Les told us “Beryl and I bought the Noelex 25-“Skidmark “ in 1999, the year before I retired. Prior to that I had sailed dinghies and Beryl and I raced a Noelex 22 for about 18 years.

We have primarily used “Skidmark” for cruising in association with the trailer yacht section of the Timaru Yacht and Power Boat Club, which has an organised cruise about every 2-3 weeks during the sailing season. Each year we also take part in the Aviemore Classic Trailer Yacht race.

Most of this cruising has been on Lakes Aviemore and Benmore which are within 2 hours drive of Timaru. We usually go away for up to a week on each trip.

In addition to the Waitaki lakes , we have cruised on Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau plus in the north of the South Island to Pelorus and Queen Charlotte Sounds. Each year we spend 3 weeks in February in the Abel Tasman National Park. We have also cruised in the Hauraki Gulf.

We find that the opportunities to explore and view scenery from the water very relaxing. The challenges of wind and tide add to the interest.

The thing we most enjoy is the companionship with other trailer yachties, especially the evening “get together” on the beach-often around a camp fire.

We have kept a record of our use of the boat and achieved 1000 nights sleeping on board in January while at Lake Benmore. In the time we have had the boat I have towed it over 60,000 kms !”

We also had an opportunity to ask Les & Beryl some searching questions about their experiences: