Walking on Water: The daredevil acrobatics of a pioneering photographer

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walking on water

The daredevil acrobatics of a pioneering photographer

kos

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Published by Adlard Coles Nautical an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 49–51 Bedford Square, London WC1 3DP www.adlardcoles.com Text copyright © kos@kosphotos.com Photography copyright © kos@kosphotos.com First edition published 2012

ISBN 978-1-4081-7844-7 EPDF 978-1-4081-8675-8

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the prior permission in writing of the publishers.

The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Edited by Kate Turvey This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed, sustainable forests.

It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

Typeset in ITC Avant Garde Printed and bound in China by C&C Offset Printing Co.

Page 2: Reflections of a yacht’s ensign, as a gentle ripple extends over a calm sea.

Page 6: The giant sails engulf the bowman on the majestic J-Class Velsheda. I love the shadows the sails create, as though a butterfly is emerging from chrysalis.

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CONTENTS Foreword

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Introduction

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Shots Across the BowS 14 turn and Burn 72 Another Day at the Office 88 The Legacy 126 Fusion 140 Technical

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Shots Across the Bows

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My first Assignment In 1982, I photographed the British America’s Cup campaign, Victory, for Peter de Savary. This was my first real big shoot, having only just graduated from my degree course at the London College of Printing in 1981.

It was an exciting time working in Newport, Rhode Island, USA where the British syndicate was based. The campaign had a number of high profile sponsors and, luckily for me, the promoter for the British challenge, Nigel Massey, loved my work. He organised for Aquascutum, one of the sponsors, to dress its windows in Regent Street with huge eight foot prints of my images. It caused such a stir on the opening night, that I had a number of newspapers wanting to interview me about my work. The main reason for the interest, it seemed, was that my images were taken from 80 ft aloft, atop a yacht’s mast, which had not really been done since the days of the Clipper ships.

By chance, as most things are, my masthead pictures evolved from a joke by a crew.

They thought it would be quite funny to send me up the mast to get me out of their hair, as I’d been photographing them day-in-day-out for a few weeks.

The first time, it was a very frightening experience. The yacht was heeling over some 30 degrees and it was hard to hang onto the shrouds (the wire rigging that holds the mast up) without being swung over the sea. Halfway up I got to the spreaders, which were hard to negotiate. I got stuck as the wire halyard wrapped itself around the shrouds. It felt as though I was there for an age, getting bruised and battered. I’m sure the crew below me was drawing lots to see who would have to rescue me. Luckily, suddenly the yacht pitched and I was able to untangle myself and climb to the top.

I could not believe the view, as I looked down on the deck. All the tiny men running around, it was the most amazing image I’d seen on a yacht. I started shooting, but my feet kept swinging into frame and I had to find ways of wrapping my legs around the mast so I could virtually hang upside down and not fall out of the bosun’s chair.

It worked. We processed the images that night and the best picture became the main poster for the British Victory campaign.

Having mastered the technique of getting up the mast, I asked the crew to carry out a spinnaker peel (hoisting a second spinnaker, then dousing the first) while I was up there.

This time, I used a telephoto lens to crop into the forward bow section of the boat. I wanted to show the bowman on the spinnaker pole and the size of the sails he had to deal with. The mast lashed around violently as the two giant spinnakers collapsed and flogged in the 16

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wind. I just kept shooting even though I was getting beaten up and it hurt like hell.

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head for heights By the next America’s Cup in Fremantle, Australia, I had built a reputation for taking masthead images. Being the official photographer for the British Crusader campaign it was, perhaps not surprisingly, the first thing they asked of me.

This campaign was a lot more media savvy than my previous commissions and it required a lot more day-to-day coverage. I ended up living in Western Australia for over a year. Quite a daunting experience. This was the first time I had left home for any long period of time, and if it hadn’t been for my longstanding boyfriend Eddie Owen being one of the helmsmen for the campaign, I would have found it very hard. But as it was, he gave me valuable support and encouragement in what was then a very male dominated sport – much more than it is now.

Being a woman working amongst a large team of serious male athletes can feel quite threatening. Their whole focus is winning and little else. There is little priority or consideration for a photographer trying to create the most amazing images and in those days, before sponsorship really caught hold, my role was not highly regarded by the crew. One needed to have a lot of determination and resolve to make sure the right images were captured to meet clients’ demands and to take pictures that will work for international news stories on a daily basis.

Early on, I was asked to shoot a masthead image to be used as the main promotional poster for the campaign. Fremantle is renowned for its strong winds – nicknamed the ‘Fremantle Doctor’ – and there is usually a large sea running in from the Indian Ocean at most times. We were getting close to our first race day and, as far as the crew was concerned, there was absolutely no time available for a photo shoot.

I waited all day on my powerboat in nearly 40 degrees of heat, bouncing around in the large waves waiting for a moment to get onboard to take some pictures. Finally, once training had finished, there was a call on the VHF radio saying that I could come onboard to take my pictures on the way back in to Freo.

