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t
he Caribbean started calling my name many
years ago, more than I care to remember, and
earlier this year I had an opportunity that I
could not refuse. I had secretly thought about
a sailing holiday many times but, as a keen sailboat
racer all my life, wasn’t sure how I would take to
the slower pace of sailing just for sailing’s sake.
Additionally, my wife Jane, who has never been wild
about the adventure of sailing, would need some
convincing. My son, sam, is an avid dinghy racer, but
he’s also twenty-two, and the venture would have to
promise perfection for him to take a holiday with his
parents, especially now that he was spending more
time with girlfriend, Bethany, a young lady with hardly
any sailing background.
out of the blue, over the Christmas period, I got a
call from an old friend, hal Denton and suddenly the
opportunity was there. I first met hal when running the
company that built his first yacht – a 47-foot trintella.
recently hal had upgraded to the larger trintella 50
and the purpose of his call was to say that he was
wintering in the British Virgin Islands. hal insisted
that I cruise the boat in the islands complete with his
captain, Glenn, aboard. Despite my experience I was
not sure that he trusted me with his pride and joy!
When I nervously proposed it to Jane, who knew the
boat having joined us for the original sea trials which
included, famously, the 2006 round the Island race,
she amazingly enough said yes. sam agreed to come
along provided he could bring Bethany.
My family is pretty hard to please, but our first few
moments in the BVI had everybody smiling from ear
Valour, the Trintella 50 was home for a fabulous week.
MAY 2009 YACHTWORLD.COM 41
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