ALLUSIVE ADVENTURES

Club member Sam Gaylard together with his wife Julie Height and sons Will and Oscar, aged 12 and 10 respectively, set off on Monday 25 April for a long awaited two year sea-battical on board their Lyons 47 Pilothouse yacht, Allusive III. The trip is a family oriented exercise of quality time together and will no doubt serve as a life experience for the boys. Sam has taken leave from his job as a marine biologist within Government and Julie resigned from her job as a partner in a law firm to undertake this adventure of a lifetime. Sam and Julie made a commitment to this adventure five years ago and have worked tirelessly with their departure date of April 2021 in mind. They say that having that clear departure date gave them something to look forward to and work toward. When work became all-consuming and the treadmill became repetitive, they were motivated by the certainty of their commitment to set sail by April 2021. Both Sam and Julie are firm believers that life can be short and they want to embrace this moment to spend quality time with their boys and hope this trip will instill some grounding qualities for them all and expand opportunities. They bought Allusive in Tasmania two and a half years ago and the yacht has a fine pedigree having raced in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart in particular. Many hours of work has been spent in bringing her up to the standard to be suitable for the journey. Their previous yacht was a Jeanneau SunFast 37 which they sailed extensively in South Australian waters, spending any spare weekends and holidays sailing the Gulf, Kangaroo Island, Port Lincoln and surrounding islands. Sam is a keen racer and has crewed on many yachts at this Club with his most notable being as a member of the crew on board Two True in 2016 for the Sydney to Hobart race and more recently on Aikin out of the RSAYS. Julie and Sam met when Julie joined the University of Adelaide Sailing Club to learn how to sail and they spent some six years sailing Hartley TS16s at a high level until the boys came along. It was their mutual desire to journey further afield as a family which motivated them to purchase the Jeanneau and eventually Allusive. Like many cruisers before them they have been inspired by the countless YouTube channels such as SV Delos, Sailing LaVagabond, Sailing Nandji and the like, thinking that if they can do it, then anyone can.

Both of the boys sail Optis at Largs Bay Sailing Club and participated in the Australian Championship recently held at the Adelaide Sailing Club. Will has been sailing with Largs Bay for some five years and recently won the Opti Youth Championships. Will and Oscar are both excited about the adventures that lay ahead and the promise of sunshine, snorkelling, surfing and fun. Their original plans to sail up the East Coast of Australia and then across to the South West Pacific island and on to Indonesia have been thwarted by COVID. At this stage they are now (25 May) spending a week in Sydney before heading north to the Whitsundays and the Coral Sea. From there the world is their oyster and their plans will be flexible in the face of COVID with the hope to explore beyond the shores of Australia. Follow their adventures on Instagram at @allusive_adventures @willz._.insta @ozzie_finn and @julie.height

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