “SHE deck” was in a bad condition, it was cracked and leaking water. This was probably the main reason a lot of people were not interested.



First we had to sell our yacht in order to have enough money to start serious negotiations. In the mean time we visit the broker several times and inspected all kind of details, looking for hidden costs or problems. All the time trying not looking too eager to buy. and hoping the SHE would not been sold in the meantime. In fact we needed more than 6 months to sell our Victoire but once sold and after some final negotiations in November 1999 we became the proud owners of the “RANSEL III”.


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The first owner was very kind and gave us all correspondence, drawings, invoices ect. from his first meeting in 1975 with South Hands Marine Mr. D.L.W Fitzgerald till now. This was the first SHE 36 ever built, exhibited at the London Boat show and after the show sold to this Dutch owner.

The first year we had no budget to invest in real improvements, although we were delighted by her sailing performance and seaworthiness on trips along the Dutch and Belgium coast during our first summer holiday.

However, what I feared for eventually happened: due to too many small (technical) problems I was forced to become a DIY skipper. The yacht needed a service and update after 25 years. The “to do” list was quite long. We realized that besides all the small improvements or changes we had to start with the most important and expensive one: the leaking deck. We decided not to choose a teak deck, opting instead for “MARINEDECK 2000® cork composite decking”. We choose a well known shipyard “Jachthaven Hindeloopen” to do the work. After removing the “original SHE deck” which was a kind of epoxy and a hell of a job, they uncovered a lot more damage caused by years of leaking water. We had no other choice other than to undertake a complete renovation of the deck first, before we could start to with the Marine deck. The result now was an improved construction and deck surface even better than the original! (see pictures).
The list of other projects to improve and update was quite long during the last 10 years. However we have never regretted these investments in this beautiful S&S design with good sailing performance.

After 35 years we have decided to order a complete makeover of the hull. Also a refit of the windows and the cabin. This is in process now again at “Jachthaven Hindeloopen”. They have already completed a lot of the work for us. The painting job of the hull will be done by the well known specialist “Klaver Yacht Painting”. The fully makeover will be hopefully finalized in March 2011. (Please see the pictures).

We are looking forward to see her in all her beauty at her berth at the Royal Dutch Yacht Club at Muiden. We hope to show you pictures of the final result in the yearly book 2012.

Pauline Arnold and Roland van Loenen



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