SAILING EXPERIENCE

PAUL MASSEY

 

First sail ever was in Alexandria Harbour in about 1943. Started sailing Redwings & a Snipe in Torbay in 1950, then GP14's in Bahrain in 1957.  My first boat owned was a 19 ft Houri dhow and I did the first circumnavigation of Bahrain under sail by a European.

Second boat was a 30 ft dhow.

Third was the Dutchman, a 23 foot De Vries Lensch Pampus class keelboat daysailer which I bought in 1961 and sold in 1963.

Crewed on a 6 metre in Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne, Australia in 1965

Owned Shalon, a Coronet 21 with Volvo Penta inboard / outboard at Port Moresby, Papua in 1966 to 1968.

Returned to Europe and did no sailing until in 1985 we bought Succession, a Catfisher 28 displacement catamaran & sailed it from St Katharine's Dock to Chichester Harbour. Later got a mooring at Buckler's Hard, Beaulieu

Wife (now separated) & I then did evening classes in navigation, etc and passed the RYA Competent Crew / Day Skipper theory examinations

Sailed Succession in the Solent regularly, several times across the Channel and once to the Mediterranean via the Seine, Burgundy Canal, Saone & Rhone to Port Camargue. Back to Beaulieu via the Canal Laterale de la Loire and the Briare

Sold Succession & took delivery of Solaris Sunrise 36', Hathor, in August 1991. Sailed her to Le Havre , up the Seine & through the French inland waterways to the Mediterranean at Port St Louis and then on to Malta where we wintered

In 1992 sailed Malta, Sicily, toe & heel of Italy, Corfu, Ionian, Corinth Canal, across Aegean, to Bodrum, Turkey, down to Alanya and across to Cyprus where we wintered at Limassol

In 1993 sailed Limassol to Finike, then 6 months cruising up past Kusadasi and back down to Antalya

In 1994: This was the start of my circumnavigation. Antalya to Kastellorizon, Marmaris, Simi and across the Aegean, Corinth Canal to Corfu.  At Corfu  my wife returned to our house in England and crew joined me.  Then Corfu, Italy, Sicily, Malta, Tunisia, Sardinia, Majorca, Spain, Gibraltar. Then Madeira, Canaries, Cape Verdes and across the Atlantic to Antigua.

In 1995: Leisurely cruise down the Caribbean islands to Trinidad, so as to be out of the hurricane risk zone.

In 1995: Bought MANTRA, a 48' Privilege catamaran, in Cyprus. Sailed Cyprus to Gibraltar (in December 1995 / January 1996!) to Canaries and across Atlantic. After landfall at Barbados, cruised to Bequia, Mayreau, Cariacou, Grenada, Trinidad, Venezuela, Curacao.

In 1997 sailed Hathor from Trinidad to Venezuela, St Martin, St. Thomas USVI, the BVI’s and to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where she was sold.

Also in 1997 sailed Mantra from Curacao to Miami and on to Fort Lauderdale.

In 1998 sailed Mantra from Fort Lauderdale to Freeport Bahamas, San Blas Islands, Panama and through the Panama Canal, to Galapagos, Marquesas and Tahiti and then on to New Zealand.

In 1999 cruised up New Zealand to Tonga, then Fiji and New Caledonia to Australia.

In 1999 and 2000 cruised up and down the Queensland coast.

In 2001 cruised up the coast again and on to Thursday Island and Darwin. Then to Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

In 2002 on to Thailand and then back to Malaysia.

In 2003 to Sri Lanka, Uligan in the Maldives, Salalah in Oman, through the high piracy risk area and on to Massawa in Eritrea. Then up the Red Sea to Sudan and Egypt. Through the Suez Canal and to Israel and then to Larnaca, Cyprus where on 3rd July we completed our circumnavigation. Then on to Turkey and, in 2004, to Malta and on to Sardinia and to France.

My objectives were to do my sailing downwind (or at least sailing with no more headwinds and no more butting into short seas on the nose) and to see interesting places and meet interesting people. I did a leisurely circumnavigation.

Mantra was sold in 2004 having so very well served as a safe and comfortable means of sailing all the way round the world.

In 2006 I bought Strobarli (now renamed Mantra) and took her to Guernsey. The new Mantra is a Cygnus displacement motor yacht. In USA English Mantra would be called a trawler.

In 2007 I took the new Mantra from Guernsey via the Bay of Biscay to Gibraltar, then to Malta and on to Cyprus. This was in three non-stop passages. From Cyprus I then cruised to Astipalia and Sifnos in the Greek Aegean, on to Athens, through the Corinth Canal to Trisonia and Missolonghi and then to Levkas and Paxos in the Greek Ionian and to Sibari, Italy, then Malta, Crete and back to Cyprus.

2008’s cruising was from Larnaca to Finike and then along the Turkish coast as far as Marmaris before cruising leisurely back to Cyprus for the winter.

2009's cruising was from Larnaca to Finike and then along the Turkish coast as far as Gumusluk just north of Bodrum and to the Greek Aegean islands of Kalimnos, Simi and Kastellorizon before returning to Larnaca.