It’s a Thursday afternoon in September, the day before the finals of the RYA British Keelboat League, and Daryl Conyers is still looking for crew. Several people have dropped out of his Royal Western Yacht Club team and he’s spent the past week on the phone looking for replacements. For the Royal Western to take its place in the finals, Daryl just needs two other sailors, but as every skipper knows, finding crew is never easy. The club qualified via the regional event it hosted earlier in the summer and is keen to be on the startline. But now, with about 14 hours to go, Daryl has all but given up. He goes off to the pub in Plymouth for a pint, where he bumps into Chris Harris, aged 18, a keen J/24 sailor, and David Haw, aged 22, a J/70 regular. “Can you come keelboat racing tomorrow in Surrey?”
The lads give Daryl a look. Is the Pope Catholic? They down their pints and head off to pack. Royal Western is back in the mix.
ROOKIE
9am the following morning I’m suited and booted at Queen Mary Sailing Club in Surrey, looking for three blokes from Plymouth. My Yachts & Yachting jacket is helpful in these situations. My call had come via Jack Fenwick, who heads up the RYA’s keelboat team. “There’s a crew from Plymouth needs some ballast….are you free?”
Luckily for me, Queen Mary is five minutes from my house, but after a five hour drive from Plymouth, my new teammates Daryl, Chris and David are in need of strong coffee. Knowing its customer base well, Queen Mary has strong coffee on tap, so I get the drinks in and we sit down to survey the wind gusting across the reservoir and discuss significant matters such as: “So have you done any of this type of racing before, Rob?”
“No.”
I wrack my brain…wasn’t the America’s Cup once won by a scratch crew?
NATIONAL LEAGUE
This story is from the April 2020 edition of Yachts & Yachting.
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This story is from the April 2020 edition of Yachts & Yachting.
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