One of the things I got stuck into last winter was editing my friend Harry Freeman's book
Saga of a Nauti Sailor which is, as they say, 'out now'. You may remember Harry's account in
Practical Boat Owner some years back of the building of his steel Bruce Roberts 25
Seeker which he fitted out with Ikea cabinets retrieved from skips and, of course, a junk sail. You may also remember seeing or sailing on
Seeker at a rally in Dieppe, I think in 1999. He went on to cross the Atlantic in her, cruised the Caribbean, then sold her before buying a 'conventional' yacht which he now charters.
Saga of a Nauti Sailor is an easy, amusing and self-deprecating read. Though Harry spent more time at school flicking ink-soaked paper darts around the classroom than studying grammar and spelling, he tells a great tale, and this book covers his sailing 'career' to date. As the blurb on the back says:
- Learn how fellow travellers, dreamers and rascals inspire Cap’n Harry to beat the stuff that they, and nature, throw at him as he gives up his disintegrating life as a Sussex entrepeneur to voyage to distant horizons via the French canals, before abandoning his yacht Floranda in St Jean de Losne
- Read about how he lost hs next boat in a hurricane then, penniless, arrested another yacht and spent the reward on Seeker, crossing the Atlantic with all of his junk, a ‘crazy’ German and a sea-sick suspected-criminal crew
- Enjoy his tales of working for (and living with) Irish travellers who pay him 'in kind', as in "Do you like the car we got you?', upsizing to Angelina, a Hurricane Ivan damaged 55-foot yacht, then successfully chartering her to wealthy Americans in the British Virgin Islands
As I write this, Harry is returning from the UK to Angelina on a merchant ship, because plane tickets were beyond his budget. He hopes that sales of his book will help to fund his sailing lifestyle which, he says, has taken a bit of a bashing thanks to the recession.