On Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:05:27 +0200, "John Seager"
wrote:


wrote in message
...
16 year old Mike Perham from England is giving Zac a run for the
money. This kid has some serious hardware, sailing a Finot Conq Open
50.

http://www.totallymoney.com/sailmike/

The two of them bring to mind Francis Chichester and Alec Rose, way back
when. The one had a custom built, state of the art yacht(GM IV) and the
other an old cutter. I always preferred Alec Rose's approach. Quietly toddle
off around the world solo and then go quietly home to run your greengrocer's
shop (IIRC). Chichester had all the fanfare and a much bigger boat. Both got
knighted in the end, but it took a while for anyone to notice Alec Rose.

Obviously young Zac is a lot different from Alec Rose but he does appear to
be doing things on a fairly modest budget and learning as he goes. Mike
Perham has a pretty fancy piece of kit to sail on which he appears to have
simply chartered for a few months. Nonetheless, good luck to both of them.
It's an amazing feat - both physically and mentally - for such young guys.
J


Gypsy Moth IV was completely rebuilt and is/was on a round the world
trip - probably finished by now. I saw the boat in Thailandf and
talked to (I believe) the professional skipper who told me that all of
Chichester's complaints about the boat were justified.
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)