User:Faustina
From CruisersWiki
Latest revision as of 02:14, 27 September 2023
I started sailing in the early/mid 1970s crewing at first in Irish Sea races out of Blackpool and Fleetwood Yacht club and concurrently in Pandora Class semi one design races at South Carnaervonshire Yacht Club in Abersoch North Wales. These experiences convinced me that one design was right for me. In 1979 I bought my first Westerly built J24 Jehu. After competing with some success at club level I started travelling to open events where success was rather hard to come by sailing against lighter newer versions. In 1985 I sailed as crew for a friend in the J4 world championships in Gamagori, Japan. In 1989 I charted a boat that was down to minimum weight at the European J24 championships, at Porto Rotundo, Sardinia and finished in 4th. place. This result convince me that with the right equipment I could compete with the best, so I sold Jehu and bought a Rogers built J24 "Just Keep Taking the Tablets". In her I qualified to compete in the World Championship events in the following years winning The Southern Area Championship and the "Spring Cup". In 1993 along with my wife we organised the J24 World Championship at South Carnaervonshire Yacht Club. I sold "tablets" the following year and bought a Squib Class keelboat in which I competed ,not very successfully in club events at SCYC.
In 1996 I sold the Squib and bought Sanyassa a Snowgoose Elite Catamaran and after fitting her out in 1997 we left UK on a six year almost circumnavigation. We visited, Western Med, Canaries, Caribbean ranging from Tobago in the south to the Virgin Islands, E. Coast of USA from Maine to Florida, Panama Canal, Galapagos, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Nuie and Tonga before sailing down to New Zealand where one our sons and family live. We stayed there on and off for two and a half years with a trip up to Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.before returning to NZ. In 2002 we left NZ for the final time and cruised via New Caledonia, E.an N. Coast Australia Mackay to Darwin, then Indonesia to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Aden, Red Sea, Suez Canal back to the Med. For the next 8 years we cruised Turkey, Greece, Black Sea circuit via Odessa, Ukraine, an Sinop, Turkey in the East, The Adriatic, Albania, Montenegro and Croatia.
in 2011 we sailed to S. Italy and Sicily, we were intending to cruise West Coast of Italy but transmission problems force uss to sail back to Greece where repairs and berthage were cheaper, surviving 40kt. winds in the process.
In September while at anchor in Vlikho Harbour, Levkas a freak storm strong enough to blow over all the boats in cradles in the local boatyard, capsized us. Sanyassa was written off and the experience spooked my wife so much she will no longer sail.
In the past 12 years apart from the occasional foray out into Auckland Harbour and The Hauraki Gulf I have done no sailing. Eventually the pull of the sea became to great and in partnership with my brother at the age of 86 I have become the part owner of a Sadler 34, Faustina. This month we sailed, well, we mainly motored from Plymouth where we bought her to Glasson Dock, Morecambe Bay, via a brief stop in Holyhead and a longer one in Fleetwood.
Faustina is now on the hard in Glasson, where we will winter, make improvements and next summer move to Troon on the Clyde from where we hope to explore the mainland and islands of the West Coast of Scotland.
