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Nine Boats - Nine Lives
Here is a book for all those with an adventurous spirit, whether sailors or not.
Beginning with brief details of the author’s struggles during the 1914-45 era between two World Wars, the book moves on to the time when George Payne is able to pursue his life in a more unfettered way. Nearing middle age he starts sailing a small ‘cartop’ dinghy and this experience becomes the first in a new life devoted to boats and boat building.
His adventures really begin when he takes a job in Guyana in South America and builds a new, faster dinghy for local races and to sail far inland through the equatorial forest. An exciting jungle expedition takes him to the rarely visited Kaieteur Falls, several times higher than Niagara.
Returning home, he buys a pocket cruiser to cruise in the treacherous Bristol Channel and then, emboldened by success, he builds an ocean-going catamaran he calls Raka.
Soon after retirement he remarries to Joyce, another keen sailor, and together their cruising plans become more ambitious. However, following the trauma of a particularly horrendous Atlantic storm they decide to sell Raka. This sets them again on their way to the Azores to deliver Raka to Greece, which is an amazing trip that becomes the prelude to more sailing and canal boats, more exotic places, and more contrasting life-styles.
The author’s enthusiasm is always to the fore, with many amusing incidents and even helpful hints for those who themselves set sail. But both George and his wife Joyce are, above all, an inspiration to all readers that life should be lived to the full.
ISBN: 9781852001001
Size: 217x140mm
Binding: hardback
Length: 345pp
51 photographs
About the author:
George Payne
The author was born in Hampstead, London in 1914. Following his early years as detailed in this book, he spent six years instructing in the RAF. After this he became Senior Lecturer in Aircraft Structures at Hatfield Technical College (now university), Principal of the Government Technical Institute in Guyana and finally, Principal of Bridgwater Technical College, Somerset.
As readers will soon appreciate, throughout much of his working life George Payne became an avid sailor and this continued long after his retirement.
His sailing experiences encouraged him to write various articles for local yacht club newsletters and magazines. It is from these early beginnings that the idea of writing this book formed and came to fruition.
From his home in Devon the author still has a great interest in sailing and everything connected with boats.
