VIV HEAD
RICHARD BURNELL
CLAUDIA MYATT
boats getting in the way; rather, it’s a part of Holyhead’s 10-year regeneration plan – for which the town attracts European funding.
As a result of all this, there is a huge amount of local goodwill towards the festival. The town council gets behind it with support and a civic reception for the crews. Marina management and staff welcome the fleet with free berthing for the festival and unfailing helpfulness, and the sailing club provides hospitality. Sea Cadets provide ribs and safety boat cover for the racing, the maritime museum is in attendance with photographers, and the local RNLI not only leads the Parade of Sail but shows visitors round the lifeboat and offers lifejacket checks on the quayside. The driving force behind the event is Sue and Pete
Farrer, who head up the North Wales area of the OGA. Sue is a force of nature – one of those people who asks
for what she wants and usually gets it, through a combination of likeability and determination. OGA area president Scott Metcalfe ensures that his schooner Vilma is on show and available, under sail or on the pontoon. Scott displays a remarkably laid-back attitude to having his beautiful boat invaded by visitors, civic guests and even the cannon-firing Anglesey Hussars. The Hussars are a local Napoleonic re-enactment group who are delighted to have an opportunity to dress in full uniform and engage in sea battles on real historic vessels. The ‘Battle of Holyhead’ is now a regular feature of the Parade of Sail. Smaller boats join in with enthusiasm, water pistols and, this year, an inflatable mermaid. Children watching from the shore grapple to make sense of the scene playing out in front of them. “Is that the real pirates of the Caribbean boat? And did pirates really have water pistols in the old days?”
Above, left to right: Every pirate crew needs a parrot; Zebu at night; pirate and child aboard Zebu; shipwright and OGA area president Scott Metcalfe at the helm of Vilma, his converted fishing boat now rigged as a topsail schooner
CLASSIC BOAT APRIL 2012
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