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The World Sailing Show - Feb 2019

The schoolboy and the Thames Barge

Norfolk schoolboy Ash Faire-Ring has taken what would be for many the project of a lifetime – aged just 17. He has been given the ⅓–sized, 1922 Thames sailing barge yacht Growler by Gus Curtis and family of King’s Boatyard in Pin Mill, Suffolk. Growler was built by an unknown builder on Conyer Creek on Faversham’s Swale and was always a yacht; she has never traded under sail. She’s been under a stop/start restoration programme for the last 25 years, but now Ash plans to finish the job, then use the vessel in the growing sail cargo movement. At 32ft (9.8m) long with a 9ft 6in (2.9m) beam and a draught of just 2ft (0.6m), Growler is small for a Thames barge type, but this is a big project: the work needed includes replacing the chine on one side (effectively a garboard on this sort of vessel), a new transom and about a quarter of the planking. No doubt more work will reveal itself as the process continues, not to mention a new rig, engine, systems and interior. He also plans to reinstate the tiller steering that the boat had originally, before being converted to wheel-steering in the 1960s. “I’ve been passionate about traditional sailing vessels my whole life and have been sailing here since I was born,” says Ash, whose first memory, at the age of two or three, was seeing the sailing barge Gino moored on his local creek. At the age of 11, Ash built a 10ft (3.1m) Ian Oughtred clinker ply sailing dinghy called Griffin with his father. He is making good progress on Growler, despite having limited funds and needing to sit his A-levels before getting down to the job in earnest. In the last three months, he has raised the funds to have the boat moved from Suffolk to land near his house, where he has levelled the footings (using railway sleepers donated by Charlie Ward Traditional Boats) and built a tent over his project. Ash plans to step up his work schedules once his exams are over. “I’ve been hugely inspired by the Tally Ho project,” he said, referring to English boatbuilder Leo Goolden’s ongoing rebuild of the Albert Strange yacht in the USA (January issue). Like Leo, Ash is serialising the project in videos on YouTube. Search for ‘sailing barge Growler‘. He aims to have Growler back on the water and sailing by 2020. “My plan is to sail cargo around Europe, with a crew of young people who will learn how to sail a traditional vessel. I finish school in June, will keep going until she is launched and then look at university.”

On a Mission to Give Back

Back in 2017, Britain’s Ken Fowler took his 12 foot RS Aero dinghy along the length of Great Britain, covering 865 miles of action filled sailing in his “Race To Scotland”. Fog banks, nuclear submarine exercises, giant whirlpools and surf beach landings typified the roller coaster ride of taking on this challenging route. Having pushed his body to the limit with 10-12 hour days in the dinghy, he managed to raise £37,000 for two cancer charities. Most sailors would give themselves a pat on the back; say “Well done” and walk away feeling “Mission Accomplished”. But not Ken. For Ken and Yoda (his RS Aero dinghy) it was more a feeling of “Unfinished Business” having set themselves the target of raising £50,000 for cancer charities and come up short. So in order to finish the job Ken came up with the equally crazy idea of becoming the first dinghy to sail around all the islands in England and Wales. Beginning in August 2018, this turned out to be a bigger challenge than he thought. A shoulder injury has temporarily sidelined the effort but he returns to the course April 2019 for what he expects to be 1000 miles of sailing when done. As for all the islands, that number is up to 183 and counting. The islands vary in size from the 120 miles around Anglesey in Wales to the multitude of stunning “Caribbean” islands of the Isles of Scilly, some of which are only around 30m in length. Each island has its own intriguing history such as “Deadman’s Island” – full of coffins and bones that are visible at low tide and the Napoleonic forts guarding the home of the British navy at Portsmouth. The sailing is going to be challenging with multiple islands in the Severn estuary where the tidal range is 49 feet – about four times bigger than Ken’s dinghy. In other locations the islands are over 10 miles off shore or involve surf beach landings, so no day is going to be a straight forward one! For some of the adventure Ken will be out there on his own travelling and living out of his 20 year old VW campervan as he travels between the launch sites. For some of the more challenging sections a support crew will follow his journey along the coastline and monitor his progress on GPS tracking. They will be in constant contact either by radio or phone. Safety will be provided by emergency equipment on board and a GPS tracking his position at all times, which will be available live on the internet– a great way to follow the adventure. Follow at www.yodare.co.uk.

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The British Sailing Team's 2018 best bits

The World Sailing Show - Jan 2019

My online business gives me the freedom to enjoy my second passion of sailing.

My online business gives me the freedom to enjoy my second passion of sailing. Feeling really grateful and blessed that this week 23 people took massive action and invited me to work with them, so pleased to be able to be apart of their future success. Thank you so much. Helping others is REAL SUCCESS! #workingtogether #leader #mentor #takeaction #grateful #blessed #messageme#strivingforyoursuccess watch my free video here is.gd/OX9xY6

300 women wanted for a round-the-world sailing mission raising awareness of plastic pollution

A sailor who investigated the world’s largest accumulation of marine plastic by carrying out scientific experiments on the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” in July is now inviting applications for an all-female sailing voyage and scientific research mission. Emily Penn will lead an expedition to circumnavigate the globe with the aim of raising awareness of the environmental and health impacts of single-use plastics. The crews will explore plastics and toxics in the ocean, sailing through four of the five oceanic gyres and the Arctic. The two-year voyage, which sets sail in October 2019, will be split into 30 legs, with 10 sailors on each. “The plastic pollution challenge our ocean faces is a global one and it will take an inspired army of passionate, skilled and experienced people to tackle it,” says Ms Penn. “This is our biggest project yet and by far the most challenging. We’re looking for amazing women with a passion to protect our ocean to come forward to join us.” Ms Penn says that sailing experience is not important. “We’re trying to find solutions from every angle. We need designers, creatives, policy-makers. It’s a struggle to find someone who couldn’t play a role.” Sailing into rubbish In the four years since the first voyage across the Atlantic, more than 100 women have sailed on missions to raise awareness about the plastic problem. Ms Penn, who has spent the past 10 years tackling plastic pollution, is most concerned by the potentially toxic impact of the breakdown of plastics in the ocean by seawater and sunlight. Emily Penn and her all-women crew of scientists and artists sailed into the Pacific Ocean in search of a man-made hell known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” in July. When she tested her own body for some of these chemicals she had found in the ocean and in plastic, she found them inside her. She is heartened by the rise in awareness about plastic pollution she has seen in the last two years. “I am feeling optimistic but we need to change that awareness into direct action,” she says.

The World Sailing Show - Dec 2018