SHAMROCK CHANDLERY - WORLDWIDE CRUISING SUPPORT

David Goyder

(There is a fine line between pure advertising and an editorial `plug'. This is neither. David Goyder and Peter Royle of Shamrock Chandlery asked for the chance to describe their WORLDWIDE CRUISING SUPPORT in more detail than a one-page advertisement allowed, and because of its relevance to members cruising further afield the Editorial Committee agreed.)

There are lots of reasons why one buys a business completely different to anything one has ever done before, but in our case it was motivated in part by the disinterest the chandlery trade showed in our problems as we kept our 25-year-old Twister in good order. When, after twenty years in the engineering industry, Shamrock was offered to us last December, we jumped in at the deep end with a secret promise to ourselves that we would do unto others as we wished they had done unto us.

The result has been incredibly fulfilling. People who were originally customers are now becoming friends, and in some cases we feel we are participating in their cruises when we receive postcards, requests for help, and in one case a drawing for a spare part on the back of a Toronto harbour chart. (The skipper knew I used to live there.)

Over the last few months we have formalised this into a service we call WORLDWIDE CRUISING SUPPORT. One of the difficulties faced by long-distance yachtsmen is finding a reliable source of spares and replacement equipment. Many items, even simple ones, can be difficult if not impossible to obtain in many areas of the world, and ordering at a distance from people you don't know is time consuming, frustrating and expensive. We thought we could become the cruising yachtsman's logistics partner away from his or her home port.

So far this year it has been great fun, and more memorable items have included:

- a windlass to Singapore in three days

- Lavac toilet seals to California

- refrigerator spares to a Finnish customer sailing in the Red Sea

- a replacement shower head to the Sultanate of Oman

- a Brookes & Gatehouse paddle wheel to Antigua in two days, with the aid of a motorcycle courier (not all the way of course!)

- a drysuit to Hong Kong to meet a race deadline

- winch and rigging spares to a ship passing through Gibraltar

- pilot books to Tahiti

We have relayed and coordinated messages to and from family and friends, and in a few cases specialist suppliers, and where possible we combine our despatches with those from sailmakers etc to minimise shipping costs.

Quite a number of circumnavigators have fitted out at the Quay using the vast range of marine services in the open yard, and we soon began to wish we had noted down details of their on-board equipment before they sailed. As a result we now ask them to leave us a record of their gear - it makes identifying spares so much easier. Our project this autumn is to update the chandlery's old catalogue, which will become much more a cruising person's spares compendium than a traditional catalogue.

Both Peter and I have plans to circumnavigate ourselves one day. We don't know yet if it will be in Brigand Chief, our Twister, but we do know that one of us will stay behind to handle messages from the other. Then we will at least feel confident that someone reliable and, probably more important, someone who is concerned, will be there to look after our needs as they arise.

(589 words)