Stories from the Atlantic. Shenandoah preparing for take off.

"Good evening from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, or buenas tardes as we say around these parts.
My name is Will and I’m the bosun of S/Y Shenandoah of Sark, a 55 metre three-masted gaff rigged schooner built in 1902. We’re entered in this year’s superyacht and maxi transat race from here to Virgen Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, this is a pre-race précis of our preparations for tomorrow, to give you an idea of what it takes to get a big classic yacht ready for ocean racing. As of today we have 22 people on board. We also have three masts, miles and miles of rigging, halyards and sheets, two propellers, two engines, two gensets and lots of other toys to feed, service, nurse and repair. Sailors are hungry animals and stuff breaks on boats all the time.

Meeting the guys and gals who are crewing Shenandoah, we will do in more detail as the days go by, but here’s a brief overview. The permanent crew are a healthy mix of Europeans, antipodeans and south east Asians. Captain Russell is English , as are the bosun (Me), the chief stewardess Abi, the chef Gareth M and the chief engineer Gareth H. From elsewhere in Europe we have the second stewardess Ieva who is Latvian.

From down under is first officer Tim and our new engineer Andy, both of Aussie provenance, and deckhand Denis is from across the Tasman sea, from Greymouth on the south island of New Zealand. Last but most definitely not least are engineer/deckhand Thanny and deckhand Bryan Rex, both of who are from the paradise islands of the Phillipines.

We also have hired guns, extra crew we’ve brought in to help us sail the yacht in a race. We have four watches of four people with the captain, first officer and bosun leading one each. The fourth watch leader is one of our imports, Chuck Demangeat, who is a bit of a legend and a long time vet of many a season on the classic circuit. If you see a big silver mop of hair, moustache, sailing gilet, pair of jeans and clogs walking down the dock, it can be only Chuck. Also on the team sheet we have a couple of Aussies in the form of Jesse and Alan, Kate who is English and Gemma from the west of Scotland.

The story so far. To get to the night before the start gun has taken a huge effort on everyone’s part. A couple of false starts were had in Palma de Mallorca, where we failed to leave a couple of days in a row, largely due to electronics boffins who turned out to be more buffoons than boffins. If you don’t know your port from starboard, forward from astern, and on from off, you’re probably in the wrong trade guys! Anyway, with our propeller pitches finally sorted we set off.
We had a fairly uneventful trip down through the Med with the exception of a fair bit of sail training, one tuna caught, and quickly eaten, and a very interesting stop in Gibraltar for fuel bunkering and a whistlestop bit of sightseeing.

The apes looked at us quizzically and (probably rightly) considered most of us their intellectual inferiors. Alan managed to fall in the sea as we docked which got everyone giggling, a feat which chef Gareth achieved some two weeks earlier by falling in to Astilleros shipyard, one of the world’s least desirable pieces of water to end up in, right up there with Kowloon harbour. How we laughed.

Ugly mugs- here is Team Shenandoah Movember with engineer Gareth the only absentee. All facial hair is genuine except for Gemma’s Marx Brothers special, and Bryan’s leather tache. L to R; Mate Tim, Jesse, Alan (front), Bosun Will (back), chef Gareth, Bryan and Gemma.

Also figuring large in the preparations is facial hair. November becomes ‘Movember’ in Australia, and it’s a charity facial hair challenge which is taking over more and more of the world every year. The big Shen are fully involved with some fairly strange arrangements
including super-hirsute Tim’s ginger effort, which he is lengthening with every shave, and has now almost reached his belly button. Engineer Gareth is out of punching distance of his long-suffering wife Becky and so is feeling brave. Unfortunately he’s decided to go for a thinnish, pencil looking sort of a deal, which makes him look like a cross between Craig David and Uncle Fester. I can’t believe he hasn’t been arrested by the Guardia Civil on some sort of presumptive charge of pesting or bike seat sniffing.

Other things which occupy the pre-race chat in the crew mess are such big questions as whether you have to call M&Ms just that, or whether Tim is allowed to call them chocolate coated peanuts. Profound stuff I hear you cry.

Apologies 
This first post has been sent post-dated and we’re actually already 5 hours in to the race upon posting. My apologies for this but I was dazzled by the lights of another great night in the Royal Tenerife Yacht Club. Shenandoah got fully involved on the event of our first meal there on Friday, and we were first up on to the dance floor with a great 20 piece big band busting out the tunes after the very kind staff of the yacht club served us a lovely meal. Last night was no different so I dropped everything and went off for dinner with the rest of the crew, and another night of good dining and chat was had by all the crews of the Maxi association transat race, courtesy of the hospitable staff.
This morning was pretty busy getting ready so I’m a bit late with this, but I’ve slapped my own wrist.

Will Jones, Bosun, S/Y Shenandoah