Authors & Contributors

doreen and ARCHIE ANNAN

Doreen and Archie Annan have sailed together for over 40 years, first cruising in the West Coast of Scotland from their home in Fort William before turning to racing in quarter and half ton yachts.
Twenty five years ago they purchased their current yacht Okura. With Okura they have cruised extensively in the whole of the Mediterranean spending many winters in Turkey.  The Black Sea was explored in detail in the summers of 1997 to 2000 before crossing to the Caribbean.  The authors of Cruise the Black Sea and Cruise Ukraine are currently based in Turkey.

PUBLICATIONS

Cruise the Black Sea

PADDY BARRY

Paddy made a famous first crossing of the Atlantic in his Galway Hooker St Patrick. His voyages to Spitzbergen at the edge of the Polar Ice Pack and to Greenland resulted in the award to him of coveted Blue Water Medal of the Cruising Club of America.
Paddy was joint leader of South Arís and was skipper of Tom Crean during the 1997 Antarctic expedition. He was Expedition Leader for the Northabout North West Passage expedition. Paddy is a native of Cork, Civil Engineer and is married to Mary. They have four children, and live in Dun Laoghaire.

 publications

Arctic and Northern Waters

Tony Bolingbroke

Tony was promoted Commander in 1982 but was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1987 which dramatically curtailed his Royal Naval career. He left the Navy in 1991 and ran a private hospital in Sheffield before setting out in 1997 on a round-the-world cruise in his yacht Fortuna with his partner, Serena. Arriving at Langkawi in 2006 they decided to settle there and have now acquired both a house and dogs,

Publications

Passage Planning Route A6 Darwin-Phuket

DAVID BARKER & LISA BORRE

David Barker and Lisa Borre sailed 5,500 miles together on the Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic coast of the U.S., and on all five of the Great Lakes in the US and Canada before setting out on an extended voyage aboard their Tayana 37’ cutter Gyatso in 2005.  Since then, they have covered nearly 20,000 miles while living aboard and cruising full-time in the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Black Seas.  They crossed the Atlantic in 2007 with the ARC Europe Rally.  The couple continue to chronicle their sailing adventures and contribute to cruising and pilotage information as members of the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) and through their extensive website,  www.gyatso.net.

 PUBLICATIONS

Black Sea Cruising Guide

William Bourne

William has been cruising since his childhood and took his first command to Brittany at the age of 23. He has subsequently cruised in a variety of small boats from Spain to a circumnavigation of Iceland before the days of GPS. He has been a member of the Royal Cruising Club since 1980. He has owned a succession of boats and currently sails a 30ft cat rigged fast cruiser out of Falmouth. He has four children and runs his own business in the financial services sector. He has taken over responsibility for the N.Brittany pilot following John Lawson's death.

Publications

Forthcoming North Brittany

Henry BuchanAN

Henry learnt to sail dinghies at school and caught the bug. Two years of general service training at Dartmouth and in the Fleet provided skills in navigation, seamanship and engineering in ships, yachts and powerboats of many types before he sank beneath the waves as a submariner. Fortunate to join Gabriel Clay RCC as crew/co-skipper for 30 years, he cruised to Norway, the Baltic, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and most harbours in the Channel. He bought a Hallberg-Rassy in 2006 and has covered 17,000 miles in the Baltic and cruised the Atlantic coast of Europe, completing an Atlantic circuit via the Atlantic islands, East Caribbean and Bermuda, and then through the Mediterranean to Turkey.

Publications

Atlantic Spain and Portugal

Peter Carnegie

Peter Carnegie discovered sailing on settling in Jersey in 1963. Early ventures in small sailing boats convinced him that the Channel Islands have something special to offer aspiring yachtsmen and in 1976 he co-founded Jersey Cruising School. Through years of intensive sailing in the area, mostly as Instructor and charter skipper, he has gained an intimate knowledge of its harbours and anchorages. This forms the basis of his RCC Pilotage Foundation pilot The Channel Islands. As a keen pilot he has overflown all the harbours and anchorages described in The Channel Islands. Many of the air views were taken by his son James, a professional photographer. Peter and his wife Julia have brought up their four children in the sailing tradition, cruising as far afield as Mediterranean and Caribbean waters. Their present yacht is a Jeanneau 42 based in St Helier.

