Sailing

I have been sailing for well over 40 years. I started on the South Coast out of the Hamble and then Portsmouth Harbour in day boats, eventually progressing to cruisers, channel crossings and then blue water sailing. Along the way I have raced and cruised, visited many wonderful places and had a few scares.

famous, world girdling yacht. By now she was a bit long in the tooth but I loved the sailing, the teamwork and the new places that we fetched up in

The only reason I stopped sailing on Browzer was the opportunity to move to Scotland for work reasons. I swapped a 2 hour drive to get to the boat to a 5 minute walk. This enabled easy access to sailing on a Wednesday night and no need to rush at weekends. The sailing on the West Coast of Scotland is set against the backdrop of glorious scenery. Most destinations are quite close and there is normally a safe haven close by should there be inclement weather. Additionally, there are so few yachts compared to the Solent that you can often find a bay to yourselves for the night. below yacht is Juniper Groove, a Jeanneau Melody 35,

I had great times on this yacht with Tam & Angela, racing and cruising the West Coast. After a few years I moved to another yacht  called Liaison, a First 345, a regular race winner, and even with me on board she kept on winning.

From Plymouth we stopped in Tenerife, crossed the Atlantic to Antigua where we stayed for a month and then headed back to Plymouth via the Azores. The boat was fully crewed on the way out, that means 18 crew but our achievement was to return with just 7 crew, all in good order. It was shortly before I set off on the disatrous trip that I found out that the Chairman of the rugby club was also a sailor and there began a friendship with all his family and near neighbours and a yacht called Browzer. This boat is a Contessa 32, much valued for its seakeeping qualities, beautiful lines and a large fleet of keen racers. I spent 12 years with this family, racing short and long events and also cruising around Great Britain. I think we all have great memories about 'recent trips' . 

 This first picture is my Dad standing on the foredeck of Heron which is the first boat I sailed on. There is no doubt that I didn't always enjoy it, I often was sick but I kept going back for more. We were taught by an old family friend, Douglas, who was a little older tha Dad and had served in the war. He began to charter yachts through the RNSA and we would pick up a dayboat called Surprise, a 'Z' class class from HMS Excellent on Whale Island in Portsmouth Harbour. We would regularly see the Queen Elizabeth, the SS United States and the SS France, I am certain that we also saw the Queen Mary before she headed off for Long Beach. One day I mistakenly hauled the main halyard to the top of the mast without its sail and the bosun let us use a naval whaler instead, which was a rare treat. The following picture is of the Yacht Volunteer,