Sailing

The Tall Ships race started from Southampton in April. We were shown round the Kruzenshtern (left) by a friendly Russian sailor. "This is almost the biggest sailing ship in the world" he said with pride.

Then he nodded fiercely at Mir, another Russian ship on the other side of the dock: "But that one is four metres longer!". Everything on the ship is done by hand by the crew of over 170. We sailed out to join the fleet as it paraded out of Southampton Water — a splendid sight though sadly a head wind precluded full sail set.
The biggest sailing ship in the world!

This year's Round the Island went well, with a superb (and unusually relaxed) 30 mile spinnaker run all the way from the Needles to Bembridge. Helped by Richard's old friend Kenton and Bill-the-Aussie, we finished in 10 hours, an hour inside our record, coming 180th out of about 800 in our handicap (over 1700 boats raced in all).