As a family we had always holidayed in Cornwall in a village near the Helford River where my Mum had been brought up, her father was a farmer. I had learnt to swim very early in life. My Mum and Dad were both teachers realised early, I didn’t have the brains to be a teacher (later I realised I have dyslexia, but a bit of an unknown then) and encouraged me into using my hands, to this end in the winter of 1972 when I was 12 dad and I built a 8ft “Scamp” sailing dinghy which had just a mainsail. The following summer on holiday in Cornwall, dad pushed me out from the shore at St Anthony and I learn to sail the hard way by finding out what worked and what didn’t! That summer I realised I really liked being on the water instead of in it, I sailed this dinghy during holidays in Cornwall for a few years but it was small so over the winter 1975-76 I built a “Embassy” 11ft sailing dinghy. I sailed this for 18 months before selling and buying a second hand “Enterprise” 14ft sailing dinghy which I refitted.
The only photo I have of myself kayaking sometime between 1978-82
In the summer of 1976 I left school on Friday and starter work on following Monday as an apprentice carpenter, 3 years (a year of sweeping up and making tea, followed by a year of handing tools) Then in the final year the boss thought I was trained enough to proper work! In realty, I didn’t really learn until after I had done my apprenticeship when I had real responsibility. In 1976 I was still sailing but by 1978 I had got into sea kayaking and living in Scotland the islands of the west coast were close enough to get to most weekends. In 1978 I bought a new GRP “Baidarka Explorer” and though the next 5 years I paddled it over 4000nm, this was my first experience of navigation. We carried OS maps which we coved with clear sticky backed plastic on our fore decks held on by shock cord. We had a fixed compass forward of the map. We would work out all tide drift and streams before leaving on passage and paddle a bearing taking them into consideration, as ongoing navigation wasn’t possible. We would go paddling with Paisley Kayak Club, normally a group of 3-5 but sometimes more (it wasn’t safe to go paddling alone). We were self sufficient, carrying everything we needed, tent, stove, fuel, pots, food, water, etc, We carried flares, first aid kit but these were the days before mobiles, we could of carried a handheld VHF but these were the size of 2x house bricks on end with an antenna of the same length again (although available, I didn’t know anyone who owned one). I expect I would have continued kayaking but I moved to Cornwall in 1982 and almost no one was sea kayaking here back then.
This photo was taken by me from inside Fingal’s Cave, Staffa in 1982
So in the summer 1983 I launched my “Plymouth Pilot” 16ft “Sara May” (I bought hull and deck in 1978 and fitted out) inboard motorboat for fishing, she was moored at St Anthony, but soon got fed up with fishing! I took up windsurfing in 1984, that was OK but I did wonder why I had given up dinghy sailing. Then in 1986 I got married, my wife came from a local farming family and liked cattle, so we had a small holding and kept Hereford cows and caves until 2000.
When my wife left in 1998, I just worked all the time until 2 years later getting into golf, I played for about 10 years, loved the game but I had met my second wife Vicki by 2004 and she moved in. We wanted something we could do together, so I suggested sailing, Vicki hadn’t ever done any but had been on a lot of canal holidays. We hired a “Wayfairer” from Sailaway St Anthony 3 or 4 times that summer and Vicki loved it, before buying a little Bradwell 18ft day sailor called “Acorn”, around August of that year. It was a great little sailing yacht but we soon realised we needed something bigger to go cruising. “Acorn” took lots of years to sell, she sat on her trailer in our back garden until March 2010 and was bought by a guy who drove down from Scotland.
“Gala” taken in the summer of 2011
In September 2005 we bought a fin keel Hurley 22 which had a road trailer from Emsworth called “Gala”, I towed her home to Cornwall which took 11hrs as she was very heavy for her size. I did an RYA day skipper and RYA DFC Radio courses over the following winter. “Gala” was a proper little sailing yacht, built like a brick shit house, she was very stiff and needed the top end of a force 5 before thinking of reefing. We cruised her between Dartmouth to the east and Scilly in the west, she took us safely to and from Scilly 3 times over the 11 seasons we owned her and we logged over 5000nm, only the limits of my job had stopped us from going further (I only had a max of 9 days before I needed to return to work) We had been looking to buy a bigger yacht for a few years but it took a while to find the right one. I sold “Gala” in July 2017 and she went to South Wales on the back of a low loader.
”Gala” the day before she left us for South Wales on the back of a low loader
The definition of BOAT is Break Out Another Thousand.
In November of 2016 we bought “Elektra” which is what this blog is about.
”Elektra” in Carrick Roads summer 2023
Love Sailing 