Travels of Sailing Yacht Kitty B

I first went sailing aged about 5, aboard a day boat out of St Mawes, Cornwall, when my elder brothers were first being taught to sail; my recollection is that I was cold and uncomfortable, and mostly sat in the cuddy in the bows, waiting for it to stop! My brothers however were hooked, and all family holidays and weekends for the next decade were based around boats, initially in the Gull class, a dinghy designed to be sailed or rowed, and various boating holidays on the Norfolk Broads, Cambridgeshire Fens, and with a skippered charter on the East coast. My competitive brothers soon upgraded from our initial heavy Gunter rigged Gull, ‘Hi Jinks’, to a much newer lightly built Bermudan rigged Gull, ‘Seaspray’, which the son of sailmaker Bruce Banks had grown too large for; this dinghy was very competitive with superb sails! The highlight of summer holidays for the next few years was the annual Gull Week regatta at Rock, in Cornwall, or Hayling Island Sailing Club, or Dartmouth, in Devon.

Sailing at home was on the River Severn, near Tewkesbury, at the confusingly named Avon Sailing Club; inevitably, I absorbed much about sailing, rowing, and general boat handling, at a very young age, and aged about seven, was put in a small singlehanded sailing dinghy, similar to an Optimist, and told to go out and sail… and if in difficulty, to simply let go of everything…. The mainsail would then go out all the way (around the front of the mast even). I believe I more or less taught myself to sail in that one session, ending by being able to sail on all points of sail and to come alongside at the end – albeit, probably with a bang!

At school, as well as compulsory sports such as rugby, hockey, and cricket (in respective school year terms) there was the opportunity to sail up to four days a week, all year around, and participate in team racing in 6 Lark class dinghies against other schools, as well as sail in the weekend club races. The summer term sailing was from a beach at Arne in Poole harbour; the other two terms, the sailing was from Sutton Bingham reservoir near Yeovil, in Dorset.

When I was aged about 12, the family joined the Island Cruising Club in Salcombe, where my father participated as crew on a range of their cruising yachts, sailing mainly across the Channel but also around Scotland, and in the Baltic, progressing through the RYA system to Ocean Yachtmaster; in due course, he acquired a small yacht based in Salcombe, and later upgraded to a 28ft Twister which he based at Darthaven marina opposite Dartmouth; we cruised this yacht extensively across to the Channel Islands, to Brittany, and to Cornwall.

At the ICC I progressed through various dinghy sailing courses, and participated as crew on the larger yachts such as Provident and Hoshi, cruising to Brittany, Guernsey, the Scillies, and even the South West of Ireland past the Fastnet rock. By the age of 16 I was back at ICC as a ‘Gash Helper’, helping to instruct novice sailors on the Elementary sailing courses, during our summer holidays. After leaving school, I was at Salcombe for most of the season, and added being the cox’n of the large (57 passenger) launches, needed to move members between the accommodation vessel or cruising yachts, and the town at Salcombe, in all weathers.

And so, off to Uni, and then work; during which time I became addicted to the sport of gliding, and also learnt to fly powered aircraft (both of which I continue to do when not afloat!). In due course, I introduced my wife Sharon to sailing with a week’s charter out of the British Virgin Islands; this went well (mostly..), and the next year we had the opportunity to buy a third share of a Hallberg-Rassy 312 based in Poole. Since when, we have spent at least 2 weeks cruising each year and at least 8 other weekends of the summer on board for shorter cruises. After over 20 years of sharing, we find ourselves as sole owners, and chose then to relocate our HR36 to Scotland.

This website takes the story forward from there!