The World Sailing Show - Mar 2019

This sea-loving 84-year-old says sailing is the ‘perfect activity’

A grandfather with a life-long passion for the sea, who remains an active sailor at the age of 84, wants more families to take up the sport and enjoy ‘amazing adventures’ together. David Skinner has been an active member of the Sussex Yacht Club in Brighton Road, Shoreham, since 1971 and was the club’s Commodore in 1994. David Skinner at his boat, which is moored in Southwick For more than 40 years, he has been sharing his passion for sailing with people in Shoreham and taking newcomers out on his boat to show them the ropes. Mr Skinner said: “Nothing beats getting out on a boat and gaining hands-on experience. “I try to gently stretch them, to encourage them to have a go. “For some people simply walking from one side of the boat to another is a big achievement, whilst others are happy to climb up and down the mast – it really does depend on the individual. David racing at Cowes week in 1993 “It’s all about gradually building people’s confidence on the water.” Mr Skinner’s love for the sea started early – he grew up in a lifeboat family and often went fishing with his father, a keen angler. He took up sailing when he moved to the south coast and bought a 17ft boat. From then on, Mr Skinner, his wife Jennie and their two children would spend all their spare time sailing together. David's Cowes week team in 2005 Being part of the yacht club became a ‘major part’ of their lives and they all made ‘great friendships over the years’, Mr Skinner said. The family also took part in races, with Mr Skinner entering Cowes Week, a sailing regatta, a number of times and his son completing the Southern Ocean leg of the Round the World Yacht Race, which took him from Sydney to Cape Town. Mr Skinner said: “I think learning to sail is one of the best things children can do, it teaches them so many life skills and they are outside in the fresh air gaining new experiences. Rustington and Chichester superstores launch recruitment drives “Even now I take my grand-children out on my boat and we’ll have sleepovers with a takeaway as a treat.” But it is not just youngsters who can benefit, and Mr Skinner said Sussex Yacht Club encouraged sailors of all ages and abilities. “I took a lady in her seventies out on my boat and she fell in love with sailing straight away,” he said. Mr Skinner was one of the original Trustees of Sussex Sailability, a voluntary organisation that enables people with disabilities to sail from the Yacht Club. He said the new and improved clubhouse, which is set to be built in Brighton Road, would be more accessible for sailors with disabilities and would be ‘a huge asset to the local community’. Now in his 80s, the grandfather-of-five still enjoys racing with his 42ft retirement boat and said sailing keeps him active. He hopes more Shoreham families will take advantage of the sea on their doorstep. “In my view, sailing is a perfect activity for families to enjoy together,” he said. “It means so much to me and I have so many very happy memories.” Families can join Sussex Yacht Club for an annual fee that works out at less than £20 per month, and you do not need to own a boat, a spokesman from the club confirmed. To find out more about membership or taster days, call 01273 464868.

Scots competing in World Cup Miami 2019

A number of Scottish Sailors put in solid performances in the first World Cup Series event in Miami, 27th January to the 3rd February, in an event dominated by light airs. Rhu’s Charlotte Dobson, sailing with Saskia Tidey in 49er FX gained a bronze in tense light-wind 49er FX battle in the double point’s medal race. Charlotte Dobson, 32, said. "We had nothing to lose and everything to gain going into today's race, so the strategy was to try to win the start and assess the point’s situation at the top mark. We were second round the first mark with everything going to plan but the race got quite affected by some massive wake from pleasure boaters and stray yachts which cut the fleet up quite badly. We were really pleased that we just kept chipping away but it wasn't quite enough to pip the kiwis who were struggling. All in all it was another good light wind performance is really encouraging." In the foiling Nacra 17 class, Anna Burnet sailing with John Gimson had a race win during the week and despite finishing third in the medal race missed podium by just seven points, finishing 4th overall. Anna Burnet, 25, said. "It’s been a real light winds week and we’re happy to have put together a consistent series in some unpredictable conditions. We’ve had a lot of training in stronger winds over the winter and we’re feeling strong in those conditions. It’s actually been great for us to have a regatta in light winds as it’s the perfect training at this stage of the season." Lorenzo Chiavarini, sailing in the Laser class led the live streamed medal race round the first lap, eventually falling back to fourth and finishing the week 8th overall in the 102 strong fleet. In the men’s 49er Fleet, competition between James Peters and Fynn Sterrit and WCS Miami title holders Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell with five points between them going into the medal race in 2nd and 3rd respectively. However an OCS in the medal races dropped Peters / Sterrit back to 5th overall and the duo of Fletcher / Bithell stayed on the podium taking home a silver for the British Sailing Team. In was a hard week for Luke Patience, 32 from Rhu, sailing with Chris Grube in the men’s 470 class as they pair struggled to break into the top ten and finished 13th overall. In the Women’s 470 Class it was also a hard week for Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre after victory was snatched from them at the 11th hour. They had began the 470 class double-points medal race three points off the lead, but with just eight points splitting the top four teams it was always going to be a tight race which ended up leaving them off the podium in 4th place. The next big event for the British Sailing Team will be the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma, Mallorca, in early April. Keep up to date with all the latest news from the British Sailing Team at www.britishsailingteam.com.

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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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