Boats previously owned by the Lanes:-

‘Sindri’ - Hooked on sailing in the early ‘70s, Nick & Jane bought their first boat ‘Sindri’ in 1974. She was a Norwegian designed & built 22ft wooden double-ended Bermudan Sloop. This was kept mainly in Dartmouth & Falmouth between 1974 and 1984. The biggest voyage of note that we undertook in her was from Falmouth – Brittany – Falmouth in 1983.

‘Foxy Lady’ – Foxy Lady, a 33ft converted ship’s lifeboat motor-sailor was purchased in Birkenhead in 1977 intended as a larger replacement for Sindri to accommodate the growing family which with the additions of Ben (‘76) and Jenna (’77) now numbered 4 . It became apparent that she wasn’t really suitable for the trips Nick was thinking up for the family, and she was sold on (see link to Foxy Lady in Bangor , North Wales ).

In 1980 the family extended to 5 with the arrival of ‘Charlie’ and it was clear that Sindri would have to be replaced if Nick and Jane were to realise their dreams of Ocean passages. After several years of viewings boats of many different sizes, rigs and materials, ‘Penlena’ was discovered in Kent in 1986.

‘Penlena’ – The 1948 wooden 37ft Reg Freeman designed (built by ‘Hayes’ in Benfleet , Lee on Sea) Bermudan Sloop Penlena was discovered in 1986 sitting on the hard in a Kent boatyard (Upnor). She belonged to an octogenarian Brigadier whose diminishing health meant he could no longer maintain her to the level to which she had become accustomed. In no state to be sailed to the family’s Falmouth mooring, she was loaded onto a lorry and given a police escort to travel down to the Gweek boatyard (Nr Helston, Cornwall) where over the next 3 years she would be restored by Nick in preparation for an Atlantic circuit (link to this voyage not yet built).

‘Gunna’ – After 3 years of searching for a replacement for the original ‘Penlena’, following the family’s mid Atlantic capsize & dismasting, Gunna was found in Brighton Marina where she’d been impounded by Customs. She was bought by way of sealed bid auction. The family sailed her from Brighton to the mooring they’d kept in Falmouth in time for the 1994 Falmouth Classics. She was kept here, and in Coombe Creek near Truro until such time we were ready to have her restored.