The story goes, well the story I tell in brief….
I grew up beach casting, landing my first line directed by my old man at the age of 5 or 6, it was always said I’d eat my packed lunch within the first 20 minutes of an over night fishing trip but obviously always take the biggest catch…I’m sure the fact my dad did the casting and allowed me to make the last 2 winds on the reel before beaching the worlds largest dog fish had nothing to do with me being the greatest 5 year old angler in the world.
Me and my mate Dave were into surfing, I say surfing. We were 18 and looked good in neoprene and beaded necklaces. The days of lazing on the board in all weathers soon passed when we became parents and had actual jobs mind. We bought all the kit to start snorkelling instead, we had the neoprene we just added massive flippers and extensions to our already big mouths….turns out neither of us liked swimming into patches of seaweed and the fear of what might be in the dark was terrifying so that didn’t last long either.
Next I got given a disability scooter. The type old or fat people use to go shopping in Asda. I traded the scooter for an old fibreglass sit in kayak. I’m pretty sure said scooter was later used in a ram raid but by then I was happily paddling the local rivers. My little sisters husband had somehow became the owner of a similar boat at the same time and jointly we resprayed our kayaks and planned great adventures.
During this time I dreamt of bigger boats, quite literally. The day came (and is told in more detail in some future post I’ve not yet typed) that I found an actual boat, I say boat it was a hull but all the same.
kayaking was still my love, I bought a bigger sit-on-top and along with my ex-military uncle who had progressed from an inflatable open top (a similar boat I’d also paddled with my daughter) began expedition paddles exploring the Wye regularly on multi day camping trips. We deviated slightly from the boats and decided to traverse 20 miles of the Wye on paddle boards one summer just to mix it up, our only previous experience of paddle boards being on a secluded man made lake in my childhood village.
Then came the day I watched a film about a local chap who despite the odds took to the seas, Donald crowhurst. Ok to those who know anything about sailing maybe not the greatest inspiration. Mr Crowhurst was a Bridgwater bloke who signed up to the worlds maddest sailing race despite having no real knowledge of world sailing. Story goes he lost the plot at sea realising he could never make it and being neck deep in debt he thought it better to be neck deep in the Atlantic….anyway that was my inspiration, not to try to traverse the world but to give sailing ago.
Then comes buying Pendragon, a 27 foot Thames marine Snapdragon powered by a Bukh DV10 built before even I was born. A freak opportunity that has a much deeper story that again I’ve not yet typed……
I hope you’ll join me in the telling of the story of buying an old boat…
Sailor Fairfax