123 – Bockra

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Current
Hull number123
Boat nameBockra (Nimanoca)
Full HIN in standard formatZCJ 00123 1181
Hull moulding (month-year)11-1981
Completion (month-year)xx-1985
Typemk2 PH-C with bowsprit and double-spreader mast
Registry numberUK SSR 168769
Owner(s)David Sharman (2017 - now)
(Jean. Maynard & Rejane Helmy) (2001 - 2017)
(fitted out and owned by Normand Cardinal 1981-2001, but following his death in a motoring accident in ~2000 sold by Colette Miller & Gervais Lalancette in 2001) (1981 - 2001)
Homeport and locationUK & Greece (Canada)
FlagUK, 2017+
Canada, 1981 - 2017
Website / blog / etc
Email
MMSICallsign
Brief historyOriginally fitted out in Canada by the first owner and then used by him primarily in the Canadian lakes. The original name NIMANOCA is taken from the family names of the children etc at the time:

NI stands for Nicolas (the second child)
MA for Mathieu ( the eldest child)
NO for Normand (the father, who fitted her out)
CA for Cardinal, the family surname.
= NIMANOCA

Second owners used her on Canadian lakes and seabord until early 2000s, then sailed to Mediterranean. Cruised the Med for 15 years, the latter part of this based in Greece. Fairly early on the renamed the boat to Bockra which is an Arabic word, meaning "tomorrow" but with much the same intent as 'manana' has in Spanish. Hence the Arabic expression "IBM", meaning Inshallah, Bockra, Malesh = If god wills; tomorrow; never mind.

With the third owner, now in UK ownership and on the UK registry, still based in Greece.

Completed as a mk2 with fwd-stepped taller double-spreader mast, larger cockpit, larger pilothouse, bowsprit. Cutter-rigged with staysail boom. The internal layout is unusual in one respect as it has two full size quarter-berth cabins, each with a full-height door and full length 2m+ mattress etc.

Originally fitted with a Bukh saildrive. After two or three failures of the saildrive unit this was replaced with a hydraulic unit on the same Bukh, driving a conventional shaft line. Work carried out in France in c.2004, and new fuel tanks fitted at same time. The second owners appear to have upgraded to full Raymarine series 60 instruments, radar, chartplotter. Also the original cockpit helm was pulley transmission, but second owners converted to hydraulic in parallel with the original hydraulic inner helm.

General mid-life refit underway (2019) in Greece. Pilot house fwd deck seam glassed in; bow lockers fully reinforced with glass and now draining outboard. Bukh removed and replaced with Yanmar saildrive (Yanmar 3GM30 driving through SD20 saildrive to 40cm/16" two blade prop). All internal floors (soles) and floor beams removed; bilges scraped to raw fibreglass then flowcoated front to back; new teak floors and floor beams built. All original tanks removed during this, some reinstalled, some replaced. New instrumentation and new power electronics etc. Relaunched 2023.
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