Very Willing Griffin

[Seajet]

This book by David Blagden - an ex Merchant Navy sailor then jobbing actor - is a must for anyone interested in small boats and long voyages.

It took a great deal of persistance and persuasion, but Blagden managed to enter the 1972 OSTAR singlehanded transatlantic race in a relatively tiny Hunter 19, ' Willing Griffin '.

The story of his fight to get to the start line is probably more inspiring than the race !

He went on to host the T.V. programme ' Plain Sailing ' which sometimes featured Willing Griffin - so named as David Blagden liked heraldic mythical beasts but as Griffins were supposed to be ill tempered he called her Willing.

The boat survives in good shape, unfortunately David Blagden, a childhood hero of mine, does not - but that's another story.

The book is well worth reading, but out of print and a rightly sought after item for owners of all Oliver Lee designed Hunters, it commands a decent price secondhand though, ranging between £20-100; Abe books ( no connection other than a happy customer ) had a copy at £25.00 when I last looked.

 

[Marakei]

Here's a blog post by Bill Serjeant, in which he explains how David Blagden inspired him to get a Hunter 19:

http://bills-log.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/willing-griffin.html

and the story of 'Small Zeta':

http://bills-log.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/small-zeta-hunter-europa-19.html

 

[Seajet]

Merry Girl,

thanks for that.

A similar thing happened to ' Anderson Affair ', an Anderson 22 - another Oliver Lee design very like an upscaled & modernised Hunter 19 / Europa.

In that case ' Affair ' was being helmed by pro skipper Bob Salmon in the 1978 Mini Transat, when the rudder fittings gave up near the finish line at Antigua; the boat went onto a reef and was abandoned, but the story went that she lost her keel and refloated so Bob sculled her across the line.

Knowing the A22 keel set-up I never believed this, and a while ago it was confirmed to me the keel was deliberately jettisoned.

I have the original build spec for the Anderson 22 which uses copper rivets where nowadays one would use stainless bolts, I had thought this was down to Andersons being an old traditional yard but maybe the practice was more widespread reading about Little Zeta.

I saw ' Affairs' rudder pintle ( as with all A22's, a stanchion diameter stainless rod the full height of the transom ) afterwards and it virtually had a knot tied in it !

Affair was shipped back and put on display unrepaired at boat shows, her hull bottom looked like it had been roughly wire brushed - courtesy of the coral heads.

She has long since been restored and is in fine fettle, now back in 1978 racing trim and living near Aberdeen.

Willing Griffin was restored by a Dutch owner and is in good trim, I heard she was returning to the UK but don't know what happened after that.

The Andersons were all modified with stainless fittings, I expect the Hunters were too.

As this is a book forum, all I can offer is the ' Articles ' section on the website in my signature.

David Blagden met a very sad end.

After taking ' Willing Griffin ' across in the 1972 OSTAR he gained fame and hosted a show about boats on ITV, ' Plain Sailing ', becoming a boyhood hero of mine.

Then when I started cruising our A22 with a chum, there appeared in a yachting mag ' Memorial service for David Blagden at X church '.

I was astounded, and mentioned it to the boat we were alongside; it turned out he knew the story.

In the TV series DB was shown having a survey on then buying a 39' wooden yawl.

It turned out with fame and fortune he had taken to funny substances, ditched his wife Sandy he was so crazy about ( and who gave him so much support ) in the book and took up with an arty hippy woman.

At Braye, Alderney ( a place which puts the willies up me in a F5, though some of that is probably due to what the occupying Germans got up to there ) they set off into a Force 11 despite the harbourmaster begging them not to.

They found her body and pieces of the boat.