Jesters gathering for the start
It’s Never Too Late By Roger Fitzgerald, Skipper of the good ship Ella Trout III.
I
was on holiday with my wife in August 2006 when I picked up a sailing magazine left behind by a previous visitor. It reported on the first Jester Challenge which requires participants to sail single-handed across the Atlantic from Plymouth UK to Newport, Rhode Island in a yacht of 30 feet or less. That is sailing 3000 miles against the Gulf Stream and the prevailing wind. I said to my wife “you know, I always wanted to sail to the Azores, I’m sure I could do this”. She replied “Well do it then”. I was 69 at the time. A hair brained scheme by somebody who should know better you might think? Well you may be right but I did have some experience to call upon. I’m a practical chap, having started work aged 15 and spent 50 years engineering. I can do most things practical and understand most things technical. I felt more than capable of making and installing all the equipment necessary for such a trip. Also, in my youth I raced dinghies for 10 years followed by another 10 years racing offshore in my Half Ton Cup yacht Ella Trout II. While it was 22 years ago when I had to sell Ella Trout II caused by the industrial decline in the UK and my sailing skills would be rusty I still felt confident I could do it. Hair brained scheme or not I went ahead. With my racing background I knew I would not be happy with a ponderous long keeled boat befitting my age, she had to be a big dinghy, fin keeled, like Ella Trout II. My researches, such as they were, found reports by delivery crews in particular, suggested of the modern small yachts popular at the time that Dehler were the strongest and more solidly built. And
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March 2020 S O U T H W I N D S
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