TV: The Schoolboy Who Sailed the World
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Banter
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URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6105
Printed Date: 11 Aug 25 at 2:41am
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Topic: TV: The Schoolboy Who Sailed the World
Posted By: Villan
Subject: TV: The Schoolboy Who Sailed the World
Date Posted: 05 Nov 09 at 8:58pm
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Channel 4, in 3 mins.
Folowing Michael Perhams voyage around the world. ------------- Vareo - 149 "Secrets" http://www.TandyUKServers.co.uk" rel="nofollow - TandyUK Servers |
Replies:
Posted By: chrisg
Date Posted: 05 Nov 09 at 10:31pm
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Have to say - fair play Michael. Watching the program, I'm gobsmacked. You've overcome a lot of problems that weren't your fault, and have come over very well! Congratulations if you ever read this! Live the dream! Awesome. Very impressed. we're all just playing at it really arent we..... ------------- |
Posted By: Guest
Date Posted: 05 Nov 09 at 11:00pm
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Fantastic achievement by a young man ... but it did look like a parent living a dream through their child.
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Posted By: stuarthop
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 7:43am
Very good.
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Posted By: Andymac
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 8:56am
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What a remarkable young man. Beats hanging around street corners in a hoodie. |
Posted By: laser4000
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 9:15am
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Fair play to the guy - thought he came across very well. Not sure many of us would have dealt with some of those situations very well. Imagine being right in the middle of the pacific, miles from anywhere and anyone and then being dumped by your girlfriend (1st serious?) ... |
Posted By: Jamie600
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 9:52am
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I thought that too, quite selfish of her I thought, as something like that could have tipped him over the edge when he was clearly already struggling to cope with the solitude. For the sake of a few emails she could have at least strung it out until he got back. ------------- RS600 1001 |
Posted By: rich96
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 2:03pm
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Great programme but I was truly astonished that he set off (was allowed to set of) without having sailed the boat on his own. He and his family must have had great faith in him. This was a proper race boat and would have needed thoroughly shaking down after a refit to iron out the inevitable teething problems.(i.e this was not a comfortable bomb proof cruiser constructed with mass produced reliable parts). Needless to say he had some serious and time consuming problems, some of which might have been resolved before the voyage through proper trialling. There is obvuiously a sensible balance between going totally OTT with the preparation etc and being gung ho but I thought leaving so clearly under prepared was edging towards the latter. I'm not sure that i'd have let my son go in the same sitiuation ? Regardless of any of this - he clearly did brilliantly. |
Posted By: Guest
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 2:14pm
Trouble when chasing a record like "youngest to sail around the world" then that dosn't give you lots of time to test stuff as of course you get older and will miss the record. I think we was very lucky not to end up in a lot of bother ... ------------- |
Posted By: Roy Race
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 2:17pm
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The part just before he set off was amazing. The dad was trying to explain about wind angles to his son. I thought, "the lad can't sail! holy ****!" His dad was a nutter. Very highly strung, judging by the way he was shouting at his son about not being head to wind. I thought he seemed like quite a nasty character and it was no surprise to me when he turned out to be a stark raving mad foaming at the mouth god-botherer. I had to switch off after the 3rd autopilot failure out of sheer embarassment. |
Posted By: Guest
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 2:45pm
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That was exactly my thoughts ... but obviously he could ... ------------- |
Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 3:12pm
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Didn't see the programme, but hadn't he already become the youngest Atlantic crosser a while back? Probebly knows which end is which.
