Contract

A short visit on 11 December found Mick, Gena and Skylark in some more cold, winter sun. Mick had sealed the floor top and bottom, ribbed out the entire hull and spray foamed the interior.

We chatted about the project over a coffee. We confirmed our preferred choice of colour for the white goods – we chose…white! We agreed a TV aerial cable would also be fitted. And we then got onto the subject of the contract. The price was still the same as previously agreed and various stage payments were set out. The principle will be that on payment of the first installment, the boat will be mine. This avoided doubt although the contract was one of the simplest documents I had ever seen. No solicitor would ever agree to it but then no solicitor would be allowed any where near this contract. Further thought about the ‘contract’ convinced me that I whould redraft it to clarify who will do what, when, how, etc etc. This I did, with Kay’s help. All the main points were included – what is to be done by who, when it will be done, how much it will cost, when the payments will be made and what we will do if something should go wrong. Our next trip is scheduled for after Christmas so we will present our thoughts to them then. We were told my Gena that the engine had been installed before Christmas so that was good news.

In the meantime, I sent the 2012 annual fee to James at Lazy Otter Marina. We mentioned Skylark was not ready yet but due to arrive in April. James was not bothered – well, he had is money now so an empty berth was not a problem to him.


We took a trip up to see Skylark on 29 December. The engine was in place and everything seemed to be progressing well.