14 year old girl circumnavigates UK in 8m wooden boat she restored herself

[webcraft]

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Katie McCabe, 14, from Topsham, set off from Exmouth in her 26ft (8m) wooden boat Falanda to circumnavigate the UK at the beginning of July. She's made it back.

Topsham teenager Katie Mccabe sails round Britain

Devon girl, 14, finishes round-Britain sailing trek

A great achievement. Well done Katie!

- W

 

[longjohnsilver]

She done good. Her father is well known locally as both a former ferryman and wooden boat restorer, his latest project on Topsham Quay being an old Thames Barge.
An all round good guy.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Falanda sailing

 

[tuareguk]

Katie has just returned from a channel crossing with her mum - another one on the bucket list checked off for her. I heard that they turned back at about 12nm from landfall. She goes back to school next week. How will she get back to the normal routine? Great achievement!

 

[longjohnsilver]

Katie has just returned from a channel crossing with her mum - another one on the bucket list checked off for her. I heard that they turned back at about 12nm from landfall. She goes back to school next week. How will she get back to the normal routine? Great achievement!

She has lived almost her whole life on board her parents boat, which I believe was sold recently so the children could have a relatively normal life ashore.

 

[Bajansailor]

Here is her parents Blog -
Trawler Travels

And here is a link to their Blog entry for January 2006, posted soon after they had arrived here in Barbados after their Atlantic Crossing.
Trawler Travels: January 2006

Which was quite exciting - they gained three new crew along the way, picked up in (almost) mid-Atlantic, when they were still approx 1,000 miles from Barbados.
Here is an excerpt from their Blog about how they gained their crew in mid-Atlantic :
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Two weeks out, we heard a report that one of these boats had lost its rudder. They were two days ahead of us and not far off our course so we headed towards them. By the time we reached them, they had made several attempts to rig a jury rudder, but with little success – they could only head northwest at 1 ½ knots (this 1000 miles from shore).

They gladly accepted our offer of a tow and we initially made a good start towing them under sail. However, the towed boat fishtailed wildly from side-to-side in the big waves and the towrope kept chafing badly. It needed constant supervision and had to keep being reattached or repositioned every few hours, day and night.

Despite everybody’s best efforts, it proved impossible to beat the chafe problem and the constant effort was leading to exhaustion. On the second day, after a long night of stop-start towing, the tow rope parted for the last time and the captain made the tough decision to abandon ship.

Several hours and five perilous trips in the dinghy later, the three crew and several bags of belongings were safely transferred onto our trawler and we continued on towards Barbados. Despite the sad circumstances, our three new crew were good company and, thanks to all the fresh food they brought with them, we ate like kings.
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The new crew had been taken off the J 44 sailing yacht 'First Light'.

I think that everybody concerned was expecting the poor boat to sink soon - but 4 weeks later she pitched up in Barbados under her own steam, after drifting approx 800 miles.
Ros Ailither had sailed onwards to Tobago, and I think that First Light's crew had flown home to the USA.
Here is a link to a thread I wrote on this Forum a year later about her.
'First Light' ashore at Barbados
Unfortunately nobody saw her arrive here until she washed ashore on the east coast - and then local salvors started stripping her most enthusiastically.

 

[Frogmogman]

Just picked up on this thread. Kudos to Katie, what a great effort.

Bajansailor’s post was interesting too, though those photos of such a lovely boat all bashed up on the beach did slightly put me off my breakfast !