GERRY HUGHES NO CHALLENGE TOO GREAT

Gerry Hughes is the first deaf sailor to solo circumnavigate the world. Katy Stickland finds out what motivates him to push the boundaries

- Katy Stickland

If it hadn’t been for Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, there is a chance that Gerry Hughes’ dream to sail around the world might have gone unfulfilled. The Scottish sailor, who was born profoundly deaf, was struggling to find insurance for his double-handed sail around the British Isles with deaf sailor Matthew Jackson.

‘Being deaf meant I couldn’t get insurance. I remember one person saying that I must have a hearing person in my crew. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to show that deaf people have the ability. I didn’t want hearing people to help me,’ he said.

His ‘big breakthrough’ came when he met Sir Robin at the bar at Troon marina, and explained his dilemma via written notes. The following morning Sir Robin handed him a note which read, ‘Use my name for your insurance. Go sail round Great Britain. Good luck.’

‘Without Sir Robin’s support, I would never have been able to experience sailing in the great oceans of the world. My life would have been very different,’ he recalled.

Hughes and Jackson left Troon on 5 July 1981 aboard the 31ft Westerly Longbow, Faraway II. They returned 29 days later, having sailed 2,169 miles and earned a place in the record books as the first deaf crew to circumnavigate the British Isles without the aid of communication. It was just a taste of things to come for Gerry Hughes.

Born in Glasgow in 1957, Hughes grew up holidaying on the Firth of Clyde, Largs and the Isle of Bute where he soon fell in love with the feel of the southwesterly wind and the smell of seaweed; the start of a life-long connection with the sea.