[Trevor Thompson]

 

I was thinking about the highlights of the cruises which I had experienced over the last few years. It seemed that the best bits were associated with trying to achieve some form of plan. For example cruising around Cornwall to the 50 anniversary celebrations, and then on to the east coast (was that really 8 years ago!). The round Britain Relay where I sailed up to Anglesey and then down to Falmouth and back. The long trip into the inland waterways of Ireland last year. It then occurred to me that (I) or we really needed a “Grand Plan” for next year. Of course the problem was that I could not think of anything.

So I discussed it with Dinah and of course she immediately came up with an idea. “A Virtual Round the World Relay”. I know that at first sight that sounds huge – and beyond us and our boats. But bear with me while I explain what she meant:

Firstly the idea is an extension of the “Round Britain Relay” so in a way it is a natural progression. Of course she never expected any of us to actually sail around the world, but since we all live in different parts of the world we could individually sail in lots of different parts of the world. Rather than try to make a progress where one boat physically takes over “the batton” from another, she meant that we would add up all of the distances that we each, or in separate cruises in company, covered in the year. As our boats are trailer sailors (or at least trailable cruisers) then the distances covered on the road would also count. Perhaps where we can get a number of boats together then we could apply a multiplier to reflect the difficulty of getting a group of boats together in the same place. Perhaps multiplying the distance covered by 3 when three boats get together. Could it also act as an incentive for restorers to actually get their boats afloat?

Now I seem to remember that it is about 25000 miles around the world. Could we jointly cover that sort of distance between us? Well look at it like this:

Calista will be travelling to the Adriatic next spring. That is 2000 miles on the road. We plan to sail from near Trieste to Albania and back. That must be a round trip of about another 2000 miles. Fairey Mary is currently in the western Mediterranean, and she must be covering perhaps 200 miles per week. If she is still there next year that could add another thousand or so. Chas and Mandy are currently sailing Walrus in the Adriatic. I know that cruise is in the wrong year – but they usually trail somewhere abroad and cruise around. That could add another thousand. Dominic probably trails 400 miles to launch Mourn Goblin each year. Perhaps it is a bit unfair to single out particular members like this and I know that I have missed many others who sail or trail serious distances.

Anyway if you add all the above distances up you can see that 10000 miles seems quite feasible. So why not try for 25000 miles? It’s no challenge if it is too easy – and anyway does it matter if we don’t achieve the whole distance? It would provide a focus, an incentive, and it would be something we could share on the website. I remember well the interest we generated on our “Round Britain Relay”, there were people following the updates on our website all the time – we generated a tremendous number of “hits”. I know the yachting press were totally uninterested, but that no longer matters, it all happens on the internet today. We could have a “meter” on the website (well it’s only an idea) showing how far we had got – you know like the thermometer you used to see outside churches when they were raising money for something.  

 

What do you think?

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