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a pummelling of this force was also bound to have cracked several of Leonie’s strengthening frames. Vliho advised us to contact our insurance company. Three boats had been moored
to the quay, bows to, and rafted to each other. Their bow lines snapped and the yachts, with Leonie in the middle, swung away from the quay and repeatedly crashed into each other. The hurricane raged for an hour
and was too fierce for any attempts to be made to rescue the stricken yachts until it had blown itself out. stuck in england, we felt helpless.
We contacted our insurers, Haven Knox, immediately. Their response was swift and nine days later an assessor had visited Leonie. His report confirmed storm damage, stating that all three boats had been ‘violently thrown against each other.’ We had two estimates for repair,
one from a Greek-run boatyard on the island and another from english shipwright, Bob Phelps, based
Carl attaching a strop to the mast so the crane could low- er it prior to moving into the shed at Aktio Marina.
on the mainland at Preveza, who quoted €15,000. Although Bob’s quote came in at €2,000 more than the Greek yard he was recommended by the surveyor as a wooden boat specialist.
Seeing our fractured yacht with our own eyes was heartbreaking.
Haven Knox said they would be
prepared to agree to Bob carrying out the work should we choose to appoint him. We took their advice. Worse things happen and no-one
family and friends in the uK and we were grateful to generous pals for welcoming us to stay with them but we missed own home, Leonie, and our lifestyle in the Med. Thankfully we had chosen a good
insurance company which, without any quibbles, agreed to foot the cost of the repair bill. Bob said the work would take six to eight weeks and he would start in May so we decided, as my work contract had ended and we had already bought one-way tickets to Greece, that we would fly to the Med on May 8 as planned. We were desperate to see Leonie for ourselves and to be around when the repair was being carried out. We booked into a cheap
Carl steers the ship with 18-month-old Logan.
had died but we were pretty gutted at the severity of the damage. It was great to spend time with
apartment on Lefkas for five weeks and the day after arriving visited Leonie at Aktio Marina. seeing our fractured yacht with our own eyes was heartbreaking. To our dismay we discovered work had not started and was unlikely to until June. It was the busiest time of year for the yard, with yachts being
View of Atkio, Cleopatra and Ionian Marinas’ from Preveza.
Shipwright Bob Phelps and his son Coby working on Leonie.
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