CURIOUS GENIUS

PETE GOSS HAS SAILED MORE DIFFERENT YACHTS THAN MOST OF US COULD IMAGINE, BUT IT’S A HOME-BUILT 32FT GAFFER THAT IS HIS CHEF-D’OEUVRE, AS ELAINE BUNTING FINDS OUT

They won’t come into a marina very often, but when they do, Pete and Tracey Goss will be doing a lot of talking. They were in Mayflower Marina in Plymouth when I met them, taking on fuel and water, and a steady stream of people stopped as they walked by. All asking, ‘What is this boat? What is she for?’ 

The name says it all. Oddity. Spelt out in a groovy 1970s font. Turquoise with a bright yellow tender, a big squared off coachroof, a gaff rig and dagger boards. This curious boat absolutely screams ‘Story!’

Pete has time for every passer-by. He answers all their questions and invites one man on board to look around. He listens to descriptions of their own boats and sailing history, but he doesn’t counter with his own. Pete Goss is one of the humblest people you could ever meet, and you might never realise the full story: this boat is the creation of one of Britain’s most heroic ocean racing sailors.

Oddity tells you so much about Pete and Tracey Goss. It is a very personal boat, a downsizer that they plan to take on a nomadic journey to all the nooks and crannies of Europe.

A few years ago, this wasn’t even on the horizon. In 2017 they launched Pearl, a Garcia 45 Exploration named to commemorate their 30th wedding anniversary, and set off across the Atlantic with the intention of sailing slowly round the world through the Tropics.

They were on the east coast of the US in March 2020 when the pandemic struck and the world closed down. They managed to get a flight home with little more than what they stood up in and returned to their UK home, a Mongolian yurt in a Cornish wood (more about that later…). By the time restrictions lifted, family life and commitments had changed. The window had closed.