Ooh Betty!

Our good friend Martin's long drawn out boat building project is now slowly drawing to a close, and a 30-foot yacht is sitting in it's berth at Bristol Marina with its newly erected mast, desperate to feel the wind in it's rigging again (as is one frustrated skipper). I know she is nearly ready, because Martin and Useful Dave have spent the last two months making a wine rack for the cabin. See my blip series here.

Martin sent me this picture of her, on this of all mornings, to try to ease my pain at Nani's sending off and United's cruel departure from the Champions League QF last night. In the end, we were stitched up like a kipper by a Turk (the referee) and a Portugese (Ronaldo, ex United player, and scorer of the winning goal). The photo and the prospect of summer sailing did ease the pain a little. 'Not a lot, but a little', as someone once said.

The Yacht is named after one of my favourite all time movies, the French film Betty Blue made in 1986. Martin's son Joe also loves the film, hence the happy coincidence. As it happens, the boat design is also French - a Naja 30 designed in the 80's by Sylvestre Langevin.

Apart from a half day grinding off the rust from one side of her iron keel, my only other contribution has been to source a font like the film posters, for the hull transfers with the boat's name on. I think I got off very lightly with my task allocations here. Poor old Martin has been working on Betty Blue off and on for nearly 2 years, since he bought her on Ebay for a snip at £1,500.

Why do I mention all this? Well barring some initial sea trials pottering around the Avon and Bristol Channel this month, the next task is to sail her down the rugged north Cornish coast and around Lands End to her new swinging mooring on the river Dart upstream of Dartmouth. I have mentioned this before, but the prospect is no longer a distant one now.

The film was originally called 37°2 Le Matin (37.2°C in the Morning), so with that forecast, plus the skippers name, it feels a good omen. Amongst it's many fine attributes, is also a stunning soundtrack. Of particular note from that is a haunting piano piece C'est Le Vent (This is the Wind). This also augers well, as long as that wind direction is not coming from the one we are supposed to be sailing in. I added this same musical accompaniment retrospectively today to Betty's Youtube video here, taken at her maiden launch in Bristol back in October last year.

The film Betty Blue opens with an ominous narration from main character Zorg that worries me a little, when I watched a film clip again today:

"I had known Betty for a week.
We screwed every night.
The forecast was for storms..."