So our trip out to Nuremberg went well, many of you will have seen the launch of the V6 DF65 via the medium of Facebook which went well and allowed everyone a really good preview of the new boat as well as getting the inside track on why the changes have been made. You also got to see the elusive Mr Tushingham!

There was some beer consumed and many pork based products eaten and swilled down with more beer. Lots of comedy moments in amongst getting some serious work done with the Joysway engineers.

In all the excitement I completely forgot to take any photos of the new boat, however I did spot the most amazing model of a Mk2 Transit van in British Gas livery. Pretty cool as a model.

We arrived back late Monday after being thwarted 30 miles from home by a disinterested caravan which closed the road home and added nearly 2 hours to the journey.

Since then we’ve been busy catching up and building boats for the first of the DF Racing UK Travellers Trophy events at West Lancs YC which take place this weekend. We are packing the van in the morning and should be there mid afternoon for a little practice!

The shop will be open to take your order and we’ll find some routine again next week all being well.

Well strictly not until tomorrow morning but getting anywhere from where we are based is usually a mammoth task. So today we are taking the van on a 200 mile trip to Yorkshire via Liverpool as we need some supplies and fancy having a brew with the guys who supplied our superb VW T6 Jobl dayvan.

Once in Yorkshire we’ll be transported down the A1 to Stanstead airport with Mr Tushingham to enjoy a few warm up beers before flying out to Nuremberg early Friday morning.

No doubt there will be some photos as we go along, check our Social meeja outlets for updates. 

Obviously the shop www.sochsails.online will be open to take your orders and we will fulfill them as soon as we can upon our return.

So we’ve settled in to life aboard HMS Treehouse and we’ve almost got everything just where we want it which is making production a bit easier. On the production front we are now able to process and ship most orders within 7 days unless we are desperately short of something or we are out of the office……..such as below!

We have a couple of interesting weeks coming up with our annual trip out to the Nuremberg toy fair happening next weekend and the first of the DF Racing TT events happening the weekend after, this, combined with it being my birthday tomorrow means that we will have two short production weeks. Two or three days this week and three days the week after, but we seem to have most of it under control.

In other news there is some light at the end of the RC Laser tunnel and we are hoping to be resupplied within the next two or three weeks with boats and bits, which is great. Whats not so great is the price increases we have had forced upon us by the distributor, some of the smaller items have stayed the same but there are price increases on most items, including boats, sails, masts etc and whilst this isn’t great news it is the first real review that they have done of the pricing for around 5-6 years. We have adjusted our prices accordingly.

On that note it’s that time of year where Sundays involve an open fire and a pint so that’s where I’m off to! Happy Sailing!

Below are a few sails we’ve manufactured and shipped recently and a nice view of the boatyard from the top of a very wobbly manlift basket!

 

So we’ve nearly completed a week of production aboard HMS Treehouse back at the boatyard and it’s been a busy one, albeit a little bit stop start as we continue to get to grips with the new location.  It’s quite nice to be back at the yard and back in the village as we enter our 14th season at the boatyard.

Anyhow, enough reminiscing, here are a couple of photos of some of this weeks work. Hopefully next week will see a full week of production from HMS Treehouse and perhaps a naming ceremony for the good ship!

So nearly two years ago now I kind of had to abandon the Boatyard to look after the family whilst Emily dealt with her Leukaemia treatment. During that time I have built up the Soch Sails business whilst working from a small unit we have out in the back garden.

It has been great, it has allowed me to be close to Emily and Phoebe over the last 12 months and I have very much enjoyed working close to home. However those that know me will know that I’m quite a social sort of a chap and I have missed the interaction with both friends and customers alike.

Emily and I had a chat over Christmas and we have both decided that I should go back to the boatyard. This is great news for both of us, Emily feels ready to be a little more independent and I can get back to the boatyard where I think I belong!

After catching up on our Christmas sail orders over the last week I have taken the last few days to clear out my old office, which incidentally is on a boat, and convert it into a great new sail loft where we can take the Soch Sails brand into 2017 whilst being on hand to deal with the boatyard side of the business and help out when I’m needed.

Top – Office, Bottom – Sail loft with a view

On Monday morning I’ll be jumping in the van and heading to “actual” work which will be something I haven’t done for some time, I’m quite looking forward to it. You can get me on the office number 01758 713900, my mobile 07884 078098, by email and you can visit the shop and place an order there.

Happy 2017!

So a little belatedly “Merry Christmas” to you all!

Whilst trying to have some time off over the festive period it has come to light that I’m not really a time off sort of a chap so I’m sort of back at work now. We’ve made a couple of suits of sails today and goat an order of two DF95’s ready to deliver tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow I’m off to Southport and the West Lancs YC to race my IOM which has become a little neglected of late. The forecast looks great so I’m quite looking forward to some sailing time with some good buddies.

Then we’ll be back to work again on Wednesday and we’ll keep making stuff until we get bored or decide that we do need to spend some time with the family…probably Friday. Then it’ll be New Year and we’ll be back to it on Tuesday 3rd January.

So I guess it just remains for me to say a huge thank you to all those who have Chosen Soch Sails for their DF Racing yacht, it is a huge honour to have supplied skippers across the globe with our products and we hope to continue supplying customers old and new with what we do.

We have some exciting new products to offer in 2017 so keep an eye on our website here and our shop www.sochsails.online which is always open to take your order.

We hope you enjoy your festive holiday and we’ll see you all in the New Year.

Cheers

Tim.

Sober as a judge…..honest!

