Just as we stepped aboard Samsara, bobbing on the sunny waters alongside Poole Quay, my wife, Cathy, was handed a pair of tweezers by her skipper, John Passmore. Holding the…
Dick Durham’s Sailing Blog
Builder of Dragons and friend to royalty: The life of Peter Wilson
Between the rooftops I spotted a white-sailed yacht close-hauled and heading north. Ebb must be away, I thought, as I drove down the hill from Aldeburgh’s St Peter & St…
‘Astral was rolled and lost her mast as the wind increased to 80 knots’ – Dick Durham
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the world’s second worst yacht-racing disaster, and yet most sailors have never heard of it. It has gone unremarked for all these years…
Zoonie Sails Home: A phlegmatic odyssey
I’ve often wondered why people give names to inanimate objects, why they feel the need to christen cold steel, personalise plastic or anthropomorphise auxiliaries. Perhaps it’s superstition – a belief…
The master mariner’s tale: Why experience trumps preparation
Some years ago, I arrived at a chilly sports centre in the Midlands to give a talk to some yachtsfolk keen enough to turn up on a winter’s night. One…
Mooring mayhem: How a two-hour limit led to a close encounter with a high-vis bailiff – Dick Durham
A hot weekday morning heralded the arrival of Betty II alongside the floating pontoon at Rowhedge, near Colchester. A sign warned that mooring was limited to two hours – a…
‘An orange glow lit up the horizon: an oil tanker had been torpedoed’ – Dick Durham
Inside an old jewellery box sits a yellowing fang set in a gold mount. It is the triangular molar wrenched from a shark jaw trolled for somewhere in the South…
‘She went like a bronco, throwing her bow to the western sky’ – Dick Durham
There’s nothing like planning, and of course, it had all been planned a year in advance. Application forms filled in, a berth allocated, pilot book purchased. Documents of competence, proof…
Is Britain really a maritime nation?
Many years ago, I was on a family motoring holiday driving towards Brittany when, in a small town, we passed under a banner proclaiming a regatta. I was baffled: we…
‘Everyone will miss Don, but few will miss his copy’ – Remembering a sailing writing legend
There’s a scene in the film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where outlaws Paul Newman and Robert Redford watch from a crag as the distant posse chases them. To…