As an aside to Ellen

[alec]

Let’s say that you are on the Southern Ocean in a liferaft.

Along comes a series of single-handed Contessa 32's each skippered by the following :-

Ellen MacArthur
Joshua Slocum
Robin Knox-Johnston
Eric Tabarly
Frances Chichester
Eric Hiscock
Chay Blyth
Bernard Moitessier
Blondie Hasler
Captain Bligh

They would all of course, be in their prime.

Your journey back to England would free your wife and children from slavery if you survived. The voyage would have to be completed in one year.
Only Sextants, tables, charts and a barometer would be on board with enough food, and it would have to be a non-stop voyage. There would be no outside assistance available.

In what order would you’re choice be ?

 

[alec]

Ok I'll give it a go.

My number one would be Captain Bligh because of his navigation experience and bloody minded determination.

Number two would be Joshua Slocum because of his boat handling and other skills.

Chay Blyth would be number three for me.

If Ellen had not been a child of technology I would reckon her about number 6.

'It is the thought of what we have missed that makes our sadness'

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I have always thought of Chay as a bit of a Jonah personally.

 

[Stingo]

1. Ellen MacArthur - because she's got big tits and I'd have been in a liferaft for some time.
2. Frances Chichester - probably the sharpest navigator and could teach me and the other nine people a thing or two
3. Eric Tabarly - brilliant yachtsman
4. Eric Hiscock - never single-handed so his wife could brew me a fine meal after much time in the liferaft
5. Robin Knox-Johnson - because I saw him at a boat show once.
6. Bernard Moitsssier - way down the list because he is a minimalist
7. Blondie Hasler - who is he?
8. Captain Bligh - didn't he have a dodgy time with his crew?
9. Joshua Slocum - had a very slow boat and a knack of dissappearing.
10. Chay Blythe - crap sailor in his prime (he might have improved by now though)

 

[Ships_Cat]

Robin Knox-Johnston
Frances Chichester
Joshua Slocum
Eric Hiscock
Blondie Hasler
Eric Tabarly
Chay Blyth
Captain Bligh
Bernard Moitessier
Ellen MacArthur

First and last rankings were easy but the middle ones are a bit arbitrary.

John

 

[ShipsWoofy]

(New in at number 1) Bernard Moitessier - Good baggin off mate, whoa lets go to Tahiti, yeehah

Robin Knox-Johnston - Proved skills in small boats and big weather

Eric Hiscock Sailing small boats and knowing how to navigate, nearly first choice

Frances Chichester Proved track record of sailing tippy boats and had staying power

Ellen MacArthur If you didn't get back, you could make it a fun trip trying...

Captain Bligh - Though he might struggle with some of the contraptions on board and would try to give me lime every ten minutes.

Joshua Slocum Not a chance, he would harp on all the way home about the yanks always having to save us Brits

Eric Tabarly He would have everyone searching for us.

Chay Blyth Where is that whale

Bernard Moitessier dunno - Who is this? Edited....
Blondie Hasler again dunno?

 

[Stingo]

Bernard Moitessier is the bloke that nearly beat RKJ around the world but decided instead (and when in a strong position to actually beat RKJ) to continue sailing, eventually making landfall in Taihiti - one and half times around the world non-stop. He lived there happily ever after with three adoring wives.

 

[alec]

I picked Chay because he looks like a good worker.


'No man is a hero to his Butler '

 

[Ships_Cat]

With Bernard Moitessier I had to do a toss up between the chances of getting shipwrecked (he lost his first boat on Chagos) or the chances of getting morally wrecked on a Pacific island somewhere. In the end I took the safe option and put him well down the list - sad, obviously I have lost all sense of adventure /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

John

 

[Stingo]

and his 2nd boat on the canary islands if I recall correctly

 

[doris]

3 horse race

all the others were miserable misanthropic bastards.(Sir Chav, whoops sorry Chay in particular).

Down to EM, ET or RKJ. The first is a v.presentable/able girlie,
the next is a frog and the last has admitted to the most appalling ideas as to provisioning a boat. No contest, girlie rule KO!

 

[webcraft]

In a Contessa 32 any one of these could get me back in under a year, and if they couldn't I could knock them on the head and do so myself, so let's look at other considerations.

In reverse order:

10/ Capt. Bligh - already chucked off one boat, why would I want him on mine? Contessa is not an open boat, which is where his skills lay . . .

9/ Chay Blyth - Miserable bugger with a silly name, would only choose him if we had to row back

8/ Joshua Slocum - he would insist on navigating with only a one-handed alarm clock and so we might not get back in a year in spite of what I said above . . .

7/ Francis Chichester - would make me feel lower class and I might have to drink too much gin and would arrive back with a dodgy liver

6/ Robin Knox Johnson - sound but boring

5/ Eric Hiscock - ditto I'm afraid. Also, without Mrs Hiscock to do the cooking we would starve.

4/ Blondie Haslar - eccentric single-handers are not necessarily the most entertaining sailing companions

3/ Eric Taberly - because he's dead, although apart from that he would probably be OK and I could practice my French

2/ Ellen Macarthur - because she's a woman and who knows, I might not want to get back to my enslaved wife

1/ Bernard Moistessier, because I'm sure he would persuade me to do something more interesting.

- Nick

 

[Alastairdent]

Macarthur then RKJ.

I have no problem taking orders from women, and she'd get me back sooner. RKJ cause he is a proven fast sailer and good captain.

Forget the rest, megomaniacs or unreliable.

 

[jimi]

Ellen
1) Cos she's lovely
2) She's a woman and knows her place
3) We'll get served quickly in the Folly when we get back cos she's now got the freedon of the IoW

Mid you if Shirley Robertson came whizzing past that would create a dilemna!

 

[PeteCooper]

Donald Crowhurst should be included for the ones who don't want to return to wife and children!

 

[Stingo]

Think Joshua Slocum fits that bill

 

[jhr]

[ QUOTE ]
Blondie Hasler - who is he?

[/ QUOTE ]
Ye Gods! Young people today! and so forth.

He was one of the Cockleshell Heroes during the Second World War and then did one or two other things, like designing the Hasler self-steering apparatus (on which most wind vane steering systems are based) and sailing "Jester" (a modified Folkboat with a Junk rig) in several single handed Transatlantic races. He's probably one of the most feted and celebrated British post-war sailors and navigators .

Don't they teach you anything in South Effrikan Schools? /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[jamesjermain]

1) Hiscock, assuming Susan was with him - great seaman, good company and I'd be a better yachtsman at the end of it
2) Haslar - great seaman and what a life story!
3) Eric Tabarly - raccounteur (by all accounts) and an exciting man to sail with (note to self - brush up French)
4) Knox-Johnston - good seaman, good if self-centred company but his cooking likely to poison me before Cape Horn
5) Chichester - I'd get home but with a liver like a football and suicidal tendencies from his moaning
6) Bernard Moitessier - but we'd never actually make it
7) Slocum - ditto
8) Captain Bligh - at least we'd make it
9) Chay Blyth - No! No! Please, find someone else to rescue!
10) MacArthur - love her to bits and know her slightly but I wouldn't sail with her to save my wife (sic!)

 

[phanakapan]

Bernard Moitessier-no 1; far a start off he's easily the most dishy looking, strangely enough I havn't got a wife to get back to, and if he can keep 3 wives happy in the south pacific then he sounds like a man I could sail with for a year.........

 

[halcyon]

We got Hasler self steering.

Brian