From Skip Allan: Wonderful news Gypsy Moth IV sails again! In our age
of Ellens and V-70's, sponsored circumnavigations and live satellite feed,
it is fun to remember that warm August day in London, 1966. I was a kid,
hitchhiking around Europe, and wandered down to the Thames . There at a
backwater dock was a large, narrow, nameless ketch with a monster
windvane hanging on tiny transom. On deck was an older, bespectacled gentleman,
alone loading from a mound of sails, line, and gear. I asked if I could
help, as he seemed rather frail, with a gimpy leg. We spent the afternoon
together, loading and lashing.
After helping, the gentleman showed me the crowded confines of a gadget
filled cabin. He was especially keen on his "invention" of large chart
table drawers filled with sprouts in various stages of development. The
bilge was lined with metal kegs of Guinness Stout. I asked him the
designer. "Illingworth." I asked his plans, and he replied, "Oh, I'm
sailing around the world," but he was hesitant to describe his route,
saying only "bad luck to have firm plans." I said, "where's all your
food?" He said, "Oh, I live on sprouts and stout, healthiest diet you can
imagine." I shook my head in wonder and wished this lone individual all
the best. Didn't catch his name, but realized nine months later when
Francis Chichester returned to the accolades of millions of his countrymen,
that I had serendipitously been shore crew for a day aboard Gypsy Moth IV.
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