Balaton

THE BALATON 18 GROUP

The Balaton Group is one of the most recently formed groups within SAMM, September 2011, and owes it´s existence to the generosity of a past SAMM member Peter Sharpington who offered a boat to SAMM for a modest sum, which included a payment of 500€ to the Paul Cunningham Nurses charity.

The boat is a Balaton 18S, a 5.48 metre (18ft) sloop built in Hungary in 1977. She carries 8.06sqM of sail, main and furling jib, has tiller steering, a 4 hp outboard and a small cabin. She is easily sailed by two but will comfortable take four and has 4 small berths and a chemical toilet so can be used for overnight trips provided picnics are taken as there are no galley facilities. She is kept on a swinging mooring at Los Alcázares and is a great little vessel for those who enjoy “messing about in boats”, but we will also be competing in the SAMM race series.

As SAMM does not own boats it was decided that a new Group should be formed and 16 people expressed an interest in joining, but this gradually reduced to 11 who proceeded to sign up. In addition to the monies requested by Peter the boat needed some TLC, including new anti-foul and some rigging as she had lain idle for over a year plus a new mooring and insurance. The group membership fee was therefore set at 350€ plus an extra 100€ as the Part Annual Fee for 2011 to cover all the costs.

One of the group, Carol Sibson, previously owned the boat and generously offered to pay for a complete repainting provided the hull was returned to the original dark blue and the boat returned to her original name of “Conny”. The other group members gratefully accepted the offer.

 

 

 

By 23rd November 2011 the repainting and anti-fouling was completed and the boat returned to the water and on the 28th November she was moved to her new mooring at Los Alcázares.

 

 

 

A waiting list for potential new members is available and interested parties should speak to one of the members or can email to julianpering@live.co.uk