EILEAN’S ATLANTIC CROSSING
S
o here’s the thing: and I’m worried this might sound a bit mad, a bit… schoolkid’s-first-trip or just wet like an otter’s pocket. But this boat I am on – I am in I should say, because I am lying in my bunk and we’re far out to sea – this boat, she really feels like a live animal.
The boat is the Eilean, the 72ft (22m) restored Fife ketch, and we’re three days out to sea SSW of Tenerife, headed to find the northeasterly trade winds to take us to St Maarten in the West Indies. And yes, it’s kind of a trip of a lifetime; only the second time I have ever got to do anything like this…
Anyhow in my bunk this night I’m in a semi-dream
state and Eilean is giving me the sensation of flying. We’re broad-reaching down the wave fronts of a reasonable Atlantic swell and we have been registering speeds of 12 to 13 knots. It has taken a while to get used to the sounds of the boat at sea; things rolling around in lockers are matched by heavy creaks as the boat surges off the wind, but these noises have now merged into the background burble of the vessel ploughing her way through the sea, heard through the teak planking just inches from my ear. Only she’s not ploughing now – the hull just hisses and the movement surges forward as though she has taken to the air. “I’m in a great winged horse,” I tell myself and the sensation is one of huge beating wings as she speeds up, slows slightly and then swoops forward
again. I have never felt this so keenly in a boat before and I can only describe it as something close to ecstasy. I know I am experiencing the changing centre of effort on the centre of lateral resistance but I can sense it rocking either side of her keel so that it feels like the limb movements of some fabulous mythic animal. At times she soars effortlessly and then glides for a minute or more – the image in my mind is that I am flying a dragon down vast northern wooded mountain valleys, the ranks of fir trees just below us, craggy peaks… I have often said that you don’t need to take drugs once you’ve sailed offshore. But I wonder if others have ever had that sensation, of the animalistic nature of a wooden boat, or whether it’s just William Fife boats. Maybe that’s how they got their famed dragon motifs on the bow, which I always thought was a nod to the prow of the Viking longships.
RESCUED AND RESTORED Eilean was restored by the charismatic Panerai watchmaker boss Angelo Bonati as a flagship for the high-end brand at the classic regattas he sponsors. In 2006 Bonati had found her when she was lying forlorn in the mangroves in English Harbour, Antigua, WI, bought her and brought her to Italy to restore (CB264). Eilean of course was famous in the WIndies, where French architect John Shearer had owned her since 1970. She had been the star of Duran Duran’s Rio video but also
CLASSIC BOAT APRIL 2012 11
Above left: Eilean with cruising rig Above top: The editor at the wheel Above: Hoisting the mizzen
Opposite: Atlantic slop Previous spread: Sunrise at 40ºW
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100