svgosling

I am a retired Naval Officer living in Victoria, BC, Canada. My wife, Fran and I purchased Gosling in San Diego in December 2007. The following March, after a much needed refit, we sailed her south to Mexico and have been active members of the “Winter Cruising” community on the west coast of Mexico for the past 3 seasons.
I hope you don’t mind a none-38 owner to be part of your group but there are no 42 owners out there to share comments and discuss problems with. I believe the 38 is quite close to the 42 in construction and fittings.
Gosling is the 6th of 14 C&N 42s built by Camper & Nicholsons, She was designed by Ray Wall who also designed several other C&N vessels before moving to Canada to work for C&S Yachts in Brampton, Ontario. Ray is now retired and living in Sidney, BC.
The 42’s started out next to the 38 production line at VT Halmatic. Gosling was laid down in May 1974 and completed later that year at the C&N yard. Her first owner brought her across the Atlantic to the New York area. She was later sailed through the Panama and up the coast of the US to Portland, OR, then to the Pacific NW and, finally back to California by subsequent owners. We found her in San Diego in late 2007, neglected and having been up for sale for a long time. It seemed that she was overlooked because few people were aware of the C&N pedigree.
By March we were ready for sea after weeks of dogged work and close to our budget limit (OK, we were over….). If you want to see the challenges we faced you can get all the sordid details in the initial blog releases on the website listed above. The list of projects was extensive and covered just about everything but we were determined not to have a safe and dependable boat when we left San Diego Apart from a few unexpected engine issues (aren’t they all?) we were pleased to see that we had achieved our aim.
In the past few years we have continued to dote on her with a new windlass, new upper deck paint and non-skid last, solar panels and stainless railings aft last year . This year it is a complete hull paint to match her original colour scheme, white with gold trim.
We are looking forward to many more cruising seasons and maybe a trip back to her home in the future.