------------- Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686 |
Posted By: getafix
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 3:50pm
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daft... be teenagers and leave the round-the-world stuff till later ------------- Feeling sorry for vegans since it became the latest fad to claim you are one |
Posted By: Jack Sparrow
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 4:21pm
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Sometimes you lot amaze me. It's as if you have all been living in a cave for the last 20 years, stuck your head out, been shocked by the modern world, shouted 'Humbug' and gone back inside! There's a little thing called editing. It tends to alter the viewers understanding of a real situation. So everyone wind in your necks and 'Big Up' this kid for what was an amazing thing to have achieved! Save your bile for Italian lake sailors or Swiss multi millionaires! ------------- http://www.uk3-7class.org/index.html" rel="nofollow - Farr 3.7 Class Website https://www.facebook.com/groups/1092602470772759/" rel="nofollow - Farr 3.7 Building - Facebook Group |
Posted By: Guest
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 4:35pm
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Calm down JS; I think you will find that most on this thread have been complimentary about the achievement ... Of course we understand it's edited but that section was surprising as the father had to expalian where the wind was, did you see it? ------------- |
Posted By: Jack Sparrow
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 5:43pm
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Yep I saw it, and I'm quite calm thanks. Yes there are some compliments in the thread. But there are also comments like the one you are picking out. And that's my point. The kid obviously knows what he is doing. He's soloed the Atlantic. But under the enormity of the situation that was taking place ( given the way the schedule and funding had fallen apart ) got slightly confused for a moment, and for dramatic effect the production company used that sequence to create a reaction. Well it did the trick, didn't it. Some of the responses seem to mirror the negative energy that Rod Carr and Ellen Mc's head oppo were emitting in there interviews in the programme. Of course these interviews were edited too, maybe intentionally to help create the feeling that is coming across here. It's all a bit Daily Mail for my liking. The kid has done an amazing thing. I wish I had his guts... and when younger, maybe even his girlfriend,  he seems a talented lad all round! ------------- http://www.uk3-7class.org/index.html" rel="nofollow - Farr 3.7 Class Website https://www.facebook.com/groups/1092602470772759/" rel="nofollow - Farr 3.7 Building - Facebook Group |
Posted By: Jamie600
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 6:06pm
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To be fair you could see the lad was terrified and nerves can do funny things to you. In my opinion it was no different to someone who has a car crash or near miss and then 'forgets' how to drive for a few seconds afterwards. The enormity of what lay before him was probably just sinking in and he was unable to concentrate on the task in hand, perfectly natural. ------------- RS600 1001 |
Posted By: Andymac
Date Posted: 06 Nov 09 at 8:44pm
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I couldn't have said that better myself! (without sounding too pervy) Fair do's to his girlfriend, She seemed very supportive of him from the start. She must have had much anguish at home, whilst he was away on his 'jolly'. Wouldn't surprise me if she just needed a little timeout for herself, with the trip running way beyond the planned schedule. My impression at the end was that they both still held each other in great affection. As Jack says, these program makers are very good at editing a story. Just like Hollywood to have a boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl at end scenario.
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Posted By: Roy Race
Date Posted: 07 Nov 09 at 9:59am
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Oh, I don't know, there are no amount of nerves which would make me (and I suspect most people reading this) not know where the wind was coming from on a nice sunny day in the english channel. It would be second nature. What I found amazing was that it's clearly possible to circumnavigate the world, cross the atlantic or whatever you fancy whilst being so poor at sailing that you can't tell where the wind is coming from and don't know that it's easier to shake out a reef if head to wind. Maybe tenacity, determination, guts, courage and all those other qualities are more important in these kind of ventures than sailing talent. I'm quite sure I couldn't match the lad for determination and courage but I'm totally certain I'm a better sailor than him. I guess it's similar to people being able to climb Everest whilst barely knowing one end of a crampon from another. 40 years ago you would have had to have been among the world's elite mountaineers to achieve it but lots of people do it these days with just the most rudimentary training. Good kit and technology is what makes it possible. I just got the sense of the father being terribly pushy and like Rick said, living out his dreams though his son. He did it though, so fair play to him for doing it. I can't help wondering what the general opinion of the father would be if he had fallen overboard and died in the Southern Ocean through lack of experience dealing with a situation though. It WILL happen one of these days to one of these inexperienced kids and their parents will be in a whole heap of trouble. |
Posted By: chrisclark123
Date Posted: 07 Nov 09 at 12:34pm
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I can't actually believe people are drawing upon the fact
that he lost his nerve just before he was about to set off on this massive trip, I'm pretty sure I'd make a mistake or two if I had a film crew watching me on a boat I've never sailed by myself before! so you would say his not a good sailor that, rather than say his a good sailor as he made it round the world by himself? I have to take my hat off to him, I wish I had the skill, the mental capability and the opportunity to even try to do what his done! |
Posted By: timeintheboat
Date Posted: 07 Nov 09 at 3:31pm
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Accepting that the editing was there to tell the story the broadcasters wanted to tell (experts wrong, against all the odds etc.) there were some odd family dynamics going on there - at times the word creepy came into my head. In sailing around the world sailing is only a bit of it - keeping the boat and yourself together is the bigger part of it. That takes guts and the kid had the right stuff. I'd love to do something like that one day (some how it wasn' me that won the £45M) but if I don't get 7+ hours kip a night I turn into a psychopath after a few days. I wonder what if anything he'll do next in sailing? ------------- Like some other things - sailing is more enjoyable when you do it with someone else |
Posted By: Jamie600
Date Posted: 07 Nov 09 at 9:57pm
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Agreed - say what you want about his dad or even his sailing skills but he had guts. Not sure if we'll see much of him again, what do you do to top that? ------------- RS600 1001 |
Posted By: Villan
Date Posted: 07 Nov 09 at 10:20pm
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Do it non-stop this time? ------------- Vareo - 149 "Secrets" http://www.TandyUKServers.co.uk" rel="nofollow - TandyUK Servers |
Posted By: didlydon
Date Posted: 09 Nov 09 at 10:40am
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Yep. +1 all the above! You nailed it I reckon TT. ------------- Vareo 365 |
Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 09 Nov 09 at 1:18pm
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I'd not be surprised if it was a different adventure sport he did something in next. ------------- Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686 |