Publications

The Channel Islands

Graham & Fay Cattell

A first long cruise to the Baltic in 1995 followed 25 years of sailing experience on the British and French coasts. Since 1998 they have kept their boat in Sweden and made frequent visits to Baltic Countries. In 2005 they became Joint Secretaries of the Cruising Association's Baltic Section and have received a number of CA awards for their work in gathering harbour and pilotage information, work in the Section and for many articles published over the years. Publications include Hamble to Helsinki (2000) and Harbours of the Baltic States (ongoing).

Publications

The Baltic sea

 JARLATH CUNNANE

Jarlath is responsible for the building of Northabout, the expedition boat and is the Skipper. A construction manager from County Mayo, Jarlath has sailed extensively throughout the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea with a lifetime's sailing experience off the West Coast of Ireland. He built and sailed Tom Crean, the replica of Shackletons' James Caird lifeboat used in the South Arís expedition.
Married to Madeleine they have two children. Jarlath has twice been awarded the Irish Cruising Club's Atlantic Medal

 PUBLICATIONS

Arctic and Northern Waters

Anne Hammick

Anne Hammick has been involved with the Pilotage Foundation for more than 20 years. Atlantic Islands was her first book, researched during 1987/88 and written at the chart table on a portable typewriter. She has updated each subsequent edition and has no intention of stopping just yet. She has also updated editions of The Atlantic Crossing Guide, Atlantic Spain & Portugal, Islas Baleares and The Baltic Sea, and done the aerial photography for yet more. From a sailing family, she first cruised long-distance in 1975 and since then has made eight Atlantic crossings, six as skipper/navigator, including the 1981 Two-handed Transatlantic Race. An RYA Ocean Yachtmaster, most of her long passages were made without the help of electronic (satellite) navigation systems. She has written more than a dozen books on sailing subjects and is editor of Flying Fish, the biannual journal of the Ocean Cruising Club. She was awarded the Royal Cruising Club Challenge Cup in 1987 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation in 2001. She lives aboard her elderly Rustler 31 in Falmouth, Cornwall.

Publications

Atlantic Islands

Annie Hill

Annie Hill has been enjoying an almost continuous roving commission since 1975.  In this time she has sailed over 150,000 miles, largely on two boats: the junk-rigged, plywood, 34 ft Badger and the gaff-rigged, steel, 35 ft Iron Bark.  In this time she has sailed from 73° N to 61° S, has cruised in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and spent a winter aboard in Greenland, frozen in for 7 months.  She has written two books: Voyaging on a Small Income and Brazil and Beyond, both of which are still in print.  She sails with Trevor Robertson, the builder of Iron Bark, who has the unique record of having over wintered both in Antarctica and above the Arctic Circle in a completely unsponsored, home-built boat.

Publications

Falkland Islands Shores Supplement

Notes on Labrador and Greenland

Crossing guide to South Orkney Islands

Pete Hill

Pete Hill made his first ocean crossing in 1972 and has sailed more than 185,000 miles, largely in junk rigged yachts built by him.

Publications

Falkland Islands Shores Supplement

Crossing guides to South Orkney

South Shetland Islands

Ros Hogbin

Ros Hogbin has sailed since childhood and raced in the Fastnet and the Phuket King's Cup Regatta. She has crossed the South Pacific as part of a circumnavigation, which she completed with her husband on their Nicholson 43. Ros co-authored the book The Mind of the Sailor (Adlard Coles Nautical) about adventures and mis-adventures at sea and has written on cruising and racing for Sailing Today and Yachting World. She is Assistant Director for the RCC Pilotage Foundation and spends her spare time on her UFO 34, exploring UK and adjacent waters with her family of 3 small boys.

Publications

Pacific Crossing Guide

 PHIL HOGG & LIZ THOMPSON

Phil and Liz took s/v Fine Tolerance further north than almost any cruising sailors have gone. They sailed the North West Passage through the Arctic passing above Canada from the Pacific through to the Atlantic. See website

 PUBLICATIONS

Arctic and Northern Waters

Graham Hutt

Graham Hutt began sailing while serving in the Royal Navy, gaining RYA Ocean and DTI qualifications on Joint Service yachts in the 1970s. In 1980 he moved to the E Mediterranean with his family, making his base on a 68ft schooner in Cyprus. Several months each year since then have been spent sailing in the Mediterranean and along the North African coast. Recently he has been based in Italy and Spain, also cruising the Baleares Islands. His yachts have included a 28ft Stella, a 48ft Hartley Fijian and now a French built Orion 39. An interest in the Arab world and its language as well as Arab roots in Europe have been a major part of his work and sailing area over the past 26 years. Combining work as a medical anthropologist, with consultancy in the Arab world, continues to facilitate a broad range of interests in Mediterranean sailing, research and writing.

