The Crew

A.G. is the skipper. Given to getting drunk in his cabin, (he actually collapsed on the floor during the passage to Cuxhaven), he cant stand motoring, and goes quiet and morose. He's much happier sailing, when he starts singing to himself. In real life, A.G. is a talking Teddy Bear, who has been astonished recently to discover that he's a collectors item, and even has his own website.

Ivan learned to sail on his parents’ 21ft Finesse Meanda in the 1960s. He fondly remembers delivering a 36ft Swan from Burnham to the Medway back in the days when Swan’s were top-flight racers. Since then he’s owned a Mirror Dinghy, a Laser and a Contessa 28, and has sailed many others, both racing and cruising. Despite nearly 40 years of sailing, he still cannot tell Port from Starboard.

Pat has sailed in the UK, Canada, the Mediterranean and the Canaries. Her specialty is windward helming, and she has an encyclopedic knowledge of the collision rules. Navigation, however is a mystic art, as she doesn’t have 360 fingers on which to count.

Sam claims not to be an expert, despite 15 years of sailing off and on. Strangely, she always seems to be available for crewing when the boat is near to major shopping centers, and not when long boring trips are required.

Nigel currently owns a laser, but he has done a number of delivery trips on other people’s boats. It’s always possible to tell Nigel’s watch due to the constant sail changes he makes in his attempts to get the boat to go faster. Often, the boat actually needs to go faster as he’s delayed the departure due to sudden late food shopping trips.

Richard believes that the less water under his keel, the faster a sailing boat goes. He has an intimate relationship with every mud bank in the Thames Estuary, as he’s dried out on most of them. Currently sailing the Hustler 25.5 IO, which Richard Mathews used to win the East Coast series in the early 70s, he is co-founder of the Stangate Creek Wine-Tasting Club