Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Kickin' It Old School EA



This is the equivalent of the Big Bang of Escaped Aussies sailing, the "real" birth: the infamous Lady Godiva outing of 1998.

Under JK’s (James Kennedy's) leadership, the boat contested the 1998 Hayman Island Bigboat series, a regatta that used to be a pre-curser to Hamilton for seriously large and competitive yachts, which was raced at the five star Hayman Island resort in the north of the Whitsunday Islands.

Lady Godiva is a Swan 65, and in the eighties was one of the most competitive racing Swans in the world. She was on an extended Pacific cruise in the ownership of a very colourful ex Wall St lawyer and his (third) wife.

JK assembled a crew befitting the history of the boat. In the crew’s upper echelon, were two ex-Americas Cup yachtsman and the legendary Barney Walker who had just returned from the Whitbread Round the World Race (now known as the Volvo RTW). Barney drove the starts muttering words to the effect of “she’s a little slower to respond than a Whitbread 60”. At the other end of the crew spectrum (and the other end of the boat) the crew included Kieran Duck at Mid Bow, and Jamie Hastie at Bow.

Pre-regatta preparations included the removal of a large oil painting and a mountain of kid skin upholstered cushions from the saloon, a full size domestic washing machine and a cappuccino machine. However, the owner who smoked Cohiba cigars by the box, insisted that his cigar humidor remained on board.



1 Comments:

At 4:50 AM, Blogger Escaped Aussies said...

And she is returning to Hamilton for this year's regattas. We will be racing against her in the Premier IRC division.
She must have shrunk as she is listed as a Swan 60

 

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