Ok so the chubby elf has been beavering away at Soch Sails HQ helping you guys to deliver Christmas for yourselves and your loved ones. So far we are doing well however it seems that Royal Mail are about to throw a spanner in the works. 

They are set to strike for several days next week which means that deliveries will be affected across the U.K. 

With this in mind the chubby elf will be burning the midnight oil to get all UK orders manufactured and shipped on or before Friday 16th which will hopefully get orders into the system and delivered promptly for Crimbob.

This applies to orders placed before the end of tomorrow, 13th December. Overseas orders will be manufactured in accordance with our current lead time of around 3 weeks. The chances are we will do some posting between Christmas and New Year before returning to a normal schedule in early 2017.

Sorry for any inconvenience, however it’s not something we can do anything about.

Meantime here’s a couple of pictures of some of our Christmas offerings so far !

An order for a group of DF65 skippers in Miami.

Some deck patch sets.

Some DF95 sails

Some DF65 sails

Some sticker sets bound for Bermuda…

Evening folks, we’ve never really been able to compete with the box movers in the model world however we think we have nailed a unique selling point that might make you think about buying a new DF65 from us.

We’ve got a box of four shiny new DF65’s, the latest model of course, and because it’s not far off Christmas we thought we should offer you a bit of a special deal…….so here it is,

Buy the boat inc radio for £154.00 and get a Soch Sails A suit in your colours along with a half length sticker set for free.

So to recap, spend £154.00, get £40.00 of free stuff, no catches, its a simple as that.

And because it’s nearly Crimbo we’ll ship it to anywhere in the UK for free. Discount code is on the product page.

Click the link here and buy one right now!

This offer is only open to UK customers, for you guys abroad we’ll have something for you in a week or two.

Just in case you need reminding what you’ll get, here’s a picture.

Pick your own colours for sails and stickers, we’ll do the rest!

Morning Folks, another great day here, lots going on, weather not great but hey ho, could be worse.  Some reasonably serious news this morning involving shipping costs for the goodies that you buy from our shop.

We have always had great faith in our own Royal Mail service, something that doesn’t change, our UK parcels always seem to arrive within 24 – 48 hours, even to remote destinations like Shetland, which is pretty cool if you ask me.

However over the last couple of months we have seen an increasing number of overseas parcels going missing, which is something that we find rather annoying as it then requires us to remake the order and resend it at our cost. Perhaps it is our own fault for not sending parcels on a tracked and signed service, however up until now we haven’t seen it as a necessity. We now find ourselves in a situation where we feel that it is sensible to only send overseas shipments using tracked and signed services thus giving you guys some extra peace of mind when you place an order with us.

Once shipped you will be sent confirmation along with a tracking number to allow you to keep a beady eye on where your parcel is. When it arrives with you there may be a requirement for a signature.

Hopefully this will alleviate the problems we have had recently and whilst we appreciate it is an increased cost for you, it is also an increased cost for us and we feel that we must, unfortunately pass this cost on which we hope you can understand from a customer service point of view. Check out the details on the Ordering page

I’m not sure if I was born on a Thursday or not, but today is Thursday and judging by my performance at last weekends DF95 Nationals I really do have far to go! Having finally thawed out and caught up on some orders I’m sat in front of a roaring fire with five minutes to spare so I thought I’d tell you about last weekend…..

After a six hour slog across the country on Friday afternoon I arrived at the lake to find that practice was over and I was late for the pub, never a great start. Van prepped for the after pub slumber I promptly started consumption of Stongbow’s finest “Dark Fruit” cider at a rate on knots. By closing time there was concern about the following evenings supply of both red wine and cider, with orders for both lodged with the landlady.

Saturday dawned to a breezy and chilly outlook and with breakfast taken care of at the lakeside the 34 competitors lined up for a photo to capture the mood at this historic event.

Photo by Sue Brown

The first race of the first ever DF95 Nationals and blammo, the very spangly GBR 99 took the win, could this be the amazing event I had dreamed of the night before in a cider infused sleep?……..no…..no it wasn’t.  By mid afternoon I was cold, unable to trim my rig and I couldn’t for the life of me overstand or even lay the windward mark.

Photo by Sue Brown

Finishing the day in 17th I exited stage left and began another cider related evening which I figured couldn’t hurt too much. After a  lot of food I had to admit defeat at 2130 and retired to the van for some cheese related dreams. I dreamt that it got really cold and all the air went out of the airbed…wait….it wasn’t a dream and I awoke from under my 13.5 tog duvet to some serious frost on the ground, however more importantly there was rain forecast to accompany the now biting wind.

My day started much the same as I left off on Saturday but colder. Towards the end I managed to win another A fleet race but after that my talent had clearly gone back to the van to warm up and I languished in the midfleet for the rest of the day.

At the end of the event I recorded a “must try harder” 15th from 34 competitors, which was just above mid fleet but it could have been so different. More time on the water was the outcome of the four hour de brief on the journey home.

Despite my own result I had an epic weekend, catching up with some now really great friends as well as making new ones who we’ll catch up with again before too long. The venue at Lincoln MYC is superb, with Mick, Darin and the team continuing to improve the facility at Scotland Farm. Thanks to everyone who made the event happen, giving up their own event to help make ours better.

The full results are available on the DF Racing website and there are a whole heap more of Sue Browns excellent photos available here.

As usual the shop is ready to take your order for DF and RC Laser related goodies. We will have some RC Laser news next week, unfortunately not all good, with the supply of some items a little on the thin side until the new year.