Topsail Spinnaker is these days probably Britain's best-known solo yachtswoman. Only last year she completed spectacular solo journey where she sailed all the way across one of Birmingham's widest canals. A journey that took almost an hour. Now she is all set to – sometime in the next few years - attempt the task of sailing along a canal lengthways, possibly for several hundred yards.
Of course, Spinnaker began her solo sailing career mainly because those who had seen her sailing abilities always had something else to do on the days she asked them to go out sailing with her. Not only that, her local coastguard and the local RNLI crew both banned her from any attempt at sailing out to sea. This did prevent her attempt to sail solo from Tenby to Caldey Islandin what would've been a world's first for someone with as little sailing ability as Spinnaker. As her own proud mother once said, referring to Spinnaker's childhood exploits, Spinnaker 'couldn't even sail a boat in her bath without it sinking'.
It was only after the teenage Spinnaker first took driving lessons and ended up parking her instructor's car in the Irish sea that it was suggested that Spinnaker could have a natural seafaring aptitude.
Although, as some have pointed out Spinnaker does have a rare talent amongst solo yachtswomen of having an innate sense of direction when sailing. The only drawback being that direction is usually downwards.
Consequently, Spinnaker's sponsors and backers – mainly deep-sea salvage companies and wetsuit manufacturers – decided that perhaps Spinnaker's true gift lay in inland sailing. An area not usually associated with solo yachting and thus one – they felt – she could make her own. It would, they felt, also keep the rescue helicopters in base long enough for a much needed refit after her last seventeen attempts to get a yacht out of Tenby harbour without it disappearing under her.
Still, though after her circumnavigation of the UK's canal system next year there is talk of Spinnaker's name appearing in the New Year's Honours List. Mainly in recognition of her services to the maritime salvage industry. That is, of course, if she can manage to reach Buckingham Palace after crossing the Thames in London without drowning.
No comments:
Post a Comment