Julian Megson Sailing

With less than 3 weeks to go before Ragamuffin goes in the water, we are almost ready.

We decided at the last minute to do a total rewire of the electrics. It was quite a big job to rip out the whole lot and replace it with new, but it was definitely worth doing. Now there is a lot less cabling and the layout looks logical rather than the tangled mess it was before. Before it would have been almost impossible to quickly fix any problems had there been an electrical fault which is the last thing you need at sea.

Ragamuffin is starting to look really good. She’s painted and anti-fouled at last, thanks to a break in the weather. The only thing missing from her appearance is the white lettering for her name, and some white pinstripes which will finish the job nicely.

She was turning quite a few heads this weekend. I didn’t realise this but it seems that quite a few people at the boatyard have been following her progress. I had lots of lovely comments from people passing by. I must admit when I stood back to admire Ragamuffin I felt really proud of her. I can barely believe she’s all mine.

There are still some jobs to do, but these will have to wait until later in the season. I really wanted to run all the lines back to the cockpit for safety reasons and to make trimming the sails a lot easier. To do this I need some clutches and a couple of winches, but at the moment funds do not allow. So until that is sorted I will not be sailing single-handed but hopefully it won’t be too long.

Finally I want to say a really big thank you to Duncan. Without you the boat would not be ready to sail. I really appreciate all your hard work and the enormous amount of time you have put into getting Ragamuffin ship shape. I hope one day I will be able to make it up to you.

I’m really starting to feel excited about the new sailing season.  I have my sail from The Azores to Portsmouth to look forward to in May.  I can hardly believe I’m going to be crewing a boat halfway across the Atlantic!

I now have a launch date for my new boat (old boat but new to me). I’m really looking forward to finding out how well she sails.  There is still lots to do before she is ship-shape and time is a bit tight, but she’s coming together nicely.

In 2009 I also have new cruising grounds to look forward to.  My previous boat, which I shared with a friend, was moored at Whitby.  This was great because you could sail out of the harbour at any state of tide.  But in my opinion the scope for cruising was limited.  If you want to sail offshore from Whitby your options are more or less limited to Norway, which is fine if you have lots of time on your hands.

My new boat will be moored on the west coast of England.  The marina is a little bit more restricted than at Whitby.  You can only pass in and out at certain times based upon high water.  But in my view the scope for sailing is much better.  From my marina I can sail to Ireland, Wales, the Scottish Islands and the Isle of Man.  So much choice!

Knowing my humble background, if three years ago you would have told me I would soon have my own boat and be sailing half way accross the Atlantic I would never have believed it.

Thanks to a superb surprise from my wife Fiona, I will be sailing as part of a number of professional and amateur crew on the second leg of a Transatlantic crossing. My journey will take me non-stop from the The Azores to Portsmouth, a total of 1200 nautical miles.  Far from being just a passenger, I will be a fully working member of crew.  I intend to work hard and do all that would be expected of a professional crew and more.  Its not often that an opportunity like this comes along so I’m not going to waste it.  I just can’t wait to learn and absorb what it takes to sail a boat on a non-stop ocean crossing.

The organisers of the trip are ‘Ondeck‘.  Ondeck offer adventure sailing with a difference in that they aim to make the adventure of long haul sailing accessible and affordable to both novice sailors and highly experienced crews alike.  They own a fleet of Farr 65s ocean going yachts.  Farr 65s are unique in that they were designed by the world renowned Bruce Farr to be de-tuned versions of the famous Whitbread 60 for the ‘Millennium Round the World Yacht Race’ and with amateur crews in mind.  Although they have the performance of a fast racing yacht, they are extremely safe and user friendly for even the most novice of crews.

Needless to say this adventure is going to provide valuable experience crucial for my Single Handed Transatlantic voyage.  Firstly it will go a long way to teach me what it takes to sail a boat long haul.  The journey is non stop and as such means that the boat needs to be sailed 24 hours a day for almost 2 weeks.  There will be a watch system onboard where work is shared between teams, but never the less the boat will need constant attention for the whole journey.  Secondly this experience will allow me to be much more of a realistic proposition in terms of finding sponsorship.  If I’m honest this is the part of the whole venture that leaves me lacking in confidence.  Where as I can go out in my boat as often as I like to gain the skills I need and to acclimatise to life at sea, having the confidence to believe that anyone is going to be interested enough in me and basically beg for money in order to realise my dream, is another matter.  So it will be a great relief to me to have this journey under my belt and I will at last feel I have something tangible to offer in terms of having some of the experience required to be able to see this venture through.

If you want to know more about Ondeck, you can visit there website here.

I couldn’t sleep last night.  I was sat up in bed for ages until goodness knows what hour.  I was thinking that in just a few months I’m going to sail my new boat for the first time.  I was imagining what it’s going to be like on my first sail in her.  If I’m like this now, what on earth am I going to be like as the time to launch the boat gets closer .