Publications

Baleares

North Africa

Willy Ker

Willy Ker has been ocean racing and cruising under sail since 1948. He first sailed to the Faroe Islands in the family Contessa 32 Assent in 1982 and circumnavigated Iceland in 1983. Since then Assent has cruised both the East and West coasts of Greenland a number of times, as well as the East coast of Baffin Island. Between 1991 and 1995, Assent sailed to the Antarctic Peninsula and across the Pacific to Alaska and Eastern Russia, returning via the Great Lakes to the ‘Eastern Seaboard’ and Labrador. Faroe, Iceland and Greenland have all been revisited more than once since. Originally trained as a topographical surveyor, hydrography is now his hobby. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation.

Publications

Faroe Iceland Greenland

Mike Lewin-Harris

Mike Lewin-Harris's sailing experience over the past 50 years ranges from a 16' Salcombe Yawl between Chichester and Poole to a leg of the first ever Whitbread Round-The-World Race. He kept his 46' wooden classic ocean racer in the Baltic for 3 years, and currently sails a Najad 391, which he has cruised in the Med and transatlantic, and is now about to return to the Baltic. He is the revising author for Isles of Scilly and co-ordinating author for The Baltic.

Publications

The Baltic Sea

Judy Lomax

Judy Lomax started sailing as a child in her father’s GB14, and progressed with her husband David to family holidays afloat on their first yacht, Eridani. In 1985, they bought Cloud Walker, a Beneteau First 345 with which they crossed the Atlantic by the trade wind route, returning via Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes to Norway. Since then, they have spent many summers sailing in Norway, exploring islands, fjords and mainland harbours and anchorages between the Swedish and the Russian borders. They have also spent a couple of summers sailing in Svalbard, on the second occasion returning to the UK via Jan Mayen. In 1991, they crewed on a 75ft replica Viking longship, Gaia, from Trondheim to Washington. They have been members of the Royal Cruising Club since 1986. Judy is grateful to the many RCC members whose cruising notes, collected over 60 years, were the starting point for this book.

Publications

Norway

Roving Commissions (Editor  - Royal Cruising Club Annual journal)

John Marchment

John Marchment started sailing in 1946 in a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter, Christabel, from Falmouth and has, since then, sailed in most oceans of the world in all sorts of sailing craft, ranging from a Firefly to a 12 metre. He has owned a Shearwater catamaran, a Contessa 26, a Rustler 31 and a First 345. Initially his sailing was concentrated on the Channel Isles/Brittany coast areas which are easily accessible from his home in Weymouth. In 1984, he was fortunate to find a job in La Spezia, where he spent 8 happy years sailing/motoring in the Mediterranean with the First 345. He has worked for the Pilotage Foundation for 9 years and has been responsible for writing several editions of most of the western Mediterranean areas.

Publications

Mediterranean Spain:

Costas del Sol and Blanca

Costas del Azahar, Dorada & Brava

Corsica and North Sardinia

 DAVID MITCHELL

Started sailing dinghies at eight and has been sailing ever since. First cruise in 1955 in Sea Jack belonging to Cocky Landon, RCC. Shared Contessa 26 and 32. Bought Ohlsen 35 and left England to circumnavigate in 1996. Entered Pacific in 1998 and has been there ever since. Bought Shandon, a Bowman 48DS in 2005. So far he has sailed over 100,000M in the Pacific alone and visited over 40 countries. Most memorable moments include: being thrown overboard at night (en route G Caymen - Cartagena), swimming with hump back whales (Niue), swimming with sharks (Penrhyn, Cook Islands), being dismasted in South Island NZ, two sunny days in the Chile archipelago, watching albatross around the boat, every landfall.

