News & Events
June 2007
22nd June 2007
Personal Everest - As we are in the middle of our park and launch season some people may forget that we still look after yachts. Today we have had a visit from a very special yacht...well more of a trimaran really. At just 15 feet long this boat is being sailed around the coastline of Britain by disabled yachtsman Geoff Holt. After having trouble with the support rib, Geoff and his shore crew have spent nearly a week in Abersoch. With the upcoming Squib Nationals taking up all the spare moorings it was decided that Geoffs Trimaran was better off out of the water and what better place to keep it than a boatyard, and it just so happens that we have one of those and were able to help! Hopefully Geoff will be on his way tomorrow morning and he will be making his way around to Morfa Nefyn before going on to Holyhead and then the Isle of Man.
Follow Geoffs progress here, and good luck to all involved.
The 15 foot Challenger Trimaran
Visit Geoffs website and keep up to date with his progress.
One of Geoffs shorecrew giving an idea of scale.
18th June 2007
How to beat the traffic jams - With the popularity of Abersoch always on the increase and lots of roadworks on the roads down here you might be thinking of a different mode of transport to ease your journey to the coast. Why not try one of these? Photo courtesy of Minxpix
The newly opened Abersoch Heliport!
18th June 2007
Fluffy News - Although it might seem that here at the boatyard we are all about big cranes, tractors and other big stuff, we do have a soft and fluffy side too! The picture below is of the recently hatched cygnets with mum and dad having a day out on the river. They have been around now for a week or so and they all seem to be doing well. The swans come to the Afon Soch each year to have their young and they are usually around for a month or so before leaving. Photo courtesy of Minxpix
Cygnets on the Afon Soch
15th June 2007
Wakeboarding - Its not every day that you get asked to run a chaseboat for top class photographers to do a photoshoot for a wakeboard magazine. So when I was asked to go out and watch three of the worlds best wakeboarders do their thing I figured it would be rude to refuse! Jonty Green, Ben Hitch and Jonny Farley were the three riders, and they really can ride well, with two of the three having won Wakestock in past years it really was an honour to be able to watch these guys do some freeriding. Conditions weren't great, we suffered a torrential downpour midway through the session, and apparently there wasnt enough light but many photos were taken and everyone had a great time. Photos courtesy of Minxpix
Jonty Green riding, Frazer Waller with the camera & Tim driving
Jonty Green doing a whirly roundy flippy trick thing!
14th June 2007
Its here - The first Weekend Boating Timcast has been posted. Although not a definitive guide to the weather it should be reasonably accurate and allow you to plan your weekend before you even set off! Click here to find out more.
11th June 2007
NEW FEATURE - COMING SOON -We have decided to add a new feature to our website. We are unsure of a name for it yet but it will be a weekly weather post, usually posted on a Thursday, and it will feature a boating forecast for the weekend.........with a difference. You'll know it when it arrives! Check back this Thursday for the first weekend forecast. Click here for more details
7th June 2007
Launching Regulations - Whilst we have been busy launching yachts over the last couple of months we have also been talking to the nice new beach patrol man who has dropped of lots of leaflets and registration forms for us to hand out. As a Park & Launch customer you will need to fill out the forms and send them off for your registration numbers, along with a cheque for £14. Just so you know what the regulations are for Power vessels around the Gwynedd coastline we have posted them below, along with a map of what you should be doing on and around the beaches of Abersoch.
It is essential that everyone registers, as there has been talk of the council charging each boat a £50 fee each time they launch, and this would include boats on Park & Launch schemes within the village. Forms are available from Tim at the yard.
A Map of Abersoch Beaches. We launch from the beach where the RNLI is situated.
Regulations in black & white, well black & purple!
May 2007
24th May 2007
Event Number One - Two events that are happening reasonably soon.. The Abersoch Lifeboat are having their annual open day on Friday June 1st. You can come along and meet the crew of the boat, look around the boat and also get involved with all the other things that will be going on. For more information visit the Abersoch Lifeboat website.
Event Number Two - Whilst not directly involved with Abersoch, the South Wales Boatshow is taking place in mid June at Margam Park near Swansea. Rally fans will know all about Margam Park from years gone by and the RAC Rally. In its second year now the South Wales Boatshow has attracted over 100 exhibitors for the 2007 event. Rib-X will be there showing off some new and exciting boats. Dates are as follows 15th - 17th June. Check out the website for more details
23rd May 2007
New Workshop Complete - After a month of building works we have finally completed our new rib workshop. There are still one or two items such as lights and air lines to put in to make the place more user friendly, but we have begun the build of a Rib-X XP575 in the nice new clean environment! We have put a few pictures below.
