Early January is New Year reception time: we decided to attend the HRC reception in Rotterdam, thereby foregoing our own marina's New Year reception, or the one held by our local mayor! We also managed to find time to go to BOOT Düsseldorf 2025 and saw Magnus Rassy on his magnificent HR69! But play needs to be alternated with hard work and by the beginning of February nearly the whole winter maintenance programme for the inside of the boat had been for the largest part done. My winterprogramme covers 8 pages of closely typed text with things to be done!!! After Düsseldorf, a special trip was planned to Aachen in Germany to collect a new gasbottle from DIY store OBI; for this the gaslocker was cleaned out and new security lines fitted to hold the gasbottles in place should the boat be rolled. Some new charts were ordered and the last set of local charts corrected to March 2025. February and March were also the months for the "chilly" work to be done outside -> maintenance of the mast (which was outside) and of the boom (under the boat). A lot of attention was also paid to looking after the boat's steering system! All excessive play has now been removed and it is quiet again as when the boat was launched.

After several years of ownership and a bit of sailing in the tropics, some of the woodwork in the cockpit area clearly required revarnishing. In fact, because of UV the cockpit charttables need regular attention -> the simplest solution, I've found, is to replace their base plate altogether and to revarnish the solid outer ledge (made of good 1990s wood from HR. The cockpit table was completely removed and dismantled - thoroughly sanded down, and treated to 5 layers of Epifanes varnish. The external woodwork on the Hardtop will need to be sanded down and varnished too; but at a later stage, when the outside temperature is conducive to outside varnishing. Unfortunately it isn't possible to remove these pieces of wood and take them home for varnishing in the garage. This is possible with the various cockpit tables; our home garage is an excellent environment for home painting...

March 2025 saw several sunny and warm days (temperatures around 17°C) to undertake essential maintenance on the mast. Only one out of four winches was properly accessible; but all other components could be cleaned and oiled for the 2025 sailing season. Even the RR aerial could be straightened and the top bracket of the radar reflector riveted back. Both had probably been hit when the mast came off the boat in September last year. The good days also warmed up the inside of the boat hall storage area, so that work on the windlass (here freshly re-chromed) and the hull could be done. Pictured here is the bowthruster tunnel, ready to be antifouled. After that the two propellers and anodes can be refitted...

Ngahue IV needed to be ready for launching in late April 2025 in order to attend two appointments abroad... There was the usual rush to get things ready. We were very fortunate to have a steady period of sunny weather so that the boat could be left 'outside' without risking getting wet prematurely. In December 2024 we had ordered a set of flares from the French chandlery chain U-Ship in Dunkirk (they were the only people to take back the expired ones!) which required collection. Viking Liferaft services in Zwijndrecht (NL) had carried out a full service of the liferaft, which is now 'good to go' for another 3 years. Poutini, our dinghy, was dug up again (it had spent 2024 in Aqualift's storage area), cleaned and fitted to the boat. To ensure a wobble-free transport in our Batsystem davits, we have been working on new attachment systems which now include a two point steel wire pick-up line aft and a 5-point Dyneema pick-up system forward. Together with our two straps holding the dinghy in place, Poutini should be snug as a bug in a rug in our davits.
Just a reminder that Poutini is the name of a Maori taniwha (water monster) closely linked to Ngahue, the Maori navigator. This is purely Maori culture and in no way linked to the President of the Russian Federation who we respect as Russia's head of state. But with one letter added we're always afraid that people might be confused by our unlucky taniwha (for his full story, see elsewhere on the Ngahue IV site).

Early May saw us slowly bending on sails (as we get older, the sails seem to grow heavier and less willing to be bent on!) and cleaning the boat after a dusty winter storage. Soon we will be off for our first trip!!! Some pictures of the trip and our friends from Maricom changing more boat electronics from Furuno to Raymarine. Having just returned from our trip to the Hamble River, the boat and I were off again to participate in the HRC HR Solo trip Chatham 2025. 6 older gentlemen and the Hallberg-Rassy boats sailed from various ports in the Benelux to Chatham Maritime marina to meet up at The Command House to sign a special log book that has been started by Pierre Nysten of Maastricht for this special annual rally. It was pretty boisterous sailing out from Nieuwpoort to Chatham; even more so on the return leg - especially from the TSS onwards with wind speeds reaching into the low 30s knots! Pictured here is our pet penguin, a trusted companion for every one of the Ngahue boats I've owned. Had he been employed by the Hallberg-Rassy Yard, soon he would be entitled to a gold watch presented by Magnus Rassy!!!

As a result of our visit to the Düsseldorf Boatshow BOOT, we invested quite a bit in 'pimping up' our boat with bespoke and personalised bedding in our aft cabin, and personalised winch covers for each of the 11 winches and the anchor windlass on board. Quite chique really!

At the end of June, and spilling over into early July, we undertook a new trip to England, visiting Chatham (Maritime marina) and London (Saint Katherine Docks). We arrived at Chatham marina at the lowest water possible and needed to wait for sufficient clearance to make the lock. Whilst approaching the holding pontoon, we ran aground! Wanting to show off the possibilities of our new Class A AIS, we indivated that Ngahue IV was aground, not realising that the Coastguard in their Dover headquarters suddenly noticed a distressed vessel aground in the Medway River. They dispatched a team of three men to investigate and offer assistance where possible. When the Coastguard team arrived on the scene, we all agreed that little could be done to help Ngahue IV: tides that go down also come back up again and will re-float yachts that are aground. This certainly taught us that one shouldn't play too much with a Class A AIS as the signals are clearly taken seriously and monitored on a constant basis.

