A belated ‘Happy New Year’ to our audience and followers. It’s time for a Spring update!
After a successful 2023 promoting SofaToSailboat at Seawork, Southampton Boat Show, and various boat jumbles, we put Poppet to bed and under wraps for the winter period to keep her safe. Now that the weather shows signs of improving, behind the scenes we are starting to get ready to finish her structural and equipment upgrades, rigging, sails, electronics, and autohelm.
Sadly, over the winter period someone ‘borrowed’ our boat shelter guy lines which held the roof to the base, which led to the total loss of our tunnel tent. We are now seeking permission to rebuild it at our local boatyard and hoping for a small miracle when it comes to replacing it. We’ll be approaching a few companies to see if they can help us with a loan unit, or we might start a fundraising campaign, but this may be complicated on top of our existing fundraising.
Farris Collins (First Mate and Chief of Ballast) has spent a busy winter studying his RYA Day Skipper Theory with www.Navathome.com. John-Kenneth Habbershaw (Skipper and Chief of Shouting) has been working with sponsors over the same period to try and keep the project moving forward. The Skipper and First Mate recently visited ‘Boatlife’ at Birmingham NEC to catch up with some of our sponsors who were attending the show.
We are still seeking commercial sponsors and funding for:
A self-steering wind vane
Technical (wet weather) clothing
Sat Comms and data
Solar Charging Equipment, and Battery Monitoring
Wind Charging Equipment
Delivery of Poppet to The Canary Islands
Insurance
Jordan Series Drogue
Active Radar Reflector
First Aid Equipment and supplies
Chandlery and loose equipment
If you think you could help with providing, loaning, or sponsoring any of the above equipment, please get in touch!
Or visit our project donations page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/sofatosailboat