"Come hell or high water"

[beancounter]

\"Come hell or high water\"

Clare Frances' story of her OSTAR voyage in 1976.

Read it in a couple of sittings over the weekend. An entertaining story, the voyage very much in the Corinthian spirit, rather than the full-on intensity of Dame E M. Clare Frances has as easy writing style, which obviously stood her in good stead in her later success as a thriller writer. There are some good chuckles to be had at some of the incidents (arriving at the finish line resplendent in paper knickers & no trousers). There are also many more serious moments - her description of hanging over the stern in rough water to lever up her broken self steering gear (a big contraption for all 5' and a bit, and seven stone of her), is chilling.

Sometimes a bit stiff upper lip, sometimes a bit schoolgirly, but good nonetheless.

 

[AJW]

Re: \"Come hell or high water\"

She also wrote a book on the 76 (I think) Whitbread called 'Come wind or weather' which is a good read. Its quite the contrast between the production yot/semi amateur type vibe of then and the professional hi-tech racing sleds of now!

 

[trevorr]

Re: \"Come hell or high water\"

Just reading this at the moment, and now I know how it ends. Cheers /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[beancounter]

Re: \"Come hell or high water\"

Oooops - /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[LeonF]

Re: \"Come hell or high water\"

I read both her books when I first started sailing, and really enjoyed them.. More than her thrillers! Nice mix of the nautical and the personal. Pity she got ME and went through some unhappy times. Hope she managed to get through it all as sucessfully as she did her voyages.

 

[Jeremy_W]

Re: \"Come hell or high water\"

Conny van Riechschoten's "Flyer", about the same race, gives you an impression of how he was raising the bar for winning the Whitbread in future. He's terribly polite but his contempt for people who fitted a cargon-fibre mast the day of departure and thought they could win was total. He had cruised the Atlantic and raced back before the race.