We went to visit Ettrick in Gibraltar on December 2001.
The owner did really nice work in the accomodation, she's great inside, I'd
like to live aboard this one, but the systems needed work.Marseille, August 22, 2003
Hello Jim,
I take a few minutes today to give you our story of the search for the Mentor and send you pictures of Mentor's sisters and other fleet tenders we visited between 09/2001 and 02/2002, when we finally decided to buy Mentor...
We went to visit Ettrick in Gibraltar on December 2001.
The owner did really nice work in the accomodation, she's great inside, I'd
like to live aboard this one, but the systems needed work.
We went to Plymouth to see Plymouth Ship Brokerage, where we visited another one, not a Manly class. Sorry, I don't remember the name and did not take any pictures, maybe it was the Bibury, for sale at about 80 000£. Vessel was interesting because of the many possibilities to do "what we wanted" inside, but we did not have 6-8 months to do all that.
Also saw Manly in Cadiz in February 2002, when coming from Falmouth to
Marseille with Mentor. Amazing for us that the sisters make a last goodbye.
Story heard in Cadiz was that the people who bought her went to Morocco and
tried to come back with drugs... Vessel was then seized by Spanish Customs
and seemed to be abandoned on the Customs wharf when we saw her.
I also saw Milbrook (seeing 3 of 4 [of the Manly class] in a few months was
nice) in June
2002 in Almeria, while I was looking for a sailing boat.
Mentor was finally the "winner" because the seller had all the information,
books, and drawings regarding the vessel and all the history of her life and
maintenance.
She had been already fully equiped for diving charter, was almost clean (we discovered the dust under the paint and all the "little" technical problems only after arrival in Marseille !). Everything has been done in 2002 and now she can cruise really safely and comfortably.
I love this boat. The company decided to sell her recently because of a change in projects; Mentor is not the problem. See www.waw.com/mentor.
Hope these lines and pictures will be appreciated.
Best regards
Xavier
Text and photos courtesy of Xavier, except Milbrook photo, JLW.