Letter from Brian and Sylvia (former owners) 11.08.2007:

Hello again Arne,

I have enjoyed your pictures up to 08/07 on your site. I am not at all surprised that the skipper is 'glad'; he has achieved a first class refit of a traditional boat and has a very beautiful sailing area to enjoy.

I really admire your efforts and I am sure that the Hillyard Association will welcome you as a member and want to know the latest news.

Did you get the only information I could find on the Taylor cabin heater. You seem not to have been given the very thick file of data for all the equipment that I installed plus some drawings of the rig I got from Hillyard in 1981. The file was with the boat in 1996 when she was sold. 

I tryed to get the Vittek website (with the Wilhelmshaven picture) but it is no longer there. I also found the name Vittek in one of my notebooks for 1996, so he must have been the man who bought the boat from us; and apart from fitting a radar seems to have neglected it ever since. I do not have any address.

You have done much more work on her than I did, but she was in very nice condition when we sold. The only thing the surveyor could fault was a suspect deck leak in way of the main mast step.

For the record, and in rough time sequence I did the following: convert from sloop to ketch, fit new heads (toilet) fwd (I used to teach on board as a RYA YM Instructor and we kept the cabin aft as 'ours'), fit echo sounder and log, move helm from aft cockpit bulkhead to fwd, install Thornicroft, renew rotten planks in way of engine exhaust, fit Tayor heater, fit new cooker and fridge, build wheelhouse, x-ray keel bolts  (about 1990, kept in the file), replace original galvanised pipe handrail with stainless steel,  etc, etc

Anything I may be able to tell you, please ask.

We look forward to seeing more  records of your adventures in the log.

All the best and good sailing

Brian