Sailing Magazine
By Richard Crockett
Most followers of this Blog know the name ‘Spray’ and also that of Joshua Slocum. But how many know the name Guy Bernardin?
In his day Bernardin was once the epitome of the hardened solo sailor. Since those days he has turned away from racing and returned to where it all started – Joshua Slocum and the ‘Spray’. Bernardin’s present voyage is a return to the romance of sail and family values.
Bernardin sensed that he had gone about as far as he wanted to go with racing yachts when in 1991 he, by chance, re-read Joshua Slocum·s book “Sailing Alone Around the World”. The idea of doing a voyage like Slocum’s took hold.
When asked what motivated him to buy a classic boat like the ‘Spray’, Bernardin said “I have great respect for Slocum’s accomplishments and feel an affinity for the type of man he was. After racing around the world and sailing alone through the Straits of Magellan I knew how hard it was. Slocum said the ‘Spray was the perfect cruising boat – I wanted to try it.”
READ THE FULL FEATURE HERE: Pages from 1998 06 – SA Yachting – OCR
