Tony Van Hee and Palletline |
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| My sailing experience was mainly canoes and dinghies as a teenager later progressing to a 19 foot Laurent Giles design, sister ship to the then famous Sopranino.I sailed this boat regularly from the Tyne to Norway in the sixties.Later I raced a number of quarter tonners around the country with various degrees of sucess.In the early eighties I travelled with my family on a years sabatical eventually ending up in Maine U. S.A. after visiting the usual watering holes.In the nineties we sailed an old one tonner called Silver Apple and took her across the pond after competing in the 86 Fastnet where we got a second in resricted and tenth in class. More recently as a senior citizen I bought a 9 metre Dazcat and competed in the 2005 Scottish Island and Peaks Race, winning our class and finishing second overall.Delighted with this result we entered the 2006 Round Britain and Ireland Race and were not so promptly second last ! Best stories are probably when we sailed to Norway one year in half a gale and arrived so wet and cold all we could think of was getting into town for a warm bed and hot meal.We managed to persuade a friendly fisherman to run us into the town we thought was Mandal but ommited to ask him from where we had come ! Unfortunately the town was not the one we thought it was and next morning found us desperately trying to find where we had left our tiny vessel .Fortunately we had left our Red Ensign flying, not to mention bedding and clothing, many phone calls later the helpful bus station manager traced the little British Yacht lying moored off an island over 40 miles from where we thought we were ! The early days of navigation had thier surprises. Another amusing story was when crossing the Atlantic our youngest daughter Georgina who learnt to walk on the boat was being "Potty Trained".As fresh water was at a premium and we were not into the days of disposable nappies the "potty" was a vital piece of equipment.Imagine my horror when Joan my wife let go the string it trailed from when cleaning it in the ocean.I dived overboard to retrieve it and although the wind was a zephyr and the sea calm I had great difficulty getting back aboard ! Such is life. |
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