A LIFE UNDER SAIL

by Ewen Southby-Tailyour

(Pen & Sword Maritime; £29.99; ISBN 978-1-03614-856-0)

Towards the end of this book Ewen Southby-Tailyour (55-59) writes: “Sailing and exploring by sea have been the two dominant factors in my life with both providing maximum, lifelong excitement, enjoyment and not a few frights…Now it is high time that I lowered the ensign, hoisted the riding light, poured the gin and raised a toast to what has been a truly ‘glorious ride’!”

In 37 lively chapters, based on essays and stories written over the years, Ewen covers many of the significant incidents in his life as a yachtsman. Some are serious, some light-hearted. Many offer lessons learned. “A fair few,” he reckons, “have a moral undertone.” Whatever, this is a collection that few other sailors of his era could gather covering vast areas of the maritime world and a huge range of craft from dinghies to trawlers, kayaks, dhows and hovercraft. Nor does he ignore submarines, landing craft, aircraft carriers and even canoes.

Reviewing an anthology of this sort is really a matter of choice. ‘The Wake-up Call 1949’ early in the book captures Ewen’s self-aware side well. Sent as a seven-year-old boy to his uncle to be taught seamanship, and failing once to climb the mast of a pilot cutter, he is returned home to London with a note stating that he has failed. His mother sends him back to Cornwall the next day with the same note scribbled on the back to the effect that it is the uncle who has failed, not the boy. “I climbed the mast” writes Ewen. Tough, no-nonsense people the Tailyours!

By 1970 Ewen is taking part in a Round Britain and Ireland two-handed race in a 49-feet wooden yawl and devising his own unique watchkeeping routine for such a contest in order to allow the maximum of undisturbed rest. Time and again in these pages, it becomes apparent that Ewen is an innovator, ever happy to challenge sailing orthodoxies. Nothing is off limits for this one-time Royal Marine Commando even cruising the Norwegian Arctic in January or helping to salvage a British oil tanker.

The backbone of the book is provided by detailed accounts of the voyages Ewen undertook in four gaff-rigged cutters of varying dimensions and purposes all named Black Velvet. One of the boats took ornithologists into the Western Approaches searching for petrels. Another was a 24-foot Cornish Crabber in which Ewen instructed his children on the ins and outs of sailing. The last, another 30-foot gaff cutter, lasted into Ewen’s 80th year and was “by far the most favourite of all my vessels…suitable for a single-handed, fading grandfather.”

Competition was never Ewen’s raison d’etre as a sailor although he has taken part in many ocean races including six Fastnet races in the 1960s and 1970s and many round-Britain-and-Ireland races. He was also responsible for setting up and organising the popular single-handed Jester Challenge across the Atlantic for boats up to 30 feet, notable for its absence of “half-witted regulations and unrealistic time limits”.

To fully appreciate this book, it will certainly help to have some knowledge of sailing and boats – or at least to be familiar with the sea and its vagaries and jargon. Not everyone will share Ewen’s enthusiasm for battling gale force winds, overcoming freezing temperatures or navigating close to rocks. But all, surely, will warm to his irreverent spirit and deep understanding of winds and tides, sails and navigation. Now this one-time Yachtsman of the Year has moved ashore for good. But he has left behind an enduring legacy. In his words: “The final satisfaction (is that) my son and now my grandson have taken up the nautical baton with huge enthusiasm.” It is a worthy legacy.

ROBIN KNIGHT (56-61)