Next Azores challenge?

[Helgafolkboot]

I have looked on the website and I can see no mention of the next challenge. Previously it had mentioned an Azores challenge next year,but now nothing.

The start date is critical to me as I cannot get my boat launched before early May and then take it 1000 miles to Plymouth. For instance it 2022 I started late on 29 may as I could not make the early May start.

Any information would be helpful.

 

[rakaaw]

Next year it will be the Azores. I believe that they have yet to fix a date for the start.

 

[jamie N]

I received this today, and hope that nobody will object to me sharing it here.

Dear Jesters

The loss of one of our most respected and experienced Jesters, Duncan Lougee, in this year’s Jester Baltimore Challenge, has cast a lasting pall over what would otherwise have been a very successful summer. Duncan’s loss is the first casualty in the fifteen Jester events, encompassing well over half a million miles of collective ocean sailing, since inauguration in 2006. We are sure that every single Jester, past and present, will join in presenting their deepest condolences to Duncan’s family, and especially his wife Louise.

The tragedy reminds us that sea-going is never free from danger, and that there is no limit to the vigilance that must always be exercised. We all well know that going overboard when singlehanded, even if tethered, risks the worst possible outcome. It is unlikely that we will ever know the details of what happened, but every Jester should perhaps review his or her system for staying aboard, whatever the conditions.

To commemorate Duncan and his contribution to the Jester Challenge during the five events he sailed in, we would like to establish a permanent page on the Jester website devoted solely to him. Jesters are invited to submit anything they feel appropriate – personal tributes, memories, anecdotes, photographs. This format worked extremely well for Ewen’s ‘retirement’ book. A page on the website will be a constant reminder of Duncan and the affection in which he was held by fellow-Jesters. Please submit any material via the Jester Helm email address. There is no time limit for submissions.

This year’s Jester Baltimore Challenge saw the biggest number of starters in Jester history – 43, and we have already received quite a few prospective entries for next year’s Azores Challenge. The start has been set for Sunday 16th June 2024 at 1200 hours, on the usual starting line to the west of Plymouth breakwater. The start date is subject to confirmation, in due course, by the King’s Harbourmaster, Plymouth, but at the moment we are not aware of any potential clash that could force a change of date. Hopefully we will once more be able to use Mayflower marina as our pre-event berthing venue, and sail to Praia da Vitoria on Terceira, but that and other, more specific, details will be published in due course.

Many of you will have seen the current (October) edition of Practical Boat Owner, in which the lead article is a very fine six-page piece by yachting journalist Jake Kavanagh, compiled from his many interviews with skippers at Plymouth prior to this year’s start, and centred on the many ways Jester skippers prepare themselves and their boats for sea-going. It is heartening to see this level of support from ‘Britain’s best-selling Boating Magazine’. Many thanks to PBO’s editorial staff and in particular to Jake.

Following the very successful virtual meeting held during the pandemic a couple of years ago, some Jesters are thinking of organising a Jester symposium at some point this winter. This is intended to be an old fashioned, face to face gathering – somewhere in the southern half of England, and would likely be a mixture of short presentations on topics of interest and some socialising. It is very much still at the conceptual stage, but it would be very helpful for the organisers to get a bit of a feel for the number of people who might interested in attending (depending on location) and any particular topics that you would like covered…or indeed if you would be interested in presenting on a particular topic yourself. All responses to bernie.branfield@gmail.com please.



With best wishes

The Jester Helm

 

[Helgafolkboot]

This is great. 16 June allows me to prepare my boat and get it to Plymouth from the Baltic. In 2022 I could not start until 29 May. So mid June is excellent.