The Sailor, the Boat, the Book
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............. The Sailor .............
I have sailed in small cruising yachts since 1990. I became interested in coasting and voyaging as I read more and more books about it.
While looking for information about living on the local canal in Hertfordshire I saw a book by Tania Abe, called "Maiden Voyage". I realized if it took Tanya Abe a couple of years to sail around the world, she must have been living aboard for the duration. Therefore I could live on a twenty six footer too. I was deeply engaged by her story of sailing alone aged just eighteen. My interest in living on a barge waned as the idea of small sailing boats became an obssession.
Another intrepid small boat sailor, Shane Acton, was so laid back he made it all seem so easy. He went around the world on a tiny, eighteen foot, plywood boat, called "Shrimpy". His book was titled after his boat. Now I knew what I wanted..
The writing of Tristan Jones is my absolute favourite. His Welsh character as well as a gift for spinning a yarn brought disbelief from some readers. Nonetheless, "Saga of a Wayward Sailor" and "The Improbable Voyage" amongst others, are pure adventure, very funny and rich writing.
For me, sailing has been as much a literary environment as a wet one. Although my first experiences of the wet world were as an unwilling four year old, with my parents and sister, clambouring over one another in a fourteen foot GP14 dinghy. Then, in 1992, I sailed to France and Belgium aboard my own twenty three footer, "Juggler" and life has been wet ever since. In 2001 I graduated with a BA Honours in Sociology and since then I have grown to love writing as much as sailing.
............. The Boat .............
"Storm Petrel of Narnia" is a twenty seven foot long sailing boat. She is over forty years old and built strongly with an elegant hull form. The Folkdancer 27 was designed by Fredrick Parker. The lines are derived from the enormously popular Scandinavian Folkboat. She has two sails, a genoa, set forward, and a mainsail set aft of the mast. Her cruising speed is three to five knots (One "knot" is a little faster than one "mile per hour"). Storm Petrel had travelled extensively prior to my ownership. Apparently she was sailed to New Zealand during the 1980's. I bought her in 2001. When I repainted the stern, I added a port of origin "Storm Petrel ... of Narnia". Her home port exists only in books. Her travels, however, are on the real sea.
