The Log of Trilleen – a regular account of Ian’s experience as a disabled sailor with Sailing Trilleen
Disabled water users are an under recognised part of the water activity and sailing community despite recognising as much as 20% of the participating population. Helping disabled participants enter and remain in the sport is important to the sector’s health and commercial welfare. Ensuring disability access can improve income generation by reducing early exit from … Read more
I sailed from Peterhead into the darkness of the North Sea night, already so much darker than the nights in Shetland, knowing that perhaps the most testing part of the whole cruise was about to begin. The southern North Sea is littered with wind farms, oil platforms, pipelines, and a density of traffic which should … Read more
Trilleen and I sailed from Wick for Peterhead, crossing the Moray Firth and negotiating the first of the many many wind farms on the east coast. I sailed late in the evening a long afternoon snooze and sailing into the night trying to catch the front of a tiny kink in the air stream which … Read more
Trilleen spent what felt like a long time alongside in Lerwick, due to severe weather which detained even yachts three times Trilleen’s length, and also to allow my lovely mum to visit. I was also able to repair the navigation lights which had been ‘eaten’ by the pier at Baltasound and attend to a few … Read more
A brief kink in a front offered a chance to escape the dubious shelter of Baltasound, which despite the wonderful hospitality of Unst Boating Club I was very excited to escape. Trilleen and I had a storming passage upwind in 20+ knots to Lerwick, shaving the edge of Fetlar and navigating the narrow passages in … Read more
Trilleen is finally free from Stornoway, and as I write this I’m waiting in Westray, the westernmost island in the northern group of the Orkney Islands. I’m loving being back on the water and I think the boat is loving it too. The sailing has been amazing, even if I’m still debugging some of the … Read more
I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Andy Cassell who was born in 1942, and had founded, and remained the patron of the charity for whom Sailing Trilleen is raising funds. At 83, he had graced both the technical and on water parts of the sailing world through the entire post war … Read more
The Royal Ocean Racing Club recommends a minimum of 3l per crew (offshore racing special regulations), per day, but I’ve found that a as a disabled sailor my needs for survival, let alone comfort, are substantially higher. Between the need to stay very much better hydrated than the minimum provides, and the minimum personal cleaning … Read more
I and Trilleen are still lying at Stornoway, and if engineering things continue going as they have been, I may be lying here over the winter. The business of re-engining Trilleen has been prolonged and complex. Three times now I’ve had the pleasure of thinking I was nearly ready to wander the seaways again, and … Read more
What happens when your engine is toast? Trilleen is stopped in Stornoway with a serious defect to her engine. There has been a cascade of failures. I and local engineers think the that the block – the hunk of cast metal which contains the whizzy whooshy bits of the engine has died. Unfortunately my diligent … Read more