From Chatham we continued our trip to London; because of the tides (still hovering around strong springs) we left Chatham on Sunday evening at 8 p.m. in order to arrive at Saint Katherine Docks (SKD) for 6 a.m. on the Monday morning. SKD had been celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Royal Thames Yachclub the previous weekend. It was a wonderfully peaceful night sail up the Thames, which we had completely to ourselves. Our days at Saint Katherine Docks were punctuated by a period of tropical heat in South-east England and lots of peace and calm (the marina was nearly empty for most of our stay. Twice we transited the Thames Barrier; in addition to London VTS telling you which span you to use, the light signals make it abundantly clear where to go (see photo). We were also very fortunate to make both trips without picking up anything in our propellor, or hitting any treetrunks!

Mid August, we had a bit of a fright and shock when on a Saturday spin outside Nieuwpoort the hydraulics suddenly stopped working with no way to furl them. All because of a burned through relay. With a new relay, the system is back again -> good as gold. And for good measure we now have a spare relay on board. And as a result of some quick learning in and after an unexpected situation, we know how to use the emergency handles on the Seldén and the Reckmann furlers :-)! Never needed this knowledge during our 10 years of ownership...

We started our late summer holidays towards the end of August, starting on the last Friday of the month. The weather forecasts seemed OK, but as Friday evening approached (the plan was a night crossing from Nieuwpoort to Ipswich), the skies became more and more menacing. Despite a thundery outlook we left, but after 2 hours returned because there were too many lightning flashes too close around the boat. We were heading towards very low water, so the return track (see picture with Marine Traffic track) shows Ngahue IV giving a wide berth to the Nieuwpoort Bank! The weather calmed down enough on the following Tuesday to set off for the second time. Going all the way up the Orwell River to reach Ipswich means motoring under the bridge over the river - here you get a much better view of the bridge than when you drive over it (which we did several times with our hire car).

As in 2024, we planned the second part of our holidays in Chatham maritime marina. And as in 2024, we left Ipswich a day early because on the planned day of our trip a strong wind on the nose was forecast! After Chatham, we had hoped to go to Ramsgate and on to Dover, before returning to Belgium. But the weather gods decided otherwise. We extended our stay in Chatham twice, leaving directly for Nieuwpoort on the one and only day that the wind was not over 20-25 knots (or worse). With all these changes to our itinerary, we became very good at changing our Pleasurecraft reports for UK Borderforce and our Schengen declarations for the Belgian Zeevaartpolitie...

During our return trip we noticed that one of the lower seams of our EPEX (Elvstrom) genoa lifted and delaminated frpù the sail. Apparently at this initial stage of delamination, Elvstrom says they can successfully repair the sail. Fortunately!! I remember whole swathes of the first EPEX genoa coming unstuck and ending up in parts in the Atlantic during our second Atlantic crossing... Time to start looking for a new genoa, one that isn't Elvstrom and that definitely isn't a laminate! More on this on the page "Outside Ngahue IV".

Before the boat can come out of the water, we needed to bend off the sails. Especially taking down and bagging the genoa is backbreaking work, and we were very happy when the job was done. Having the sail spread out over the pontoon allowed us to examine the sail more closely and see what a mess the genoa had become. We decided not to repair it and to order a new sail from a new supplier: North Sails. You can check this out via the "Outside Ngahue IV" page...

Lifting Ngahue IV out of the water is always a labour-intensive job. The genoa forestay needs to be brought back to the cutter stay so that the main top beam of the Travel Lift will not knock against it. With storm Benjamin announced a few days after the boat was on the hard, Aqualift lost no time to take down the mast and park the boat 'inside'. With the clement autumnal weather and the relatively warm temperatures towards the end of October and the beginning of Novaember, conditions were ideal to get the deck maintenance done ASAP. Check all dowels; clean the teak; get rid of any stains; remove bad caulking and replace with new; polish the topsides of the boat. And end with putting a tarpaulin over the front half of the boat (the rest is covered with heavy duty plastic).

For broken parts that belong specifically to the boat, we always rely on HR Parts to find us the necessary replacement bits and pieces. Sometimes the new parts shine a lot more than the old ones, but are made of much lighter material, as one can see from these covers for the bowthruster footswitch. Sometimes it helps to combine bits from the old and new parts... here we kept the stainless steel ring, but used the synthetic cover from the new part (the old one had ripped through and water was getting into the switch - not good!).

With the boat 'inside' and the antifouling clean enough to touch without turning into a Smurf, I could give the rudder blade a good shake; the lower skeg fitting had worn out sufficiently now for there to be unacceptable play (and knocking) in the rudder. Work on the immediate horizon!!! A new fitting was ordered from HR Parts (20kg of bronze commanding a commensurate price) - and Aqualift started freeing up the existing one. This needs to be done carefully to avoid weakening the lower tip of the GRP skeg!

The predominantly Dutch owners' association HRC held its AGM in Muiden early November. Time for the annual Ngahue IV Trophy to be awarded to rwo young navigators who had done an Atlantic circuit in their HR352 in the course of 2025. We enjoyed listening to their story - se reminiscent of us in 2017!

Just out of interest, I have included a photo of Christophe, one of the men working at Aqualift in Nieuwpoort, sanding down the old and washed antifouling from Ngahue IV's bottom. It certainly shows the big underwater dimensions of our HR53! Above decks the work started and was finished to install the new e-winch before the mast. This proved the easy part; below decks a lot more cutting and sawing and wiring was needed... The job continues in 2026/