Expect the Unexpected…..
Once upon a time, I first met Jim at the 1989–1990 Whitbread Round the World Race stopover in Auckland. I helped build a new sail inventory at North sailmakers in Auckland for Jim on his boat, “The Card”, a Maxi ketch. We went for a sail to check things out, the sails were excellent and Jim was happy … Jim and I struck off the beginning of a great friendship.
Our next catch-up was at the finish of the Whitbread in May in Southampton, where I was working for North Sails with a couple of sailing friends from NZ, Stu Wilson and David Duff. While there, we were summoned by Jim to sail a boat to the Caribbean—a brand-new Beneteau First 45f5 (designed by Bruce Farr). Bounder was her name.
We had just a month to get her to Category 1 before leaving for the Canary Islands. First night out, the boat started leaking. When pots start floating out of the galley cupboards, it’s usually bad! We bailed her out a couple of times before making a pitstop in the Channel Islands, only to discover the yard had put a return valve in backwards. With the problem fixed in Cherbourg, we hit the Bay of Biscay. It lived up to expectations with massive lightning shows and big weather—a very good time to have Captain Jim in charge.
After arriving safely in the Canary Islands, Jim and Chris flew back to the UK, leaving David Duff and me there for a couple of weeks to get the boat ready for the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) race.
Just as the ARC race was starting, the Gulf War broke out, and the US military suddenly cut off all civilian GPS signals and weather data. We had to quickly learn how to use a sextant on the fly. Luckily, we had a basic plastic Ebco sextant on board. Because we didn’t have the proper sight reduction tables, only a Silk Cut nautical almanac, Jim and I spent two intense days trying to work out the math just to get a reliable position from a sun shot.
We also had to create our own weather maps completely from scratch, using the radio logs and weather reports called in by the other 130 boats in the fleet.
I remember during that same ARC race, one night we were drifting around going nowhere, aprox 200nautical miles from cape Verde islands . Jim talked a cruising boat passing by into coming over for a beer, and then he sent out an “all-points bulletin” with our position. Before you knew it, we had about seven boats in a row, one behind the other. Upon Jim’s instructions, a cruising boat in the mix called Carl—owned by a German fella named Harold—motored us along at exactly a quarter of a knot. It was just enough to keep the steering going and the party moving toward St. Lucia, but strictly controlled so we wouldn’t gain any unfair racing advantage! It wouldn’t happen these days, but it was brilliantly organized by Jim.
Despite having no GPS and mapping our own weather, Bounder absolutely cleaned up, winning the ARC by about a week. Thanks to Jim, Chris Little, David Duff, Jeff Bevan (my watch partner in crime), and Martin for one of my best sailing adventures.
When we made it to St. Lucia, Jim convinced Chris to leave the boat in the Caribbean for the sailing season—which is where Paula’s story comes from. What a boat to do the Caribbean carnival season on! (Thanks Chris, and now Chris and Emma).
I remember one night sailing back from Venezuela, we got stopped by a US Coast Guard cutter. About five sailors boarded us. We thought it was strange that four sat in the cockpit while just one went down below to check things out, which only took a couple of minutes. When we arrived in St. Lucia, we heard some friends had been boarded earlier in the night, and buckets were required because the Coast Guard crew were seasick! They weren’t used to being on little boats getting tossed around in the middle of the ocean in terrible conditions.
The whole time spent on that boat with Jim has always been remembered as one of those holidays of a lifetime. Thanks to Chris Little, Jeff, Martin, David Duff, Paula, Emma, all those people we met along the way, and especially Captain Jim.
Our next catch-up with Jim was at the America’s Cup with Tag Heuer in San Diego in 1995. We made the semi-finals, which, given the very low budget was quite an achievement, before the Kiwi team new Zealand won—and the rest is history.
Years later, I decided to go visit Jim in Melbourne, where we went blow-karting (land sailing). We needed a hard sandy beach, and after finding one in absolute gale-force conditions, off we went dow to Sandy poit and the 90mile beach. We had a hand-held GPS strapped to the handlebars in a SW 50knot howling Bass staight gale. I’ll always remember it because Jim clocked a top speed of 90 km/h, and I got the most spectacular wipeout—a reverse, backward cartwheel, into the waves. Luckily, we had bicycle helmets on and Barz optics googles on for eye protection! My God it was a hell of a walk ….crawl back up the beach, with the carts and us being sandblasted in 50knots of wind, dead on the nose….took us 4hours to get back to the Sandy point crew house.
I’ll always cherish that trip because it was also the first time I met Cathy, and along with Julz, they showed me Melbourne. What a time we had.
I always remember Jim Close as: “I’m here, let the fun begin, and expect the unexpected…”
— Radar (Neville Goldsbury)
What can I say….Radar is one of my best and most unique friends……. A blood brother for life!!!
