London Design Festival and Plymouth
Well it’s been quite a while since I posted last (almost 100 days!) and such a huge amount has happened in that time!
I’m down in Plymouth and for just over the past two months I’ve been learning the ropes in the yacht design industry at Princess Yachts. Never before have I learnt so much in this amount of time. But it’s all good and I’m really enjoying every day of it! Hard to think I’m already a fifth of the way through.
Anyway – last weekend I visited some friends up in London and whilst I was there I took in some much needed design inspiration by checking out the London Design Festival. It was a really chilled out weekend and I met some very unique and awesome people and it got me out of Plymouth for a weekend.
Americas Cup
Last weekend saw the Americas Cup come to Plymouth! It was all pretty cool to watch and to get to see some one design yachts race in an enclosed space.
Anyway,.. Pics below!
Placement and Round the Island 2011
Well it’s certainly been an interesting few weeks… So much has changed and it’s all happened so quickly.
My parents have moved house… only around the corner, but after years of hunting for a house in the South they’ve finally settled on one and so began the tedious task of moving all the stuff over. Total mission.
This was quickly followed by my Dad’s birthday, and us having a BBQ with loads of family and friends paying us a visit! Some of whom we haven’t seen in years! The weather was typically British and provided us with short heavy showers, we made the most of the sun whilst it was there though!
Then along came the placement offer, soon I shall be starting a Design Industrial Placement with a well known luxury motor yacht manufacturer in Plymouth. Currently on the hunt for somewhere to live!
Source Google Images
However, after this news I somehow found a place on the Round the Island Race, an annual race which this year involved some 1900 yachts all racing anticlockwise around the Isle of Wight, the weather was pretty poor but fun for us in the Challenge 72! We finished 30-something in our class (out of 40-something, not bad considering we were in the IRC0 class, against yachts like Bob, Team Origin and Weapon of Choice, a rather nice TP52….) Basically, a different kind of racing yacht that doesn’t weigh 57 tonnes! However, probably couldn’t stand up to as much!
Here we are just rounding the Needles…
Credit Patrick Eden
More updates soon!
Smeaton’s Tower
Down in plymouth and decided to venture up Smeaton’s Tower… Only
Cost £1.50 as a student.
Evening sail over to Gunwharf
What a day! Steve threw all sorts at us – man overboard drills, ripped sails, halyard breaks, steering failure, electronics failure and a fire. Awesome training! Loads of fun! But also, really good to get an idea of what it could potentially be like when it hits the fan and everything goes a bit nuts!
Here’s a nice pic of the sunset and of Harry using the emergency tiller.
Day in the Hamble
A motor from Yarmouth to Hamble today. Awesome sun, finally cracked out the shorts. Off for a night sail over to Gunwharf this evening.
In other news a duck jumped onto our boat today…
Portsmouth to Cowes to Weymouth
Good few days. Day sailing from cowes to Weymouth. Off to the beach as I write this. More pictures soon.
Crazy day sailing
Today was a full on day of racing supposedly. However, the Solent was mighty choppy and this being a smaller yacht than I’m used to (40ft) it seemed totally different! Rather damp, just has a shower and now will shortly be departing for a beverage. No pics of today im afraid. iPhone was down stairs in the dry!
Clerkenwell Design Week
Today was a really fun different day out in london. It was a longgg day but really worth it. Met a lot of interesting people and heard some interesting talks!
And saw this rather nice new jaguar concept…
Back in Gunwharf
So after another two hard weeks of sailing I’m totally shattered. Looking forward to heading home for a bit, however i’ve got loads of work to do once I get home. However, for now… Pizza!
