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Memories of a Boat Sailing ManColin Stokes reminisces - Autumn 2004 |
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Early in 1952 my cousin, John Stokes, came round and asked if I would like to sail with him in a boat called 'Jezebel' (174).
John had recently returned from Army service by the bitter lakes in Egypt and had resumed his Architectural carer.
He, and others, had built Sharpie type boats and sailed them on lakes and he had been bitten by the bug (and, indeed, by many other bugs).
He had given me advise on studying Architecture and, the previous year, I had started a 5 year course in Bloomsbury - I had also, when at school, been a sea scout. John obviously thought this background qualified me to sit in the front end of a Merlin. He omitted to tell me that he was as much a tyro as was I! However, he did tell me that where he sailed was Putney, at a club called Ranelagh - quite why he had chosen this venue (bearing in mind that we both lived in East London) he didn't say. Actually in my case it was Ilford in Essex - a family move in 1939 having taken us up-market! It was, however, he said, no problem - borrow his dad's car, whizz down the Mile End Road, bomb through the City, shoot down the Embankment and Bingo! All this whizzing, bombing and shooting in a pre-war Ford 8 with a very dodgy chassis. I was somewhat nervous about all this as my experiences of London South of the River were slight - a visit to the South Bank Exhibition in 1951 and family trips on the Woolwich Ferry to visit friends in Erith. I wasn't even sure they spoke English in Putney - as it turned out they didn't - not my sort anyway! A trip to an army surplus store in Leytonstone saw me kitted out with some boots and a sticky black oilskin jacket (a much later visit produced a Mae West with CO2 spares) and my Merlin career was underway. However, I had to make a big decision. I was, at the time, immersed in Athletics - sprinting and triple jumping and was a member of Ilford A.C. I had just competed for the club in the Junior Sprint Relay at the A.A.A Championships at the White City and had met some of my heroes - Arthur Wint, Derek Ibbotson, Emmanuel McDonald Bailey to name but six or seven! However, John sold me on the sailing idea by emphasising that absolutely no training was needed and downing the occasional beer was not only NOT frowned upon but was actively encouraged. A couple of very exciting years (mostly wet) followed with several highs and quite a few lows. A notable high was a (slightly accidental) second in the Conquerors Pint at Rye Harbour - previously elaborated upon by John in this Magazine. For my 21st I was given a second hand Merlin, No.237, "Bashful" - bought from a charming chap called Peter Giddings whose gorgeous wife could no longer accept the inroads capsizing was making into her mascara. John now had no crew and neither did I. I arrived a Ranelagh for my first race crewless (clueless, more like!) to find that the Commodore, Graham Donald (or 'god' as we knew him) was similarly blighted. My offer to crew for him was turned down and he insisted on coming with me. To my utter astonishment and, no doubt, that of the other competitors, we won! In many ways this was unfortunate, giving me, as it did, an unrealistic benchmark, which I have struggled to maintain in the subsequent half century. My schoolmate Clive (Curtis of subsequent 999 "Rozzer" and Cougan Catamaran fame) had moved from cycle speedway on to scrambling with his D.O.T ("Devoid of Trouble" for the layman). His mother on hearing me talk of my new passion asked if it was a "clean" sport - in those innocent days "clean" meant what it said, like "gay". I told her that it was very clean as we were, most of the time, very wet (omitting to tell her that the Thames at Ranelagh while being, certainly, extremely wet was also extremely dirty - absolutely filthy, in fact). She was fed up with Clive wheeling his mudcacked scrambles bike through the hall into the back garden and between us we persuaded him to sail with me. It lasted a year. He got the bug and bought 291, "Tarka". During this period we discovered another club, in Kingston called Minima, and made good use of the corrugated iron shed that did service as a bar. We also discovered another daft family who lived near us and sailed South of the River. Dafter, if anything - they lived in Seven Kings and sailed in Kingston, in fact Dad (Harry Harris) worked in East Moseley while living in Seven Kings. The rest of the family was, of course, mum Doris, John and Robert. Wednesday evening drinking at Minima required some pretty athletic late night sprinting across town to catch the last train to Liverpool Street and thence a train home. Around this time I started taking 'Yachts and Yachting', then a small Southend based magazine edited by Bill Smart (possibly owned by him also). I saw a small opportunity and decided to combine sailing and my other hobby, drawing. I wrote to Bill offering to draw cartoons for "Y and Y" and, to my astonishment, he invited me to lunch and agreed. Thus started, at the age of 20, a most enjoyable interlude. I drew cartoons, illustrated stories by Patrick Cambell, sea shanties by Bob Roberts and devised the occasional crossword.  On hearing I intended to go to the 1958 Championships at Plymouth Bill asked me to write the report. This I did, accompanying it with a sketch of the popular and worthy winners, John Oakley and Tony Fox in "Crewcut". The thirty bob for each drawing was a godsend for an impecunious student and tempted me to explore the market.  