New Engine Hoist Facility
All the bits for a rib ready to go....apart from the boat....obvoiusly!
Look at how tidy it is!
11th May 2007
Rib-X in the press..........again - Rib-X have delivered a new Explorer 650 Lux to the bods at Sportsboat & Rib Magazine. They have kindly reviewed the boat for us as well. See what they thought of it here.
A Rib-X XP650 Lux......nice isn't it!
11th May 2007
Harbour Project, Take Three - This weekend sees the return of the Harbour Project for its third year. Now run within the inner harbour and towed by winches rather than jetskis it is a much nicer and viewer friendly affair. There are some excellent riders coming down for the event which promises to be the best yet. Sim Bradley from Alliance UK has been busy knocking together planks of wood and perspex in a very A-Team way in our shed. We are not sure what he is making but apparently it will be excellent! As the forecast for the weekend doesn't look great why not come an take a look at these talented riders.
This WILL hurt when he lands!
6th May 2007
Weather Finally Breaks - After what seems like months of fantastic weather it has finally taken a turn for the worse with strong winds and lots of cloud. There is promise of more unsettled weather for the next few days, but I suppose it wouldn't be a Bank Holiday weekend without at least some bad weather!
6th May 2007
Alliance Mastercraft Arrives - At last, the long awaited Alliance UK Mastercraft has arrived. Mastercraft GB have kindly lent the Alliance bods a 2006 X Star which looks really rather nice in plain black. The real Alliance boat will be here soon and is due to be a 2006 X2, which we think is a bit mean really! We will have some photos soon.
5th May 2007
Delivery with a difference - One of our customers came to collect his new Ocean Kayak and had a novel way of transporting it to the beach. He has offered to run a delivery service for us so watch this space!!
Delivery with a difference!
April 2007
26th April 2007
New Floor Installed - Following the last item of news we have now finished putting the extension to the mezzanine floor in. "Upstairs" as it will be known will soon be shelved out and will give us a vastly improved amount of storage. The resulting workshop underneath will become a small showroom and Rib workshop.
Look at all that space!
24th April 2007
New Floor Takes Shape - Not to be outdone by improvements to other village businesses and to cope with increased Rib-X sales and builds, we are currently constructing an extension to our existing mezzanine floor. This will give us increased storage capacity and allow us to stock more items such as our range of Ocean Kayaks and some general chandlery items which will be available to the public. Tim Long, operations director said "I am pleased with the progress that is being made. Hopefully by the early May bank holiday the new rib workshop will be fully operational and combined with a huge and long overdue tidy up around the yard we will be ready for the summer season, making the place even better for our customers."
I am sure there was a wall there once?!
CAUTION MAN AT WORK!!
14th April 2007
Warm Enough? - Our trusty thermometer has been working overtime for the past few weeks so we decided to put him outside today and he has recorded a whopping 35 degrees c. The purist weather forecasters will doubtless be saying you are supposed to measure the temperature in the shade, however we rarely get to work in the shade!
Why holiday abroad when its as warm as this in Wales!?!
6th April 2007
Summer Opening Hours - With the Easter weekend now upon us we are now open 7 days a week until the end of October. We will be open from
Weekdays and Saturday - 9am - 6pm
Sunday - 10am - 6pm
For enquiries about any of our product ranges or services please call Tim on 01758 713900 or email him.
5th April 2007
Goodbye Landy, Hello Paj! - Our faithful boatyard landrover will be going on holiday shortly for a well earned rest. Whilst the landrover is away you will see us trundling around the North Wales countryside in a nice Mitsubishi. Just so you know its us we have put a photo below!
Meet Mr Paj, our new Japanese friend!
2nd April 2007
Mastercraft is the Official Wakestock Towboat - It has now been confirmed that Mastercraft GB have struck a deal with Wakestock to tow the event for the next couple of years. We are unsure of the exact boat that will be here to tow the event but in the meantime the boys from Alliancewake UK are letting us drool over, sorry look after their 2006 X2 which should arrive very soon from Mastercraft HQ.
An X2 in its natural habitat
March 2007
31st March 2007
The Kayak Man Cometh! - We now have our shiny new stock of Ocean Kayaks. They arrived yesterday evening and as you can see from the pictures below we have quite a few! As you can see from one picture Ocean Kayaks reps make great paddlers but rubbish drivers! Remember that Ocean Kayaks start from just £249.00 including a paddle!
Is it Christmas?
More shiny new Ocean Kayaks
The wall was always going to win!
27th March 2007
Ocean Kayak Arrives in Abersoch - We are pleased to announce that we are now official Ocean Kayak agents for Abersoch and the surrounding area. We will be taking delivery of our first stock of kayaks this weekend. Take a look at our Ocean Kayak page to see what these exciting kayaks have to offer. Click here to go to our Ocean Kayak page.
