Above: every October Saint-Tropez clears out the gas-guzzling power yachts, which Griff likens to monsters from outer space, and reintroduces sight lines across the port with the world’s best display of classic yachts. This shot shows the Quai Jean Jaurès where the classic yachts’ counters almost nudge the waterfront restaurant tables. In facing west the port also stays warm in October longer than elsewhere on this coast. Griff (right) failing to conceal his celebrity beneath a floppy hat with his loyal squad of Argyll regulars


you’d say: “Daddy we must put the engine on.” And he’d go: “No, no-no-no, this is the place for real sailing, this is the real thing.” And of course it’s a different experience. ‘When we went to the Baltic with Und-


ina it was a marvel having a centreboard and getting into a tiny, tiny harbour. The challenge of getting into places like that under sail is one of the great joys of sailing.’ Griff has been able to run bigger boats


and to spend many weeks of the summer sailing since he, his late comedy partner Mel Smith and their colleague Peter Fin- cham sold their TV production company TalkBack for £62 million to Pearson in 2000, making all three men very wealthy. So it’s quite strange to hear him talking about Saint-Tropez and of being in another league of riches altogether. ‘When we go to Saint-Tropez we dip our


toes into another world, where you are taken in a fast launch out to a yacht at night past all these other beautiful yachts with vast towering masts all lit up anchored in the bay. And really you are in a world which is only worthy of Douglas Adams. ‘It’s like a gathering of monsters from


outer space – all these space ships, that’s how I see them. And these big boats have a servants’ entrance, a front and a back door; you are going up one companion and on the other side of the boat is another for the paid crew and services. ‘These careers in yachting are good in


one sense but are also sadly the evidence of the great disparity in wealth. We haven’t seen a world like that since the 1920s where the conspicuous expenditure of money in self-indulgence is right in front of your eyes… And it’s nothing like the 1980s. The big boats of the 1980s are the minnows of today. ‘So it does remind me of scenes from Scott Fitzgerald, like in Tender is the


60 SEAHORSE


Night, where they go out to a yacht and he gets drunk. You are now in the world of The Rich Are Very Different From Us… and we have always felt imposter syn- drome,’ Griff is laughing as he says this. ‘I think my mother and father would be


looking at me across the table and saying: “What on earth is this about? This is noth- ing to do with sailing a Yachting Monthly Senior sitting in the mud at Maylandsea.’ Having said this, Griff acknowledges


the lure of Saint-Tropez and its best- known regatta. And it’s perhaps despite its mix of modern and old boats, and the extraordinary power of the Maxi yachts, which include the sleek, dishy elegance of the black-sailed carbon-fibre-rich Wally yachts. Griff is really there for the aesthetic experience of seeing so many fine classic yachts in one place. I remember my first visit there in 1999


where it felt like the gathered classics, moored stern-to along the old stone quays, their teak decks and varnished sheers sweeping the eye along their beautiful lines – felt more like an act of theatre than a sailing meet. And the polished brass, and the vase of flowers (always), and the basket for the crew’s shoes all just increased the visual treat. ‘If you are sailing there and a boat like


Cambria (the 1928 23 Metre) comes sail- ing through then really you are in a magic world,’ Griff agrees. ‘You are in a place that is unparalleled in terms of creating a sailing experience. It’s an amazing week. ‘It also has to be said that sailing in


Saint-Tropez is an art form. You can be going out in a fleet of boats – and it’s a massive fleet – and there is this effect of putting a curtain across the gulf and so, while apparently it’s quite a windy day, you can suddenly find you are on the wrong side of the fleet and you can’t just get back. The fleet is so huge that to be


downwind of it means you almost can’t sail. You really have to keep that in mind! ‘So you need to stay on the windward


side of the fleet and keep out of the con- fused air. You also need to be aware that the races finish at 6pm… ‘We were racing out to an offshore


mark once, on Undina, and they do like to set long races at Saint-Tropez. In the quiet October weather it often tends towards light-airs racing… and we were up against Mike Horsley with Outlaw; but while we were about half a mile behind them we were pretty confident we could beat them because of our better handicap. ‘Mike crossed the finish and there we


were, confident and with just a few yards to go, when they closed the line. It was six o’clock, and there was a party to go to. ‘But with a handicap race that is a really


unhelpful thing to do. Because some of you, the slower boats with good handi- caps, only stand a chance of winning if you can get in before the finishing time. It’s one rule that still favours the light boats more, because they finish quicker. And when you’ve spent a long slow day sailing out to the back of beyond, constantly tweaking everything to get the best from the boat, that is a frustrating thing.’ After years of being based at Cannes,


and doing the Cannes Regatta in the week before Les Voiles Griff has moved Argyll’s base to Menorca. He is now doing quite well, thank you, on the Spanish classics circuit. ‘When you get to the age of 70, which I have, you do wonder if you should do something different, so I made a list… ‘I call it my *uck-it list. It is full of things


I’ve done and keep doing, but that I can’t work out if I am doing because I love them or if I just do them out of habit. ‘But I still love Saint-Tropez; it’s part of


my history. You just need to book a lot earlier these days…’


q


INGRID ABERY


JAMES ROBINSON TAYLOR


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