Jan and Elaine Grieveson left the UK in June 2010 aboard their Moody 44 sailboat Mychi, this was the fulfilment of a lifetime dream to just sail away with no destination in mind. Their journey took them through the inland seas of Holland, the French canals and eventually arriving at the Island of Levkas in the South Ionion which for 7 years they used as their Mediterranean base.
There is a large and transient liveaboard community based around Levkas where two of the biggest discussions are battery management systems and anchoring techniques. Once improvements and upgrades are decided upon this inevitably leads to structural changes to individuals yachts to accommodate solar panels and extended bow rollers to “tame” the new breed of anchors such as Rocna, Manson and Spade etc. Jan being a time served welder fabricator with over 25 years experience of running his own engineering business decided to pick up the tools again and built his own solar panel gantry and the associated stainless fabrications for managing the main anchor, the kedge and the dozens of other components to make life easier for the shorthanded cruising lifestyle of Jan and Elaine on Mychi. Of course once word got round Jan became involved in the design and build of many other gantries, passarelles, anchor tamers and sternline management systems for many clients in the liveaboard and cruising communities. In the summer of 2018 Jan and Elaine sailed their yacht Mychi back to the UK via Northern Greece, Italy, Sicily, Corsica and back through the French canals to their home base of Blyth in Northumberland. Jan was in need of another challenge and decided to start a business to bring that hard won stainless welding experience to the cruising community enabling other yacht owners to self design and self fit a solar panel gantry that matches exactly with the unique shape and dimensions of their own yachts whilst maintaining a very high level of quality and finish. This has not been an easy concept to achieve but we are now confident that with our systemised measurement procedures we can get it right first time every time, and let our customers feel proud of owning a safe and aesthetically pleasing design. |
Our Wedding day in Nidri
After 13 years of humming and hahing Jan and Elaine eventually tied the knot in September 2013, the liveaboard community did us proud and decorated their yachts at the ceremony.