Mike Perham on Ch4 tomorrow

[saltyrob]

What ever the reasons and results of the voyage , I think the Mike's achievement was superb, what ever technology is available, its still a young man facing the elements when the chips are down.A pure sailing documentory would not be of much interest to the average television viewer, but the human interest aspect with the girlfriend relationship , would make it much more attractive proposition for a broadcaster.Its easy to be critical but I thought the youngsters acquitted themselves well.

Rob

 

[Sans Bateau]

Mike Perham, didnt he do well? Congratulations to one brave young man. However purely based on what I saw on the documentary last night I would say, one very very lucky young man. there was more luck than skill or preparation involved in that trip I think. It struck me he was heavily pushed by his father.

As some others have suggested, I too think his father is a creep, I suspect there might well be a large amount of father worship by the lad that drove him to do the trip.

The issue with the girl and the relationship, really what can you expect with youngsters of that age, relationships are rarely forever, but I suspect there might well have been more than a little drama added for the documentary in this case. If they were really through, you would expect her to have disappeared. As for the documentary, I wonder how many times they watched the Day Mellon documentary before the trip? Some parts looked very familiar.

This all said I say again one very lucky and brave young man. He got through a very difficult trip to massage the ego of a creep of a father.

 

[meandraft]

No doubt that it was a great achievement for the young man however highly "managed" the trip was. As usual with these programmes a lot of detail was ommitted. The lack of footage for the Panama Canal transit being one.

 

[samwise]

What ever the reasons and results of the voyage , I think the Mike's achievement was superb, what ever technology is available, its still a young man facing the elements when the chips are down.A pure sailing documentory would not be of much interest to the average television viewer, but the human interest aspect with the girlfriend relationship , would make it much more attractive proposition for a broadcaster.Its easy to be critical but I thought the youngsters acquitted themselves well.

Rob

No problem with the lad's achievement. He showed real courage. I do, however, feel uneasy about the raison d'etre of the voyage and the real motives of his rather creepy parent. It was clear to me that this was a trip that the father had been prevented from doing by his parents. He therefore looked to repeat his "convoy crossing" of the Atlantic with Mike and himself in separate boats. The money failed to materialise so they fell back on plan B -- one boat for Mike.

As Mark from Team Ellen, Rod Carr and Robin K-J said in the film, preparation is vital for a testing trip like this. It was clear that neither Mike nor his boat were fully prepared for this, hence the gear failures along the way that cost him time and money and could have cost him his life. Mike clearly loves his dad and the boy grew in stature and experience as the trip went along and he deserves full credit, but I guess you have to ask if chasing a dream -- albeit vicariously -- justifies putting your son into possible danger by launching without proper preparation. Mike was brave, but he was also lucky.

 

[oldvarnish]

Let only those who have done better cricitize him.

 

[doug748]

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.............

Yes, however portrayed by the film, there is no doubt that Peter's achievement is just as impressive as his son's in it's own way. Finding the sponsorship is a minor miracle, as is putting together a film of that quality.
I think some of the scenes perhaps tell a good story rather than holding a mirror up to reality. In terms of seamanship we must remember that he has crossed the atlantic in a boat, I think, designed and built by his father. They are no mugs though for the sake of the tale they might not mind being portrayed so in part.

 

[Dyflin]

In terms of seamanship we must remember that he has crossed the atlantic in a boat, I think, designed and built by his father.

No, it was a 28 foot trailer sailor, http://www.yacht-designer.co.uk/page53.html, but the father seems to have been involved somewhere I think.

Buy one, get one free maybe?

Edit, on finishing the article, looks like it was the fathers project, (that never went any further?)

 

[csharpatsea]

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

I imagine watching Formula 1 grand prix racing on TV triggers similar thoughts for you?

Let's face it most of the Open nn round the world attempts have had the same level of shore support over the past 10 years. I suggest you send a letter to the Queen stating that the Dame Mellonous is a fraud.

My lasting impression was that any fit young man with reasonable sailing ability would have been able to achieve the same thing

An opinion that is of course confirmed by the fact that each summer 5000 mature and experienced British yachtsmen singlehand their yachts on a little 5 day jaunt down to Portugal or the Azores prior to the family flying out.

Mike you are a ridiculous old f@rt.

For most yachtsmen a solo AZAB would be the crowning achievement of a life time of sailing and is something most never feel ready for. When 30 old f@arts set off on their mid summer Jester challenge a couple of years ago the vast majority abandoned their Atlantic crossing.

The Mike Perham story is not about the validity of a record breaking attempt, it is about how the mind of a youth deals with a succession of setbacks, long-term fatigue and how he copes with months of solitude.

 

[csharpatsea]

As Mark from Team Ellen, Rod Carr and Robin K-J said in the film, preparation is vital for a testing trip like this.

K-J should know. Read his book and it becomes clear that K-J's yacht was just as unprepared.

