Helen Tew

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I've just read an obituary in the Guardian to Helen Tew who I must confess I hadn't heard of before. Crossing the Atlantic at the age of 89 in a 26 foot gaff cutter with her eldest son as crew, and after a hip replacement, she is certainly an inspiration to us oldies. I can now happily ignore the remarks of my non-sailing wife and son suggesting that I'm getting too old for sailing.

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Daughter of Commander RD Graham who was the first man to cross the Atlantic singlehanded east to west by the northern route, in the 30ft cutter "Emanuel".

Wife of John Tew, designer, surveyor and one of Laurent Giles' Partners.

Sailed with her father to the Faeroes as a teenager and then with her husband to Norway before WW2 in Mary Helen, a boat designed by John Tew which they lived aboard. It was aboard Mary Helen that she eventually crossed the Atlantic.

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?
 
Lovely post Mirelle, and what a character she must have been to have fulfilled her own ambition to sail the Atlantic. If I recall what I've read, her father wan't keen for her to accompany him across the pond?

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Old People\'s Home

Possibly, though until fairly recently she lived on the shores of the Solent, at the foot of the Beaulieu River.

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I had dinner with a friend of her son a while back, who said that she always joked that she was "in Dire Straits" because at least one of her neighbours was a member of the Band - presumably the one (?John Illesley?) who has an interest in the Master Builder.

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<hr width=100% size=1>Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho
 
Read her obituary in <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1366039,00.html> The Times. </A>

For me, the best bit is her father's advice:
“the best way to solve the crew problem is to breed them”, and he taught her to sail when she was 11.

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Thanks BobHoppy, I keep telling the family that it's no big deal to get a small sloop in my 70's - got to do it sooner or later

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Re: Old People\'s Home

No. It's Knopfler himself who lives there.

I once had a pint in the East End Arms with him... he wasn't aware of the fact of course...we just happened to be next to one another.

Magic

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://practical-business.co.uk>Click for website!</A>
 
We met HT and her Son whilst we were away the summer before last in the only restaurant that was open in Lezardrieux.

She spoke very loudly in a posh voice (presumably hard of hearing). Anyway, we fell to talking (briefly) and I asked her whether she'd ever been the Lezardrieux before. She said (and you must imagine the voice) "Yes, with Daddy on our first cruise just after the war...the Germans had removed all the navigational aids so it was a bit difficult getting in"!

Top that I thought.

(Despite her great age she talked about her "Daddy" a great deal throught the evening which I thought was very touching. He obviously had a great effect on her whole life).

Magic

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://practical-business.co.uk>Click for website!</A>
 
She would of course have been refering to the First War !

We met her and Dennis at a dinner in their honour at the R.S.Y.C. just after their epic voyage, where she spoke to the Club elequently and amusingly about the trip and her life. Dennis supplied the technicalities of the ship and the crossing and perfectly complimented his mother's address. To me, the most touching part was how her son Dennis located the Mary Helen only a few years ago and restored her for their voyage. She is only about 24ft. too.

She was most obviously a loving and inspiring mother and grandmother and it was delightful to see the relationship she and her son had. I certainly felt the better for having met them both.

<hr width=100% size=1>Khyber
 
'Better to pass boldly into that other world in the full glory of some passion than fade and wither dismally with age'

A lesson to us all.

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"She would of course have been refering to the First War !"

Perhaps this was a joke. She would only have been a toddler and didn't the Germans needed to two goes to get that far West?


<hr width=100% size=1>John
http://www.on-line-marine.com
 
Quite possible. Do you know I hadn't considered that.

Should've - especially as I was having dinner with "Mum" at the time!/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

Magic

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://practical-business.co.uk>Click for website!</A>
 
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