Sailing history

On a boat trip in Malaya

A brief history of my sailing

My first sailing experience came when I was 5 years old when my father took me sailing in his snipe sailing dinghy called Petrel off Changi in Singapore.  At the time he was a serving officer in the Royal Air Force.

It was not altogether a successful trip as we managed to break the rudder off the transom of the boat while entering a reef around a small island.  An uncerimonious tow home was required.

Having a father as a navigator, albeit of the air not the sea, it was perhaps not the best start to sailing.  But we got home safely with no panic after hitching a tow from a passing vessel, and I have to say it did not seem to put me off sailing!

Later we moved to East Wittering and when not at school I spent most of my time beachcombing and fishing with my best mate next door neighbour.

    

For my eighteenth birthday I was lucky enough to be given a Topper dinghy, sail number 8849 which gave me a number of seasons of fun racing at Pagham Yacht Club and generally playing around on the sea.  

Topper Nationals at Pagham Yacht Club

In the later 1980's a friend asked me if I would like to do some yachting.  We became part of a team of kidney transplant recipients who successfully took part in the 1989 Fastnet Race on a yacht called Amadeus, a Tartan 41.

Fastnet Transplant Crew 1989

Tartan 41

In the mid 1990's I chartered various yachts in the UK and in Greece with a girlfriend at the time.

In 2001, the sailing bug really took hold and I signed up for the Clipper Ventures Round the World Yacht Race. 
            


At the helm in the Indian Ocean

          

Glasgow Clipper crew in Portugal

After 50,000 miles and one circumnavigation under my belt it seemed the right time to buy my first yacht and along came Poldeaux.

 

Poldeaux entering Chichester Harbour under yankee and main