This blog is about our home from home, floating class room, life support machine and solace from storms (not just of the meteorological kind!).

'Canopus', who is named after the second brightest star in the sky, is a UK flagged, EU residing, 1993 Marine Projects Plymouth-built Moody 44. Hailing from Dartmouth, she spends her time these days in Preveza in Greece.

Atfer years of procrastinating about a family boat, and plenty of dreamy boat show trips, we set our hearts on finding a 90's medium displacement boat for the ability to upgrade to our specifications within our budget and the reassurance of having plenty of fibreglass thickness. The layout and centre cockpit design of the Moodys of the era caught our eye and the hunt began.

In truth, we saw quite a few boats - Moody 44s, 38s, 425s, a stunning Hallberg Rassy 42e, a gorgeous 44 and an out of budget Sunbeam 44 (one for retirement?). None were right for a variety of reasons - usually condition, price or layout. Through the winter UK boat hunting, trudging through the rain to see yet another wet UK boat, we made the decision to broaden the search to the Med.  On a cold and wet weekend before Christmas, I received a call from V, on a sun-soaked veranda near Barcelona, Aperol Spritz in hand. The boat she had gone to see was broken (the broker had failed to identify the tell-tale signs of a grounded keel and resulting cracked centre box!) but there was a lot to be said for the environment and a hunt for a Med-based boat was on.  

A month later, a visit by V to see 2 Moody 44s in Preveza, lots of photos taken and offer made.... By March Canopus was ours - totally unseen by me!

Canopus is a little rough around the edges, a few leaks (nothing that serious) but a solid hull. We have spent the last months upgrading all the safety equipment, new through-hulls throughout, replaced electronics (new Garmin throughout), replaced standing rigging and a load of running rigging, a new feather stream propellor and added water maker, hydrovane and hydro generator. In addition, we have added a plethora of communications kit on board - including Iridium Skylink.

Whilst we have done a lot ourselves, we could not have done this at distance without the support of the superb Konstantinos at M-Tech. Konstantinos is a problem solver, pragmatic, reliable, communicative and an awesome mechanic - I cannot rate him and his team more highly. An absolute legend!

In time, I will try to update this section with more technical insight to the various elements of the boat - electronics, communications, electrical distribution, etc etc. If there is anything you want to know then please just add into the comments!

Thanks and stay safe!