 PUBLICATIONS

Passage Planning route A4 - Notes on Papua New Guinea

Notes on Lau Group, Fiji

Tom Morgan

Following a career in education, Tom retired after being a member of a mathematics advisory team in London. With his family he set sail in his self-built GRP foam sandwich yacht for South America, via the western European coast, Atlantic islands and South America. There he became a columnist and contributor to SA Yachting and SA Shipping & Fishing magazines. He sailed the coast and produced his first South African Nautical Almanac - On board Publications published the fifth edition for 2002/3. With his wife, Sue, he travelled all over South Africa. They co-wrote the Boat Trekkers Guide, the definitive work on where to launch a small boat in the republic. He returned by yacht to the UK via South America, the Caribbean and the Azores. Once back, he set up On Board Publications with his wife: initially to publish budget-cost sailing guides in the Afloat & Ashore series. During his travels he compiled the South Atlantic Circuit. When he approached the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation with the project, they agreed to sponsor the final phase.

Publications

South Atlantic Circuit

Havens and Anchorages

Andrew O'Grady

Andrew O'Grady started cruising when 17 and has been a member of the Royal Cruising Club since 1978. He qualified as a doctor and after working in Newfoundland and the Shetland Islands he sailed to New Zealand. He built Balaena for long distance cruises to remote places. More recently he has cruised the Baltic, before returning to Argentina and Chile. 

PUBLICATIONS

Chile

Argentina

 dermot o'riordan

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/nw_passage/

 PUBLICATIONS

Arctic and Northern Waters

Jeremy Parkinson

Jeremy Parkinson has cruised since boyhood as a member of Weymouth Sailing Club when he crewed for three summers aboard a converted Cornish lugger, cruising the North French and Netherlands coasts from Treguier to Amsterdam. He bought his first cruising yacht in 1972, a Pandora 22 in which he cruised the Channel Islands and North Brittany. An Eygthene 24 and a Sadler 25 followed until in 1988 he bought his present yacht, a bright green Contessa 28 Feanor. He has been a member of the Royal Cruising Club since 1997 and since then has cruised nearly all the coasts of Europe and Scandinavia from Bergen in Norway to Göçek in Turkey including most of the Baltic, Scotland and Ireland and the northern shores of the Mediterranean.

PUBLICATIONS

The Baltic Sea

Steve Pickard

Steve Pickard learned to sail in a YM Senior and after a series of near disasters in that and other craft finally learnt his trade and ceased to be a danger to navigation. In more recent times he has cruised from the Arctic to the Caribbean but spends most of his time in the Mediterranean. More recently still he repatriated Maurice Griffiths old yacht Lone Gull from a graveyard berth in Tunisia and an old Westerly from sultry Trinidad, sailing her solo back to Europe. He lives in the South of France with his wife Deirdre in a house they built overlooking the Rhone.

PUBLICATIONS

Forthcoming South Biscay

Mike Redfern

Mike Redfern cut his sailing teeth on the Helford and Solent but often in both and is still learning. He has cruised the French coast down to La Rochelle, the West coast of Scotland, in the Mediterranean, the Bahamas and up to Germany. Mike spent four years exploring much of the Baltic including the Baltic States, the Finnish Lakes and the Gulf of Bothnia before moving on to Norway. He cruises their Westerly Oceanranger with his wife Liz and a variety of long suffering guests who seem to come back for more.

PUBLICATIONS

The Baltic sea

David & Annette Ridout

Annette and I cruised Northern Europe with our two children for 30 years. Then in 2000 on my retirement we set sail in Nordlys, our S&S designed Swan 47, after spending 5 years getting her ready for a long trip to both hot and cold climates. A nine year circumnavigation of 54,000 miles followed. From 60N, the Shetland Islands, to 42S, The south of Tasmania, Nordlys looked after us. The learning curve was steep, examples being: anchoring techniques in the weed of South Australia, the silt of Tasmania and in coral atolls. The ability to get GRIB files and their limitations plus of course dealing with local officials. If we can help others enjoy the cruising life as we were helped by those ahead of us then it will add to our memories.

