English
X-40, build number #92, built in 2006 and commissioned in 2007. White hull with blue hull stripes and 2.1m L-shaped keel. Standard aluminium mast with furling genoa. Teak on cockpit, with non-slip sidedecks and coachroof. Below decks she has three cabins, with one heads forward, classic layout with U-galley to starboard, and owner's V-berth forward.
"Arima" Highlights;
Desirable three cabin version - low maintenance with only teak in the cockpit.
Key maintenance carried out. New rod rigging 2020 & saildrive seal replaced 2024.
Survey from 2023 available for purchaser - along with list of minor rectifications.
Owner Comments
We bought Arima as a short-handed passage maker. Sue and I sail as a pair, sometimes with a friend as well. The X-40 is ideally set up for this. She sails fast and points well. She’s easy to helm, with little force required, and is very stable in gusty conditions. It’s an exhilarating ride, creaming through the water smoothly, cutting through the waves yet rarely with the gunwales in the water. Given the right wind, I would passage plan based on 7 ½ knots and usually beat it over a 10 hour passage. This is good for short handed sailing because it means northern France is within reach without us getting too tired. With its big wheel and tight cockpit, I could sit with by back supported with a cushion against the guard wires and helm for hours at a time, keeping a lookout to leeward and an eye on the jib tell-tales. The power winch takes the hard work out of getting the main up and provided a way for my wife to retrieve me on a halyard if ever I went over. (It never happened.) Having a cockpit VHF and chartplotter are not just convenient but safety features for short handed sailing as well. Reefing can be done entirely from the cockpit as can adjusting of the jib cars. These were all on our list of “must haves” when looking for a boat.
We kept her in Brixham most of the time we have owned her so we’ve got to know the West Country at bit like many others know the Solent. Favourites were picking up a buoy off Salcombe town or up the River Fowey. We’ve got quite used to sneaking through “The Bridge” in Plymouth Sound and picking up our favourite buoy in the River Dart, right up beyond the Anchorstone just below Agatha Christie’s House at Greenway. Covid permitting, we made an annual pilgrimage to Brittany, via St. Peterport and St. Helier to arrive at S. Malo after 3 days of passages. We would then sail as we pleased in challenging tides with interesting harbours for the night and great places to wine and dine après-sail. I was especially proud of 60 mile passage from Granville to St. Peterport, as Granville has a sill that restricts the time you can leave and you have to be round La Corbiere on the SW corner of Jersey still with some favourable tide left. I doubt that a yacht that sails any slower than Arima would have made it. We took her to the Baltic in late 2019 and had her booked into Vejle marina for a year but, of course, it was perfectly the wrong time to do this and we had to get a professional delivery crew to bring her back as we were banned from entering Denmark as leisure sailors.
We’ve had a great time sailing her. We’ve always said that, for us, the pleasure is in the passage with the destination being a bonus on top.
Alas, time and injury have caught up with us. After 8 great years of ownership and now in out late 60s, we are not quite as capable of jumping, grinding, pulling, balancing, leaning and all the other things you need to do. Sue injured her back a few years ago in a fall from height and has lost confidence in jumping onto a pontoon. I too have recently injured myself. However, we intend to keep sailing as best we can but in easier regions and with more on board.
Arima is named after Arima Onsen, a hot spring resort in Japan. I worked for a short time in Japan, living in Kobe. One of my favourite walks on a weekend was over the mountain chain of which Mt.Rokko is the highest peak and down into Arima Onsen to soak away the week’s stresses in volcanically heated hot water. When looking for a boat name, Arima was an easy choice. This is why there is also kanji, Japanese script, alongside the name. It reads, rather obviously, Arima.