Mike Perham on Ch4 tomorrow

Cornishman

Cornishman

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If you are not too busy with fireworks tomorrow evening you might care to watch or record this,

"Mike Perham, the youngest person to sail solo around the world, is the subject of a 90-minute documentary to be aired on Channel 4 tomorrow night."
 
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Whatever the rights and wrongs of "youngest" sailing attempts, I was really impressed with the character and resilience he showed. A fantastic achievement.

Chris
 
He also took some very, very foolish risks.

He ran around the deck without a harness on and he was often seen on camera without wearing a safety harness. Even when he was 'Crossing The Line' he leant over the rail to pour champagne in the ocean for Neptune with no harness. One slip and he would have been gone! :eek:

Can see it again on Channel 13, Channel 4+1 right now.
 
lenseman said:
He also took some very, very foolish risks.

He ran around the deck without a harness on and he was often seen on camera without wearing a safety harness. Even when he was 'Crossing The Line' he leant over the rail to pour champagne in the ocean for Neptune with no harness. One slip and he would have been gone! :eek:

Can see it again on Channel 13, Channel 4+1 right now.
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Did Day Mellon or Dee Caffrey always clip on?
 
Lakesailor said:
Did Day Mellon or Dee Caffrey always clip on?
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The foxy yachtmistress of Roxy certainly did not as she did her break dance on the coachroof of her racing boat half way around the world.

It is a sad refection on the average Scuttlebutt forum member that the most insightful comment someone can make on a fascinating documentary is some health & safety wibble about clipping on while giving Neptune his share of the champagne bottle.

My thoughts on the program... impressive young man, shame about the father. Parnham senior's emotional quotient must be seriously lacking, 7 months after sending off his son on this venture his primary concern was to maneuver his son across the deck to give the TV camera a good angle on the welcome home hug. What a creep!
 
csharpatsea said:
It is a sad refection on the average Scuttlebutt forum member that the most insightful comment someone can make on a fascinating documentary is some health & safety wibble about clipping on while giving Neptune his share of the champagne bottle.
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I think/hope that comment may have been very much togue in cheeck

csharpatsea said:
My thoughts on the program... impressive young man, shame about the father. Parnham senior's emotional quotient must be seriously lacking, 7 months after sending off his son on this venture his primary concern was to maneuver his son across the deck to give the TV camera a good angle on the welcome home hug. What a creep!
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Seconded - met the bloke once (when he was seeking help/publicity for the transat) - very odious type.
Talk about vicarious living :(
 
not just me then,i went off the dad when they were buying batteries in the supermarket,the son said "these are very expensive" dad says "dont worry we are not paying",

what about the girlfriend?dumping the poor lad when he was at his lowest ebb,nice girl.
 
Can't help reflect on how sailing has changed through technology since Chichester.
Obviously the lad has balls and I reflect on how he compares with the many couch potatoes that have been brought up on computer games these days. He was poorly sponsored and budget limited though and the preparation for the trip was very poor too.
Largely his accomplishment was reliant on detailed Meteorological help from experts ashore routing him around all the nasties en route. He was constantly in touch with home through satphone and in the last analysis failed miserably in terms of what he set out to do. There was no mention of how he transited the Panama Canal. Obiously he had assistance to get through. You can't really therefore say that he achieved a single handed circumnavigation at all. My lasting impression was that any fit young man with reasonable sailing ability would have been able to achieve the same thing given adequate assistance and available technology avoiding the worst of the southern ocean by staying as north as possible and avoiding Cape Horn. Compared to the awesome achievement of Daymelon who was RACING. This was a walk in the park.
 
I've got it on the planner to watch ... however ...
what would your comment have been had Mike gone south, attempting to go around Cape Horn and lost his rig in the process? He would've been called foolhardy at best ...
 
fireball said:
I've got it on the planner to watch ... however ...
what would your comment have been had Mike gone south, attempting to go around Cape Horn and lost his rig in the process? He would've been called foolhardy at best ...
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Yes you are right. With that boat, at that time, with that forecast I would have done the canal myself but I didn't set off to be the youngest single handed round the world non-stop sailor ever. My contention is that very early on he lost out on the possibility of non-stop largely due to poor preparation. Going through the canal means he was not single handed either!
 
Well, He set out a boy and came back a man. I think you are all forgetting what it is like to be sixteen. No way I could have done it. I was impressed with him as he knew the boat was not set up or sorted correctly, knew he had a rubbish budget and knew he had a difficult boat. But he still set off and did get around the world. I do get the feeling that this was his dads dream though not his!

I also thought about safety lines but at sixteen/seventeen kids need to take risks. He did use body armour etc for climbing the mast, and mostly had a jacket or line on. No one is perfect! I bet he got more out of that trip than he will out of anything else in life and so well done. The decision to go over the strn showed his mental grit!

I also thought his Girlfriend was just looking for press coverage as she wants to be on the stage, but they were both only young.!

Overall a good programme and I wished it had focused on the details and issues more...but well done Mike!

Paul
 
Determined lad but got to agree - his dad was scary - cared more about the achievement than his sons life I reckon - or maybe its what you call "blind faith"
 
Yes, son came out of it smelling of roses, I expect any dad would be proud to have a son like him. But as for the father and girlfriend, both seemed rather self centred, but then the producers had a programme to make and no doubt had many many hours of film they could use to slant it any way they wished. So maybe we're being harsh on the girlfriend.............
 
boatmike said:
Yes you are right. With that boat, at that time, with that forecast I would have done the canal myself but I didn't set off to be the youngest single handed round the world non-stop sailor ever. My contention is that very early on he lost out on the possibility of non-stop largely due to poor preparation. Going through the canal means he was not single handed either!
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Ah - but there you go - older and wiser .... ;)

Hopefully Mike will have done a lot of learning on his trip and will learn to listen the advice of others and make better decisions of his own.
 
round the world

I thought the boy done well - and his family did too. It took real commitment from all of them. They showed an ability to react to the conditions - essential for all sailors. Try not to judge people too harshly by the way TV programmes are edited and put together.

Seven months squeezed into an hour or so of TV - there is bound to be some distortion of the expereince.

Try not to be too harsh on them... you should see some of the comments I have to remove from my videos on you tube. Very personal attacks and even death threats from Ramsgate. Then there are the experts offering me their advice based on little more than reading half of the first chapter of a Hiscock book before dosing off on the sofa.

Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5CyDXvEW04
 
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