23rd March 2007
End of a mixed weather week - What started out as a very cold and windy week with huge tides has nearly ended with calm seas and sunny intervals. I have posted some photos below of the low tide in Abersoch and in Pwllheli marina.
Low tide Abersoch
Entrance to Pwllheli Marina
Is there really any water in the channel?!?
21st March 2007
First Launch! - With the weather being so horrible over the last few days and the onward forecast looking sketchy at best, we took the opportunity today to get our first sailing boat away. Moonshine was launched under clear blue skies and virtually no wind whatsoever! We don't think that this weather will continue for very long so we are making the most of it!
20th March 2007
Website updates - The more observant of you will have noticed that the Rib-X section of our website has changed. This was due to a slight technical error on Tims part....he pressed the wrong button and erased the whole Rib-X section of the site. We have now rebuilt part of the section and have tried to make it a bit more user friendly. Not all the information is back up there at the moment but we will sort it out as soon as we can.
Click here to see the new Rib-X section
6th March 2007
Park & Launch 2007 - Due to a number of existing customers dropping out from our 2007 Park & Launch service, we have a small number of spaces available to new customers. Contact Tim for more details.
February 2007
20th February 2007
Flooding.......again!! - It dawned on us this morning that there can't be that many people who get flooded as often as we do. With slightly lower pressure than yesterday, the 5.3m tide this morning actually marooned us in the shed! As you can see from the photos it is a glorious morning here and with very little wind around we were again quite lucky that it wasn't a lot worse!
Nearly up to the workshop door
MAROONED! - The view from the side door
The wall of water during a surge
January 2007
27th January 2007
Das Boot Show - No not a show all about submarines, but the Dusseldorf Boatshow. Having flown over to Germany Tim is again taking the time to see whats hot and whats not for 2007 at the biggest indoor show in Europe. Tim has been taking a good look around the Delphia boats and also their competitors and he reckons that they really are good value. He has also been looking at the really big boats and was amazed at how small some of the boats looked. To see what he means take a look at the photos below, then look at the other boats around, than look at the size of the people....staggering isn't it! Having taken as much in as possible Tim has a top tip. Whatever you do, please do not buy the Seacamper 810.
A big boat
"Darling, I've bought a boat, nothing too big", what is quite scary is the fact that the flybridge Princess in the foreground is actually 60'long!
Captions to Tim please (Bear in mind it's his dad in the photo)
Awesome!
23rd January 2007
Bet you are all getting bored with these updates?!?! - Whilst trawling the web during my lunch break I came accross an excellent video compilation of the boatshow made by Sim Bradley of Alliance wakeboard magazine. It is a quick and light hearted look at what was hot in the world of wakeboarding and boating at the show. If you look closely you might even see Tim working hard! Follow this link and wait for the download! I think that there might be another part to this coming soon!
23rd January 2007
Website Update - At last, we now have dedicated pages for both Rib-X Ribs and Delphia Yachts. Each page gives some details of each range and each boat within together with some prices and great early season bargains. To get to them either go to the boat and engine sales page or click on one of the logos above which will take you straight to your page of choice. Dedicated pages for the rest of our portfolio will follow soon so keep checking back to the site......you wouldn't want to miss out would you!
19th January 2007
Boat Show Video - For all of you that didn't make it to London for the boatshow, the nice people at Cowes Online have produced a video of the good the bad and the ugly boats at the show. There is even a nice short piece about the new Delphia 33. Take a look here, it does take a while to download even with broadband, but its a good way to spend 5 minutes whilst your boss isn't looking!
18th January 2007
Windiest Day So Far - We are still experiencing very nasty weather here in Abersoch at the moment.We have had a 62mph gust recorded in the middle of the village, so what it is like out by the islands is really anybodys guess! Since the beginning of the month there has only one day when the wind was less than a force 5. Consequently any wind less than 30mph is now considered a light breeze! I will try and grab some photos, but to be honest I am having trouble standing up! The wind is due to ease somewhat over the next 24hours but with spring tides approaching we are gearing up for a damp week ahead!
14th January
Rib-X Exige - Rib-X have unveiled their latest creation, the Exige 757. This bespoke boat has been built for a client in the Channel Islands and will be delivered by sea in early March. Colin Baldwin, Rib-X MD said "We are extremely proud as a company to offer this bespoke range of boats, and this particular boat has been very well received at the show. We can offer any spec and colour combinations combined with your favourite engine! Most of the boat has been produced in the UK, the tubes have been produced by Henshaws, we have designed and built the console, A frame, spashwell and seats ourselves and the trimming has been done by Mastertrim in Cannock." Available from 7.5m to 10.5m and priced from £39,990.00 we expect to be producing a number of these boats over the coming months.
