Salt in their Veins ?

Forgive my reference to grandchildren, bear with me, it is integral to the story.

Our daughter, Rebecca and her husband, Michael live in Blackrock, south Dublin, near the sea. Their daughters, Darcey (7) and Matilda (5) attend and enjoy sailing school in Dun Laoghaire.

Our son, Ollie and his wife, Gini live in Minneapolis, USA with their daughter, Juno (3) and son, Aubrey (1). Ollie has sailed with me extensively over the years; initially in the UK, then in the Med and longer passages, across Biscay to Portugal and Bermuda to the Azores. Gini comes from Deal and the family are sailors; her retired father still drives the sailing club rescue boat. They take the opportunity whenever they can to get on the water on the thousands of Minnesota lakes. We expect them to return to the UK at some stage.

This all ‘sets the scene’ and helps justify my latest project. I would love to teach the grandchildren to sail but 45-foot Hejira with a steering wheel is just not suitable and they need to learn with a tiller.

During Covid, Hejira was stranded, out of reach in Nice. To satisfy my need for adventure on the water, I bought a small dinghy. I had intended to row the length of the Thames with a couple of friends, from Lechlade to Teddington. Unfortunately, the passage was frustratingly hurried because of the impatience of the crew, and we didn’t row a stroke, motoring the whole distance in 3 nights and 4 days. I should have taken more notice of my friend and former 135 owner, John Goodall, (who sadly died very recently) and taken my time to enjoy the passage.

To my mind, it left an ambition only partially fulfilled and I have harboured a notion to sail the length of the Thames… The obvious constraint is the bridges, as a mast simply will not pass under them. So, there is a challenging problem, but it cannot be insurmountable as the Norfolk wherries have lowered their masts to transit bridges for centuries. Research revealed that the wherries had massive counterweights to balance the mast, an arrangement that just wouldn’t be practical on a small yacht. Other solutions would be necessary.

So, I began to focus on the basic sailing yacht requirement. It had to be small enough to fit on a trailer, have a tiller, rudimentary accommodation for ‘overnighting’ and a traditional appearance would be preferred. The ‘dipping’ of the mast was an engineering challenge which I would relish when a suitable vessel had been bought and ‘parked’ in our garden.

There is clearly a size constraint for trailing on the road behind a car and this put a notional limit on the length at 19 feet, and a weight of no more than one and a half tons. I began to focus on the Cornish Crabbers Shrimper 19. These are very popular with over 1300 on the water and they look the part, being gaff rigged with a bow sprit and usually with tan coloured sails. In that I was likely to ‘butcher’ the yacht to create the dipping rig, I was reluctant to spend too much as the resale value could be negatively impacted. Focussing in on a likely candidate, my trusty ‘First Mate’, Richard Cracknell joined the hunt and came up with an alternative, the Cape Cutter 19. Although similar in appearance, they differ in some fundamental features, some of which may make the rig modifications less intrusive. Richard recommended I view ‘Juno’ in Emsworth and, it being the name of one of my granddaughters, how could I refuse? Juno turned out to be a real ‘cracker’!

Well-equipped and maintained, she had a very solid trailer and in the last year the wooden mast had been refurbished, and the standing rigging had been replaced. I quizzed the rigger, Nick Gates in Emsworth and discussed my ambitions which intrigued him. Having extensive knowledge of Shrimpers, he maintained that, in his opinion, the Cape Cutter 19 was a far superior yacht and that it was “the thinking man’s Shrimper” – I could be about to debunk that perception!

So, I have now bought ‘Juno’ and she will remain in Emsworth for the time being while Nick Gates carries out some superficial work before she takes up residence in our garden.

I like a project, watch this space!