A letter from Julia Menzies

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I sailed on Gypsy Moth 111 back in 1984 and have seen her once since then in Dickies Yard, Bangor. This would have been early 1990s. She gets a mention online every now and then but when I saw your website I thought you might like some photos and a bit more of her history.

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She turned up in Brighton Marina in 1984 having been bought in Switzerland and recently brought back to the UK.  She was pretty sound but needed work. At the time the American dollar was strong and I think her owner's plan was to sail her to the States and sell her. In September that year he organised a delivery crew to take her out to Tenerife and I think it was his intention to fly out and sail her across. The crew encountered very bad weather and got as far as La Corunna in northern Spain where they abandoned her in the harbour. Four of us flew out to take her to Tenerife.  When we arrived nothing had been stowed and the sails were still on the deck. It was now nearing the end of October. The wind was right on the nose and we made two attempts to leave and twice turned back before we finally got away. We pulled into a few places down the coast, Vigo, Corcubion, Peniche, Oporto and finally Lisbon.

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You can see from the photo what sort of a state she was in. The bad weather continued and another week passed before we managed to leave Lisbon. One of the crew flew home so now we were down to three. Half way across to Madeira we ended up running under bare poles for 24 hours in a very big and confused sea. She leaked like a sieve (turned out later water was coming in between two planks towards the starboard bow.) Each watch we were continually trying to pump out the flooded cockpit too by way of a hand pump. The cockpit was self draining but you had to be doing six knots in order for anything to happen and there was a lot of water coming over the deck.

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When we finally reached Funchal I remember there was a British navy ship in the harbour and they must have heard us on the radio coming in because as we entered the harbour they lowered their ensign. It must have been the beginning of December before we finally reached Tenerife. I flew back to the UK after that but I remember she was put up on the hardstand in Los Christianos. I have no idea what happened to her after this.

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A photo taken at Oporto shows Gipsy Moth 111 looking dwarfed by the sea tug. I remember the crew were curious and came over to look at her. I think they thought we were a little mad!  They invited us out on the tug late one evening when they were bringing a ship in. It was good to be on a dry boat.

One more thing. I think at one time she had been on 'public display' as their were little brass plaques down below with eg 'the chart table', 'the heads' and 'Francis Chichester's bunk' written on them. That bunk was on the starboard side and incidentally was the most comfortable one. There was also a cap which was supposed to be his.

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