I’m sure anyone reading this will think I’ve lost the plot, but she’s more than just a boat to me.  For starters she represents lots of hard work just to get this stage of owning a boat.  Then there is the time and money invested in getting her ship-shape before she goes back into the water.  There is still lots to do and the pressure is on, but I don’t mind that, I always find a way to get things done.

It’s the feeling I get when I’m out at sea that drives me.  On land its obvious I’m different from most other people and in some ways I am restricted.  At sea however, all things are equal and I am free. The feeling of freedom, mixed with excitement, beauty and exhilaration are all things which I associate with being at sea.   I can feel it just thinking and writing about it now.

The thing is, I know that if I want succeed and excel as a sailor, which I do more than anything, then its down to me in the end and my attitude to hard work, experience and a willingness to learn.  I can assure you, I still have much to learn.  Above all I will need grit and determination and to keep my eyes on the prize (which for me is the single handed sail across the Atlantic).  It would be far easier sometimes, when things are not going to plan, to use my circumstances as an excuse to give up.  My attitude however, is that problems and circumstances are there to be overcome and therefore greater is the achievement having overcome them successfully.

On that note, roll on spring and the sailing season.

If you, like me have started to get the winter blues, sailing is off the agenda until spring, and you’ve read and re-read all your sailing magazines.  Your well thumbed books on heroic adventures of around the world sailing are on their last legs and have been read to death.  Then worry not, because this month sees the start of not one, but two single handed circumnavigations for you to follow.

Last weekend saw the start of the 2008/2009 Vendee Globe.  30 Skippers left dry land and slipped their moorings for last time this year.   For the British among us you may be interested to know that their are 7 British skippers among the hopefuls.  Although for one of them, Alex Thompson on Hugo Boss, the adventure has ended after only 3 days following a collsion with a fishing vessel just before the race which caused substantial damage, followed by what appears to be another collision during the race of an unknown object below the water line which caused the boat to be holed and take on water.  That said, there are still plenty of British contenders to follow, including Mike Golding whom I met at the Southampton Boat show this year.  I wish them all the very best of luck.

If that wasn’t enough, today a very young Mike Perham ,aged just 16 years old, cast off from Portsmouth on a voyage which could see him being the youngest yachtsman to sail single handed around the world.  The current record is held by an Australian who completed the journey at the age of 18.

So what will the lone skippers face on this journey of approximately 21,600 miles.  They leave for an adventure which won’t see then touch dry land again for the next 3 to 4 months, possible more in the case of Mike Perham.  First they head off south, down the Atlantic Ocean and through the squalls and calms of the Doldrums at the equator.  Once in the South Atlantic they will make for the southern tip of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope.  Here they will head east.  This marks the entrance to the Southern Oceans and is where the fun really begins.  The sea here is uninterrupted by landmass for the entire circumference of the globe.  Because of this and the the continuous flow of low pressure systems from the west, waves of up to 60 foot high are common place.  With ice cold seas, icebergs and being thousands of miles from land, this is not the place to get things wrong.  Next is the formidable and mythical Cape Horn.  Here there is a bottle neck as the seas force there way through the narrow gap between the southern most tip of South America and Antarctica.  This point is notorious for having probably the most violent seas on the planet.  It is estimated that gales occur on around 200 to 250 days a year.  Once past Cape Horn, the boats head north into the South Atlantic again and onto the homeward stretch.  However, the game is not yet over.  The boats and skippers alike are battered and bruised and nothing must be taken for granted.  There are no prizes for not finishing so the boats must be nursed home at last.

If you want to follow these events you can vist their websites at Vendee Globe and Sail Mike

October has soon arrived.  So has the realisation that I’m not going to get the boat back into the water this year.  The plan was to launch in September and sail her to a permanent mooring in Liverpool.  But there is still much work to do below the waterline before she can be put afloat.

That said and remaining positive, these jobs are better not rushed.  I would be more disappointed – in myself – if I had compromised the quality of the work for the sake of putting her afloat quickly.  Fortunately common sense has prevailed and I have not allowed that to happen, despite the temptation to do so.  Besides, with Winter approaching, I would not be sailing much and the longer she’s out of the water the better she will dry out.

I feel slightly more at ease knowing that there is not much more I could have done to speed things up.  Although I do wonder if I could have found a way.  The weather has been dreadful and has hampered progress and with the usual commitments at home it’s not always possible to get away for a full weekend in order to get stuck in.

There have been times when I’ve found myself hopelessly out of my depth with the refit.  Fortunately for me, I have had some amazing help from a good friend, Duncan, who’s kindness has been overwhelming.  His time, skill and know how have been invaluable.  I’m learning all the time that there is more to sailing, than sailing.

I had a good day at the Southampton Boat Show today.  We had good weather too, it felt like summer for once.

