Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
I felt a little humour would not go amiss this morning, with this piece form John Vigor bound to raise a smile or two and even a few chuckles too.
Vigor is a former Durban newspaper journalist and photographer who competed in the first Cape to Rio race in 1971 with David Cox aboard ‘Diana K’. He emigrated to the USA aboard his Morgan 31 with his family in 1987 and has since written 12 books on sailing. Plus, he has penned countless feature articles about sailing which have been published worldwide.
Vigor has been messing about in boats, and boating about in a mess, for about 70 years “… though you’d never guess that from my youthful appearance” he pointed out in 1985. “My beard may look grey, but actually I dye it that way. I think it makes me look terribly extinguished”.
His columns touched on matters affecting all sailing types, and his special brand of whimsical madness will strike a chord in every sailor’s heart. “If we didn’t laugh at ourselves occasionally, we’d all be candidates for the psychiatrists’ couch” he said. Yachting is pure lunacy, and there is no cure: only the palliative of laughter.”
In this feature he asks this question: “Why do barnacles love propellers so much?
Read the full article to find out why?
READ IT HERE: Pages from 1985 08 – SAILING Magazine – OCR
While on the subject of “boating about in a mess”, we often hear or see incidents of this nature. So, if you have such a story to share, please send it to me (editor@sailing.co.za) and let’s see if we cannot have a small corner of South African’s “boating about in a mess”!
