SigneT 585
By Allan Pemberton | 1 January 2020
Way back in 1987 a very dear friend of mine invited me and my then girlfriend up to the Lake District for a holiday. The plan was to do a bit of sailing on his recently acquired boat ‘Honey Bee’. This was to be my first time sailing, he assured me that it would be okay as he had done a bit of sailing as a child..hmm. After setting up the tents we started to set up the boat, this turned out to be a bit of a mission. After a lot of head scratching we managed to get it rigged…ish and set off from the north end of Lake Windermere and set sail to Bowness which is about 4miles as the crow flies. After a lot of boat handling issues, much shouting and many 360’s the decision was taken have a rethink and try again the next day. This turned out to be a wise decision, after a fair bit of bit of ‘monkey see monkey do’ self instruction we made there and back safely and this was to be the start of my addiction to sailing. Since then I have owned 1 Tasar 1 Laser 4 Enterprises. Unfortunately after a long illness my friend passed away. Honey Bee had been left unused for many years and was in a bad state of repair when I volunteered to carry out a sympathetic restoration to which I readily agreed. After towing her home from North Yorkshire to Sussex it became clear this would be a little more involved than I first thought.
The deck was beyond repair as was the mast gate, mast foot, thwart, and centreboard case, in addition buoyancy tank walls had become detached from the hull. It was then I decided to contact the SigneT class association to seek any advice they could give me regarding plans parts availability etc. The response was very positive especially when I gave the boat name and sail number ‘Honeybee 585’. I had no idea up until this point It had crossed the English Channel and won the class championship.
The first step of the renovation was to construct some frames to support the hull maintaining its shape before removing the deck as this would weaken the structural integrity. The first job was to sand back, re-attach and fibreglass all failed seams around the tanks and centreboard case. After removing the deck and sanding back all the inside of all the buoyancy tanks it was time give the internal surfaces and seams a coat of epoxy. Once done I replaced all the knees and the inner tank rails. Next was the bow tank bulkhead and the cross member the supports the foredeck. Then it was time to cut out the new deck panels from some reassuringly expensive ‘Super Elite+ Marine Plywood’ as supplied by Robbins Timber. The new deck was glued on with thickened epoxy. It was very rewarding to see her back on the road to recovery. A new rubbing strake was fitted and inner side deck rails. Finally it was time to give her a good rub down and a coat of epoxy (to protect the wood) and then many coats of varnish to protect the epoxy from UV. The new mast step, mast gate, centreboard capping and thwart were fitted to complete the hull. It was now time to flip it over to sand back the undersides and apply nice new coats of paint of which there were many. The Honeybee logo was to be left as is. With the hard work done it was time to refit the hardware and replace all the running rigging, the standing rigging was left as is.
Sadly by the time the work was completed the owner explained that both the kids had left home and the boat was no longer required but she would like it to be passed on to a young family to begin the next chapter of its life. I am pleased to say the she was delighted to learn that a pervious class champion had taken ownership to introduce the joy of sailing to the children and maybe go for another championship.
Fair winds Mark and Caroline Hollamby SigneT 585.