There were two main highlights for me.  The first was to see Suhaili, the 32 foot Ketch built and sailed by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on the first ever non-stop circumnavigation of the globe.  Among the hundreds of moulded glass fibre boats, Suhaili’s hand built teak hull, weathered and imperfect to me looked more stunning than them all.  I couldn’t resist running my hand along her hull, A real piece of history.  If I were given the chance to sail on her or a modern Open 60 I would have to go go for Suhaili.  That said anyone wishing to allow me to crew an Open 60 should not be put off by that remark

The second highlight was been given a chance to speak briefly to Mike Golding, the single handed Yachtsman who has sailed around the world several times.  He gave me some good advice on sponsorship which was very useful and crucial to my future plans.  Thanks again for that Mike.

My Wife Fiona and daughter Megan enjoyed it too.  Megan’s favourite bit, she tells me, was the lifeboat simulator and a tour around a real Taymar class Lifeboat.  It’s a very solid peice of kit, but then you want it to be.  It’s good to know that the RNLI have the best equipment to hand when pulling you out of the drink.

Katie Miller and her boat ‘hot socks’ were there as official ambassador to the Southampton Boat Show.  She’s come a long way since her solo circumnavigation of Great Britain in 2006, a year culminating in being awarded the Raymarine YJA Young Sailor of the Year award.  With a good result in the bluQube 1000 mile Solo race earlier this year she has qualified for the 2009 OSTAR, the Original Single Handed Trans-Atlantic Race.  It’s encouraging for me to see people attaining their dreams.

It’s a big show and you would struggle to see it all in one day.  But if a day is all you’ve got spare as I did,  then it’s still definately worth a visit.

Well the Great British summer has got up to its old tricks again. Rain and more rain with the odd flood here and there. This is making work on the boat slow but not impossible, progress has been made. The hull has been sanded and prepared for a new coat of paint. The engine has been serviced and tested – it was good to here it running for the first time. Seacocks have been overhauled, and the standing rigging is in the process of being replaced with new.

Among my ‘to do’ list is a small crack in the rudder needs investigating, an overhaul of the electrics, a new electric bilge pump plus a whole lot of little jobs. The other thing I’m keen to do is to run all lines back to the cockpit to minimise the amount of time I have to spend on deck. It’s a lot easier and safer to be able to trim the sails from the cockpit without the thrill a banzai dash above decks.

Here’s hoping more sun.

Julian

On Saturday 9 August I signed on the dotted line and took possession of my new boat, a Hurley 24/70 called ‘Ragamuffun’. I’ve been on the lookout for a new boat for a while but it was quite unexpected to find the right boat whilst I was on holiday. We passed the boat yard in Bangor North Wales and decided to take a look around. My wife, Fiona, was looking through the catalogue of boats for sale when she came accross ‘Ragamuffin’. She instantly fell for the boat, not because of the specification, the size or even the way she looked, but because of the name! There is obviously more to buying a boat that just the name, but before I knew it she was arranging a viewing with a member of staff. I trailed both my enthusiastic wife, my daughter Megan and broker through the yard to where ‘Ragamuffin’ was layed up. She was a Hurley 24. A bit tatty here and there but overall she looked well. I should state at this point that I was looking out for a Hurley 22, the smaller cousin of the Hurley 24, so I was pleasantly surprised to be looking at a bigger boat by the same designer.

I decided to think about it for a while and made a couple of visits to the boatyard to take another look before making up my mind. When we got home from our holiday we decided to make an offer and after some bartering we struck a deal. She was mine.

Welcome to my Blog.

This is the beginning of a journey for me. My aim is to make a single handed voyage in a sail boat across the Atlantic Ocean and not only that, but to race. This would push most able bodied people to their limits, let alone someone with a physical disability like mine. I have Spina-Bifida, a spinal defect from birth. However, I am really fortunate because I am able to sail a yacht and sail single handed.

Sailing the Atlantic for me will be a first and I intend to make the whole experience from start to finish a really special time of my life.  It’s a challenge which I would never have thought possible.  But that is what life is all about, living life to the full, pushing through boundaries, achieving great things and inspiring others to make the most of their potential.

I’m not out to change the world, I shall leave that to far more capable people than I.  But should I succeed I hope that in my small way that I might be able to inspire and motivate others to do something far beyond what they thought themselves capable of.  Everyone has a fire in their belly, a desire to do something fantastic with their lives, but it is up to us to do something about it.  Something which I aim to do from this moment on.  Obstacles are to be expected, but obstacles are there to be overcome.

I can honestly say that already I am having the time of my life.  I’m a disabled working class bloke from Bradford. Yet I sail the open sea, with its ever changing moods.  It really is the most beautiful thing.

I hope you enjoy my blog and follow me as I take my journey from landlubber to ocean yachtsman. I welcome all your comments.

Cheers, Julian