 

[Boomshanka]

I enjoyed the programme and think that Mike did a fantastic job... but I agree that his father appears to be a control freak (shouting at him just before jumping off at the start said it all) and I do wonder whether at the beginning Mike was just doing it to please his father... who seemed to be relying on faith in the fella upstairs quite a bit . At the end though it appeared Mike had matured as a person as a result of the trip. A great achievement and one to be celebrated rather than scorned upon from the comfort of an armchair. Not all the yoof of today are as bad as some folk make out

 

[ninky]

i'm afraid i lost interest and didn't watch past the 'worst new year ever' bit (felt like they'd tried to construct a scene to copy ellen's christmas day but then of course he'd been on dry land christmas only a few days prior - you do wonder how many bad new years a 16 year old might have had ). there never seemed a clear reason why he wanted to do it. not sure if this was just poor film making or rather dull characters. this was not a patch on the ellen doc.

the happy clapping scene was a bit of a turn off moment too........

 

[ninky]

I When 30 old f@arts set off on their mid summer Jester challenge a couple of years ago the vast majority abandoned their Atlantic crossing.

The Mike Perham story is not about the validity of a record breaking attempt, it is about how the mind of a youth deals with a succession of setbacks, long-term fatigue and how he copes with months of solitude.

i'm afraid i'm more inspired by the old farts on the jester!

how he coped with setbacks? called home and stopped in for professionals to carry out repairs. (not exactly wow)

months of solitude?!? with satphone and seemingly regular landfall he was never truly alone imho. is being able to be alone an achievement? some of us find not being alone harder.

he's only young so good on him for his adventure. although at points it seemed to be more the dad's adventure to be fair.....

 

[NDG]

Very well done, but very, very fortunate.

I can hardly believe that the first time he ever sailed the boat single handed was the day he crossed the start line. That's recklessly stupid, especially in something like an Open 50.

Coped well, though.

 

[csharpatsea]

how he coped with setbacks? called home and stopped in for professionals to carry out repairs.

Just like Knox Johnston.

seemingly regular landfall he was never truly alone imho. is being able to be alone an achievement?

You switched off before the New Zeeland to Panama passage. If that does not count as a serious ocean crossing I can only assume you sail on Jupiter.

 

[csharpatsea]

I can hardly believe that the first time he ever sailed the boat single handed was the day he crossed the start line. That's recklessly stupid, especially in something like an Open 50.

Yes I was surprised to see Mike struggling with a basic lesson on apparent wind angles an hour before the solo departure. But that is an attribute of smart people, you can throw them unprepared into strange situations and they cope. I witnessed much the same on a SunSail flotilla holiday in Turkey.

 

[boatmike]

Mike you are a ridiculous old f@rt.

Well thank you csharp. But please, not so much of the ridiculous please, as I have in fact done the AZAB you refer to 3 times in the quite distant past amongst other notable trips.... Possibly a few more times than you? But we wouldn't know that would we as you have not seen fit to fill your profile in so we really don't know after just 17 posts (mostly critical of others) who the hell you really are do we????

 

[misterg]

i'm afraid i lost interest and didn't watch past the 'worst new year ever' bit ...

It did improve rapidly after that (IMHO) as Mike came into his own.

Congratulations to him. He HAS sailed around the world, every inch of the way. I chatted to him briefly at SIBS before his transat (as I'm sure did 1000s of others) and he was a nice, unassuming lad.

I really question the father's motives, and like most others found him scary/creepy. To some extent Mike was unlucky with gear, but then again he was lucky with the weather.

...the happy clapping scene was a bit of a turn off moment too........

Perhaps that was the secret ??

Well done to him.

Andy

 

[samwise]

K-J should know. Read his book and it becomes clear that K-J's yacht was just as unprepared.

Things have moved on a bit in yacht design and construction since Suhaili and Robin did have a few more sea miles under his keel before he started as well as the benefit of some extra years of experience.

Suhaili is a pretty basic design, built by K-J himself as I recall. Current highly competitive and complex boats demand much more attention being paid to preparation and older racing boats are not exactly built with longevity in mind. If you skimp, things fail, as Mike found out.

 

[tmh900]

Quite a touching film I thought. e.g. the part where the father left the boat at the start of the voyage - thinking about whether I could do that when my son is 16.

A tremendous achievement all round - hats off to them!

I do though wonder whether the father was suffering from a similar syndrome to Donald Crowhurst - i.e. had reached the point of no return. I guess in this case he was taking risks with his sons life rather than his own. Having said that, I don't think the risks were excessive - a 16 year old relative novice ocean sailor is just as able to survive a capsise as a 30+ yr old seasoned one.

Don't know if the Perhams read this, but thank you for sharing the film with us.

 

[csharpatsea]

Suhaili is a pretty basic design, built by K-J himself as I recall. Current highly competitive and complex boats demand much more attention being paid to preparation and older racing boats are not exactly built with longevity in mind. If you skimp, things fail, as Mike found out.

Have you forgotten that K-J recently went round the world in an Open 50 or 60? He suffered a ton of equipment failures, in fact his PR people turned this into THE story of the voyage.

Get his latest book for more*, it is good read if only because K-J spends a some time dwelling on how things have changed in the ocean racing scene over 35 years.

In fact my copy is in a pile of books destined for the loft, PM me your address and I will post it onto you. That would be my random act of kindness for the year or maybe the decade!