Cruiser Lunch 8th January 2023 11 Jan 2023
Cruiser Fleet – Guest Speaker & Carvery Lunch
8th January 2023
The Cruiser Fleet held their first event of 2023 on Sunday. At midday around 50 members and their guests attended the talk given by Duncan Lougee. Duncan told us about his journey from Plymouth to the Azores during June/July 2021 in his newly acquired 25ft long GRP Folkboat named ‘Minke’. The trip was part of a series of voyages known as The Jester Challenge for single handed ocean sailors in sailing boats of between twenty and thirty feet in length.
Despite the extensive work done to the boat in preparation for the voyage Duncan suffered a failure to the rudder pivot system. He was left to complete the journey initially with a Jury rudder and after that had failed in rough seas, some skilful sailing without a rudder. Later some better progress was made by accepting a tow from fellow competitor, George Arnison in his timber yacht ‘Good Report’ which had sufficient power whilst under sail to make an effective tow when the weather allowed. Some eleven days after the rudder had failed ‘Good Report’ towed ‘Minke’ over the finish line in Pria da Vitoria, Terceria.
The Ocean Cruising Club Seamanship Award was later presented to both George Arnison and Duncan Lougee for their demonstration of exceptional seamanship in this unique set of circumstances including having to ride out a full gale.
Our Cruiser Fleet Treasurer Sheena Cousins collected donations for the RNLI after the excellent carvery lunch by way of thanks to Duncan who gave his time and made the journey to Burnham without any personal reimbursement.
Duncan indicated that he intends to take part in future Jester Challenge events and we will all be following his progress with great interest.
Please click on the thumbnails to see the full photographs
Steve Barham
(Tom Keeper, our Cruiser Fleet Captain is away)