PUBLICATIONS

Passage Planning E & S Australia, Australia to S Africa, India to E Africa, South Africa to Caribbean

Jane Russell

Jane Russell grew up sailing and team-raced dinghies at university, where she met her husband, David. After graduating, they bought an old 37ft steel sloop Tinfish, and lived aboard in Swansea. In 1995 they set off across the Atlantic, sailing via Senegal and the Gambia River before heading across to Barbados. They spent 18 months in the Caribbean, including a hurricane season exploring the coast of Venezuela before heading to Jamaica, Cayman, Belize and Guatemala. They completed a 5 year circumnavigation via Panama, Suez and the French canals. On their return home, they bought a 24ft Strider catamaran which they sailed with young children around the West Country. They are currently based in Norfolk where the children are learning to sail dinghies. In 2009 they launched Tinfish II, a 39ft, steel, Mike Pocock design, which they sail from Pin Mill. Jane has created the 6th edition of the Atlantic Crossing Guide and has worked on a number of routes for the Pilotage Foundation Website.

PUBLICATIONS

Atlantic Crossing Guide

Passage Planning Guides (Assistant Editor)

Penny Scott-Bayfield

Penny Scott-Bayfield began cruising with her parents in their Warrior 36 as a baby and has been sailing ever since. With her Contessa 32, Super C, she has cruised the French and Spanish Atlantic coasts with a brief foray to Norway. She very much enjoyed updating the Cruising Guide to West Africa with information from much more adventurous sailors, while keeping Super C based in Suffolk.

PUBLICATIONS

Editor West Africa

 JOHN SHARP

 PUBLICATIONS

Arctic and Northern Waters

 BOB SHEPTON

 PUBLICATIONS

Arctic and Northern Waters

 CLIVE SHUTE

 PUBLICATIONS

Arctic and Northern Waters

Ewen Southby-Tailyour

Ewen Southby-Tailyour is a third generation (his godfather was his honorary grandfather!) member of the RCC and has sailed all his life. Having been brought up on board a seven-ton Polperro Hooker and a 35 ton Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter he now owns a 12-ton gaff cutter Black Velvet that he had especially built for high-latitude cruising. In addition to Falkland Islands Shores he has contributed to Faroe Iceland Greenland.

PUBLICATIONS

Falkland Islands Shores

 MADELEINE STROBEL

Madeleine learned to sail at a DHH (Deutscher Hochseespotsverband Hansa) sailing school on lake Chiemsee (Bavaria) where she met her husband Stephan and continued from dinghy sailing to develop a life-long passion for the sea. Madeleine and Stephan have sailed extensively in European waters on their Bowman 40 'Easy Rider of Beaulieu', which they have owned for 15 year. They are currently exploring the Baltic on her.

 ROGER SWANSON & GAYNELLE TEMPLIN

Tony & Jill Vasey

We feel that we have a special connection to the coast of Finland. We had three summers sailing up there in 1992-94 and found it to be our favourite cruising ground. I (Jill) have also been the FPI editor for Finland for about the last 17 years.

PUBLICATIONS

The Baltic Sea

Martin Walker

Martin Walker is the Director of the Pilotage Foundation. His background includes extensive cruising in the English Channel, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Baltic throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Baltic and Channel plus two handed racing - Observer TWOSTAR Plymouth to Newport Transatlantic, Round Britain and Ireland Race, Yachting Monthly Triangle races in the 1980s, Current boat Oyster 435 Hookey of Hamble - Circumnavigation and then Atlantic Circuit including East Coast USA in 1990s, Mediterranean including Black Sea in 2000s.

PUBLICATIONS

Atlantic Spain and Portugal

Sandy Watson

Sandy Watson is a former Royal Navy submarine engineer. As a teenager he learnt to sail in dinghies (mostly Fireflies and National 12s) and then discovered the joys of cruising when he married into a Royal Cruising Club family. He and his wife, Winkie, have graduated from owning a Halcyon 27 through a Rustler 31 to their present yacht, a Westerly Sealord, which they sail from a base in Portland harbour. For some years he ran the Royal Cruising Club's Foreign Port Information service and set up the RCCPF's desktop publishing organisation.

BRUCE WEIR

Bruce Weir cruised in his parents' yacht from the age of 13, was a watch keeping officer for 14 months in HMS Newcastle in the Far East and East Indies Stations during the 1950s, and since 1962 has sailed his own boat. He bought Tryad, a classic Robert Clark design, for family cruising and he and his wife continue to enjoy her unique sailing qualities. Lifelong cruising has been on the west coast of Scotland. They have taken Tryad to the West Country and Brittany; have cruised in Irish waters a number of times, and over five seasons have been in Scandinavian waters, wintering in Denmark, Sweden and he Aland Islands.

ALEX WHITWORTH 

aNDREW wILKES