The eleven man crew fixed me into a bosun’s chair and hoisted me up the mast as quick as they could using the halyard lead back to the main coffee grinder winches – about five seconds from deck to 80 ft masthead – while I negotiated, on a rolling yacht, metal shrouds, spreaders, runners and halyards on the way. The spinnaker was then hoisted while I was up there – I barely had time to fix myself into position before it happened. Then, suddenly, the skipper Harold Cudmore, shouted for me to hold on. My instinct told me they were going to gybe the boat which could have put me in a lot of danger. The 68 ft yacht 18

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was starting to surf down some of the bigger waves and the yacht was rolling back and forth.

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It was quite frightening. I just gripped the

yacht sailing along flat out under spinnaker

in the hatchway – as a prank and to wind me

mast tightly with my knees and waited for

with no crew – not even anyone driving! And

up they had all shot down below, with Harold

all hell to let loose as the yacht and its big

we are only a few miles from the shore, which

just popping his head up occasionally to

mainsail and spinnaker crashed through a

is fast approaching…’

keep an eye.

gybe. A few seconds passed and nothing

How could they have done this to me?

happened, no more shouting, no collapsing

Where was the tender? Had it taken the crew

of sails… I waited. Nothing happened. I

off while I was waiting for the gybe? I could

‘Get on with the shots!’ Harold cried out.

looked down and saw to my amazement

see the wheel had been lashed into posi-

I started shooting – it was a crazy image and

that there was absolutely no one onboard!

tion, but the spinnaker was cleated and still

became the picture used to promote the

‘Oh my God! I’m 80 ft up the mast of the

flying. Then I suddenly saw the top of a head

British America’s Cup campaign.

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‘I’ll murder you when I get down!’ I shouted.

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Festival of the sea I was asked by BBC television to guest present, alongside comedian Sandy Toksvig and the late Jill Dando, its live coverage of the Bristol Festival of the Sea and, as part of the programme, I was to shoot a calendar on the event.

It was to be BBC’s second largest outside broadcast ever. Yachts had come from far and wide, from tiny coracles to huge tall ships – even a Viking boat had been rowed over from Eastern Europe to join the festivities.

I brought my custom-built photo boat, the Kos Interceptor, to shoot the event. A tall ship was arriving and we had to meet it in the Bristol Channel, where I would board at 5 a.m. and meet Sandy to take her up the mast. We locked out on my chase boat, but due to the huge tides in the River Severn – at 45 ft the second highest tides in the world – we had to anchor mid-stream for the night.

It was a tempestuous night; the water surged out of the thick brown river like a torrent of milk chocolate. Our anchor dragged several times, and there were horrible noises of flotsam hitting the hull as the tide went out. We eventually nestled down between the mountainous mudbanks on either side of us. It was the most bizarre sight. We grabbed a couple of hours sleep before the roar of water returned. Now a lighter chocolate brown tide of water swirled around us and by 4 a.m. we were able to get underway. We had to meet the ship at 5 a.m. I felt like death having had no sleep. I not only had to get Sandy Toksvig up the mast, but shoot her up there as well and do a piece to camera.

We headed out into the mist that was completely covering the Bristol Channel. It was a navigation nightmare – fast tides, sand banks, thick fog. All we could hear was a foghorn and there was no sign of the tall ship. Then, as the sun got up, the mist started to burn off and I glimpsed the tops of its three masts rising out of the fog. We were unbelievably close to the ship without even knowing it.

Once aboard, I greeted the crew and met up with Sandy. Being a comedian, she had me in stitches even before we started. She was 22

very game-on and without much encouragement, climbed up the

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23 ratlines with me. We got some great shots, after which a BBC cameraman joined us and interviewed us on live TV as we motored into the Festival of the Sea. My day was complete when the one and only Kermit the Frog of The Muppets came on-board my Kos Interceptor to conduct a live interview with circumnavigator Robin Knox Johnson. We piped him aboard with all the ceremony we could muster. Without doubt, he is the funniest and cutest frog I know!

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Armada Saint-Tropez harbour is one of the most impressive ports at any time but, during Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, it is even more spectacular, with all the huge classic yachts moored stern-to along the quay in front of the old pastel-coloured buildings.

The port is unique, photographically, in that it faces westwards into the setting sun, whereas all the other ports on the Riviera tend to face east and so are in shadow at cocktail time.

On one occasion a good friend, Elizabeth Meyer, chartered the classic 170 ft schooner Eleonora – a beautiful near-perfect replica of the famous 1930s racing yacht Westwood. We had just completed a brilliant day’s sailing and whilst we relaxed in the port it seemed a great opportunity to go up Eleonora’s mast and take a panoramic picture of all the yachts in the harbour.

Whilst guests and crew were chatting on deck and strollers gathered on the promenade, I donned a climbing harness and was hoisted over 150 ft aloft. It is normally much easier going up a mast while in dock, but this classic schooner had lots of stainless steel wire stays and shrouds to climb over and around. Using a 16 mm fisheye lens backed by a Canon 1DS MkII, I captured an aerial of the whole fleet cocooned by the ancient architecture around it. I call this photograph my ‘Armada’ and it has become one of the most sought after images in my limited edition collection.

The image over the page was taken onboard Astra during La Nioulargue, Saint Tropez – sometimes it’s better shooting classic yachts in poor conditions as it creates a vintage environment. Here I added a tobacco filter grading the sky to add drama to the shot.

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A Unique Insight Into The Work Of One Of The Yachting World’s Leading Photographers