I had various commissions, the most prestigious (sic!) of which was a regular spot in "The Tatler" called with great wit, 'Stokes Jokes' (this actually paid five guineas per drawing!) In 1958 it was my turn to answer Her Majesty's call to arms and I departed for 2 years - mostly in Germany sailing 12 square metre sharpies and Stars garnered as war reparations. We had some great times sailing on the Mohne See (the damn, fortuitously, having been repaired prior to my visits) plus the odd visit to Baldenen See with Brian Southcott (also stationed at HQ BAOR - in the RAF; me Royal Engineers)  Immediately prior to me being called up in 1958 I treated myself to a new boat from Jack Holt and (as Robert Harris mentioned in his article) I was able to browse around Jacks workshop and choose all the timber. I specially selected very dark wood and the boat, 888, "Cherokee" was beautiful (her design was a "Nellie", due to Peter Claytons unfortunate naming of the original after the heroine of one of his dubious drinking songs). However, I did not actually sail the boat until I was demobbed in September 1960. (George Slack had had a UK posting, in Hampshire I think, and had carried on sailing - I had rashly assumed that the same would happen to me. Nobody had told me that Rheindahlen (H.Q BAOR) counted as a home posting; I had applied for a home posting - and got one!). I discovered, to my horror, that she was comprehensively outclassed (other than on the river) by all the new Proctors. However, Margaret and I did take her down to Salcombe in 1962 for the Yacht Club Regatta and began an annual visit to the town, eventually plus children and, now, plus grandchildren. I persevered for a while and then took "Sara Jane", 710, from Robin Beauclain as payment for designing an extension to his house. I couldn't make it go at all and, when John Conway - Jones and Tony Ruffell borrowed it in 1963 and came 6th in the Championships, I put it on the market! A mark XII "No Name", 1458, proved a much more astute buy and I discovered a modicum of success and thoroughly enjoyed sailing her. During this period I was asked to write the "Y and Y" report on another championship, this time the 1961 event at Golleston. I had to prepare this largely from memory as I was sailing with Derek King and spent far too much time in the company of him, George Slack, Ned Sparrow and other riff-raff when off the water. However, Brian Southcott won and a little sketch of him hopefully made up for any mis-reporting on my part. Although I was happy enough with "No Name" everyone seemed to be getting new boats and I thought I would join in. At the time Mike Jackson was having some success with Merlin design and we took his lines to Anderson, Rigden and Perkins in Whitstable and (eventually) No. 1948 appeared off the stocks. I had intended to name it "The Lemon Drop Kid" (created by Damon Runyon and played, memorably, by Bob Hope) but, unfortunately, the self-adhesive letters I bought proved to be too large for the transom so the boat became just "Lemon Drop" I loved sailing this boat - particularly downwind, once I had got the hang of the new fangled centre main. New fangled to me, that is, - Brian Saffery-Cooper was experimenting with it in "Racketeer" back in 1958 (the experiment worked - he came 3rd in the championships). In 1972 I sold "Lemon Drop" to Tony Brook and, for 6 or 7 years sailed all sorts of boats other than Merlins. My son, Jason started crewing John Harris' eldest, Richard, in a Cadet and eventually wanted one of his own so we joined, in 1979, the most convenient club with a strong Cadet fleet - Tamesis. I watched from the bank for most of the first winter, couldn't stand the in activity, saw that club racing produced an average of about 18 Merlins and went out and bought 2964. Now this boat was called "Bonzo" - possibly after the Bonzo Dog Dooh-Dah Band. What ever the names pedigree I felt that prizegivings (even the optimist!) would be diminished if the Commodore had to say "�.. and first was Bonzo". Therefore the successor to "Lemon Drop" became "Acid Drop" (I dismissed "Cough Drop, "Rain Drop" and others as to frivolous!) It proved a reasonable buy and a good re-introduction to Merlin sailing but after a couple of years Stu Gurney decided to sell "Total Eclipse" (3233) which, I thought, had a very attractive and evocative colour scheme: black hull, black spars and bright yellow spinnaker. (you will have gathered from these notes that my thought processes when buying boats are not very joined up) however, "Total Eclipse" and I are great chums. I have had some successes on the river and many, many fun races and I am still sailing her, accompanied by Caroline, my crew for 16 years who has put up with countless "I don't believe its"!! Caroline is still O.K. but "T.E." and I am getting a bit frayed round the edges. Throughout this time I had continued drawing on an ad-hoc basis and in the early 1990's once again suggested to "Yachts and Yachting" that they could, maybe, use a few of my cartoons. I sent them a sample batch of 6 and to my horror; they had a special feature and published them all at once! Hastily I knocked out a few more and for several years made a bi-weekly appearance in 'Y and Y' pages - until the ideas ran out. So, all in all, I'm very grateful that cousin John popped round all those years ago with the offer of a crewing job. It's been a fun journey and, fortunately, touching wood, it still is although my new Taylor made 9.5 R580 does have a slight priority these days. See also: Another of Colins cartoons - 1 Another of Colins cartoons - 2 |