Exige 757
New Stainless Jockey Seats
New Exige Triple Rear Seat
So for more details on this and all the other ranges of Rib-X craft give Tim a call at the yard.
10th January 2007
Dealer News - For 2007 we have been appointed dealers for Ocean Kayaks, the original sit on top kayak. Prices start at £249.00 for the single seat Yak Sport which is much cheaper than others on the market. We will also be agents for Humminbird Marine electronics, who are the world leaders in fishfinding equipment. They have now brought out a range of chart plotters that are compatable with the Navionics chart cartridges, and can be combined with the fishfinder range as well. More details of the full range of Ocean Kayaks and Humminbird electronics will be coming soon.
7 th January 2007
Abersoch Boatyard Services Ltd Appointed Delphia Yacht Agents for North Wales, North West England and The Lakes
We are pleased to announce that we have been officially appointed as the Delphia Yacht Agents for North Wales , North West England and The Lakes. The Delphia range encompasses six models from 24 feet in length up to 40 feet.
Many models in the range are available with a lifting keel option and all are very well equipped as standard. The most popular model in the range at present is the 29 lift keel and Delphia UK have recently introduced two new models, the 28 and the 33 which has been officially launched to the UK market at the London Boatshow.
We will be working closely with Preston Marina again, who will be helping us cover our developing sales and service commitments in the top half of the North West and The Lakes.
Abersoch Boatyard Services MD Tim Long said, “We are pleased to be able to offer this quality brand and feel that we have now got a full range of products to compliment our ever growing business. With their competitive pricing, quality finish and great performance we are confident that we can promote and grow the Delphia brand to good effect in the area.”
We will be posting more details about the Delphia range shortly, however if you can't wait take a look at www.delphia-yachts.co.uk for more information.
7th January 2007
London Boatshow - Tim has been working hard at the show so far and he has even managed to get some photos of the Rib-X stand so you can see some of the new developments and new boats for 2007.
650 Lux
New console and Lux upholstry
Rib-X Stand
3rd January 2007
London Boatshow - Tim will be at the London Boatshow (dressed smartly for a change) for the duration of the show. He will be on the Rib-X stand and also the Mastercraft stand which are both located in the south hall and back onto each other. So if you are at the show and would like to see Tim in some smart clothes and buy him a pint of Guinness or two, pop along to either of the two stands and say hello.
Rib-X will be showing three boats on the stand, including an Expert 520, an Explorer 650 Lux and an Exige 757, which is one of the new bespoke boats from Rib-X.
We are unsure at this time what Mastercraft will be exhibiting, however we do know that there are at probably going to be six boats, including the UK debut of the new CSX range, a Maristar 280, a Prostar 190, an X45, X-Star and an X1.
December 2006
21st December 2006
Christmas - We are now closed for Christmas and New Year and will re-open again on Wednesday 3rd January 2007. Tim will be in and out of the yard most days over this period so if you need to contact us, just drop us a line either by email or phone and Tim will get back to you. We would also like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a Jolly New Year, from all of us at the yard.
12th December 2006
New Years Day Sea Dip - Tim has been nominated by the lifeboat crew to throw himself into the sea at midday on new years day on the main beach. This event is a fancy dress affair and Tim would like some ideas for a costume for the event. E mail suggestions here and please give heaps of cash as it all goes towards the running of the lifeboat station in the village.....even better throw yourself into the sea with the rest of us.
7th December 2006
Stormy weather continues. After at least a month of frankly rubbish weather it appears that the end may be in sight. As you can see from the photos below there was an awesome storm surge that has pushed the tide into the yard until at least 2 hours after high tide. Whilst this isn't the biggest tide we have had, it was alarming to see just how fast the water was flowing during some of the surges. Forecasts are varied at the moment but the wind is likely to drop on Monday and we may even see some sunshine!
Not quite up to the new house......yet!
5th December 2006
Bad Parking! It seems that someone across the river is trying to escape the big tides we have been experiencing over the last couple of days.....I don't think that this will catch on!!
5th December 2006
New Service for 2007. In answer to some of our Park & Launch customers, we have decided to offer a longer season. The Park & Launch GOLD SERVICE will run from 6th April until 30th September 2007. Spaces for this new service are strictly limited to 10 boats on a first come first served basis. Regular Park & Launch will run from 28th April until 16th September 2007. We still have a few spaces left so contact us for more details and prices for the 2007 season.
1st December 2006
New website. If you hadn't already noticed we now have a new website, designed by Tim. If you think we are missing something from the site or you have any comments please contact Tim at the yard.