From Bathtub to Fastnet – Challenger 3 crew member Rod Brassington’s sailing story

Rod and the Eddystone Lighthouse

‘I’ve always loved the sea, water and things that float. I remember having wind-up motorboats in the bath as a boy and sailing the tiny wooden yachts (the little wooden hull with two small sails) across the boating/paddling pools on holidays.

Learning to sail dinghies on various activity holidays was always more enjoyable than lying in the sun, which led on to windsurfing in middle age and as a young father. Our eldest daughter took windsurfing as her activity to qualify for the Duke of Edinburgh’s gold award – the first woman in the UK to do so.

15 or so years ago an acquaintance asked if I’d like to go sailing with him which I did several times. He had a heavy wooden yacht built in Eastern Europe in the 1950’s (I think). It was slow and often cold; sometimes the decks leaked and water dripped onto my sleeping bag, but there was something about the basic living, maybe even the discomfort, and the power and challenge of the elements which I enjoyed – but often in retrospect. Originally navigation was by dead reckoning and charts. Only on my later trips with him did he have GPS.

The experiences made me want more so I took RYA courses up to Coastal Skipper (Tidal) and Yachtmaster Shorebased and have since chartered sailing with friends and grandchildren. We went to Florida most years and I decided to take the American Sailing Association (ASA) courses up to 106 which allowed me to charter over there – and to my surprise, single handed which I did for several years.

Fastnet Training

Each year there have been invitations from sailing schools to join the Fastnet Race – sometimes the race itself and others a sort of simulation or parallel run. Each time I looked at the price and decided it was too expensive.

But for my 70^th birthday my wife bought me a place on the First Class Sailing Fastnet Campaign – and then insisted that I write out what I wanted for my funeral arrangements.

Why was I attracted to the Fastnet Race? It appeared to be the ultimate sailing challenge within the UK or European waters and the tragic events in the 70’s underlined the potential severity of the challenge, whilst resulting in vital safety-at-sea developments.

Learning to sail Challenger 3 has been an extraordinary new experience. It has provided a new sailing dimension and the course, training weekend, and qualifying races have been immensely important and rewarding (but not always a pleasure) in preparation for the race itself.’

The RYA Courses that Rod has taken over his years of sailing have been Day Skipper, Coastal Skipper, Yachtmaster Theory.

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