I have been lucky enough to have sailed most of my life, starting in dinghies in the Carrick Roads, Wimbledon and Queen Mary sailing clubs (London), and followed by summer cruises across the south coast of England, the Channel Islands, Brittany, the Hebrides, and the Mediterranean. I am a qualified RYA dinghy instructor and an Offshore Yachtmaster. In the last few years my interest and fascination with long-distance single handing has increased exponentially. I have been straddling this with my formal training in jazz music at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London, where I will graduate in summer 2025. Though I love and will always love the music, I don’t see myself pursuing it as a full time career (at least at this stage). There are many reasons for this, which I won’t go into here. Having obsessed over the available material on solo sailing, I realised that a project of my own was what I was really yearning for. Since then there has been no question of the direction this stage of my life will go.
Knowing a boat inside out and being competent in working with the materials used in its construction is vital in making repairs on passage, and provides invaluable skills in life in general. With that in mind, I bought a stripped-out Contessa 26 with a very dry hull and new engine, with a plan to fit it out (learning as I go). I chose the Contessa 26 due to its modest size and exceptional reputation as a seaworthy boat.
Given its relative proximity and affordability, I moved my boat to Lowestoft so that I could study at the International Boatbuilding Training College (IBTC) and work on the boat simultaneously. Since then, IBTC suddenly and unexpectedly closed. Consequently, and at great physical, emotional (and financial) cost, I moved the boat to a barn in Somerset belonging to family. I studied furniture making at the Boatbuilding Academy Lyme Regis for 3 months in summer of 2025, which gave me the skills and experience I needed to design and fit Tarka’s interior, thus completing the refit. The work was a huge learning curve, especially at the beginning, and without the patience and guidance of Kit Rogers at Jeremy Rogers Ltd, Rob Harbord and Sam Larass among many others at IBTC as well as everyone at the BBA, the curve would have been a lot steeper!
As one can imagine, there are many costs involved in a project like this; I have been funding the project thus far with years of personal savings, and continue to fund it with my work as a freelance Jazz drummer, private music teacher, delivery driver, kitchen porter and local handyman.
I was incredibly fortunate that I was able to keep my expenses down by living with family while working on the boat and working to save money for the project. I’m very aware of how immeasurably more difficult the project would be if this were not the case, and am extremely grateful for all their support and interest.
At this time (August 2026) we have just returned from our sea trial – a (what turned out to be) ‘one-stop’ solo circumnavigation of the UK and Ireland.
Please do reach out if you have any questions or comments, I’m always down to chat sailing!
Joe
