Rare Carvel Wooden Folkboat

I bought Fern in 2015 and after an extensive refurbishment moved her to Martlesham Creek after she'd spent several seasons on the Alde. She's a Folkboat, and if you've never had one there's a treat ahead of you. This one is carvel built (they're usually clinker) with a reverse transom, a spoon bow, and a low cabin. As in you can't stand up in it unless the hatch is open. Its long keel, slack bilges, barn-door rudder, and hefty ballast ratio (just over 50 percent) equipped it for North Sea adventures.

AS Wikipedia tells you, "the cockpit however—because it was not self-bailing—raised the risk quotient for any offshore ambitions. The 7/8-fractional rig gave it a conservative sail-area displacement ratio of 16.28. The length-to-beam ratio was just under 3.5. The four-foot draft appealed to the shoalwater challenged. Headroom was ideal for those wonderful creatures of Scandinavian folklore: elves." We simply roared.

Hype aside, there's just something about a Folkboat that is incredibly calming, even if it's just sitting and having a cup of tea on her.Fern, we believe, was built at Southampton Boat Building School, around 1990. She is mahogany on oak carvel build, with an 8hp Yanmar inboard diesel which if the battery is charged-up always starts first time. To make sure the battery actually IS charged there is an onboard solar panel and the Bosch battery was new in 2019. Other new things included the automatic pump, the NASA depth finder, the anchor and 30 metres of anchor chain. The sails are not new, but apart from staining there is plenty of life left in them.

We replaced the tiller and the rudder, and re-hung it on a new steel spindle two seasons ago.Fern has sat outside through four winters, including this lockdown winter, so she does not look at her best. She needs to be taken out of the water, sanded and repainted, all over, including anti-foul. There is remedial work (filling in gaps) to be done on the transom, which although watertight has some chunks taken out of it, which sounds a lot worse than it is. The seat cushions were removed and the foam replaced, but the seat covers were never fitted. There is a cockpit cover, and spray dodgers, possibly with the name Fern on them but I haven't been able to get to the boat since December and can't remember.We sailed Fern a lot last year in the upper reaches of the Deben, which is why we're selling her with a lot of regret - she draws nearly four feet, which is more water than our home waters usually have.

We went aground several times, which did the boat no harm at all, obviously, as the bottom of the Deben is soft mud (very soft mud, trust me on that...), but it's getting to be a bit of a pain.If you sail somewhere deeper, or you're more dedicated than us and can drop everything to catch the tide then this piece of cult sailing history can be yours! Ask nicely and you can probably take over the mooring too! Please note there is no trailer and this boat weighs around four tons, so no, you probably can't drive it away, before you ask. You could get a big trailer to Everson's yard at Woodbridge and crane her out from there though, a mile up river.We have a Drascombe now, so make an offer, but she really has to go.