Dick Durham secured the last interview with yachting cartoonist Mike Peyton, just weeks before he died.
Two brent geese curled over the sea wall on the back of a chill easterly wind and water-skied to a halt on the pond behind the cottage which is Mike Peyton’s home in the Essex marshlands. I rapped the door knocker and Jacko, the rescue terrier, started barking.
Mike’s wife, Kath, let me in, a mocking smile playing about her lips: ‘Mike, it’s the muckraker,’ she shouted into the house. This jesting nom de plume she had bestowed on me, a few years back, following my research into Mike’s life for his biography.
A baleful-looking figure with a shock of white hair, like William grown from schoolboy to granddad, appeared and Mike ushered me through to the ground floor study.
The presentation of a Yachting Journalists Association Diamond Jubilee Lifetime Achievement Award at London’s Trinity House, had made no difference to his North Country phlegm; the award, an abstract boat on a plinth, stood behind the TV.
Denne historien er fra April 2017-utgaven av Yachting Monthly.
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Denne historien er fra April 2017-utgaven av Yachting Monthly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Midsummer on Hanö
This wonderful little island in the south-east of Sweden is a real gem off the beaten track
ADVENTURE SAILING TO HAITI
After spending two months in the Dominican Republic, Andy Brown sails west to Haïti bringing medical and school supplies to the town of Mole Saint Nicholas
In celebration of bad sailing
New owner Monty Halls tests his sailing skills with his family aboard their Colvic 34 ketch, Sobek. A recently qualified Day Skipper, Monty faces a few unexpected challenges...
Winter brings excitement and opportunity
Oddity’s double glazing, insulation and heating create a warm, homely environment as I bash out this column.
ADVENTURE MAISIE GOES TO GOES
To depart or not to depart? That is the question. Is it safer to stay, or suffer the wind and weather of a rough North Sea?
'MAYDAY, GRANDAD OVERBOARD!'
When David Richards and his grandson Henry went out racing from lowey, they didn't expect their sail to end with a lifeboat rescue
VERTUE
For a 25-footer, the Vertue has a huge reputation and has conquered every ocean. So what makes this little boat quite such an enduring success? Nic Compton finds out
Sailing siblings
Mabel Stock, her brother Ralph, a friend Steve and an unnamed paying passenger passed through the Panama Canal in December 1919 on the sturdy Norwegian cutter Ogre. They were towed to a quiet anchorage in Balboa away from the boat traffic but within rowing distance of the shore.
TECHNICAL MAINSAIL MODIFICATIONS
Safety and performance improved hugely when Mike Reynolds reduced the size of his mainsail and re-configured the systems controlling it
PILOTAGE DONE PROPERLY
Chartplotters are an amazing aid, but can detract from your real-world pilotage if not used with caution, says Justin Morton
