Cruisers' Profile - Aragorn

by Cruising Editor on 23 Oct 2006 Leslie and Dick York from Connecticut USA, are an easy going likeable couple, experienced sailors, and typical of the style of cruiser that gives cruising sailors such a good name – ever ready to help others, share experiences, and swap stories over a sundowner. Sail-World caught up with them when they had almost finished a three-year circumnavigation on their J46 yacht, Aragorn.

WHERE IS YOUR HOME PORT?
Rowayton, Connecticut is the home port, but she also hangs on a mooring at Larchmont Yacht Club in New York any time we are not out cruising.

ARE YOU MEMBERS OF A YACHT CLUB AT HOME?
Yes, we’re members of Larchmont (NY) Yacht Club. We are also members of the Cruising Club of America, Seven Seas Cruising Association, which we highly recommend to long range cruisers. Also the Musket Cove Yacht Club in Fiji - but you have to sail to Musket Cove Fiji to benefit from that.

TELL US A LITTLE OF YOUR ‘PREVIOUS LIFE’ BEFORE YOU WENT LONG RANGE CRUISING.

DICK: I guess the short answer is ‘Corporate Suit’ ... Really, I was a relatively senior person in a Credit Card company in the US, and was very fortunate with the bull market in the 1990's, thus giving us the wherewithal to go cruising when we wanted to.

LESLIE: Well of course I was the housewife/mother in the family, raising three children. However, I also got my Masters in Social Services. Then I owned and ran a business in dealing with out of control teenagers, and co-authored a book on that topic too.

TELL US ABOUT ARAGORN – SHE’S A LOVELY BOAT:
She is a J46 – made by the same company that originally started with the J24, then more recently the J105's,J109's and J120's. Length is 46 feet (14 metres), beam 13' 8' and she draws 6' 8'. She displaces 24,500 lbs., with a sail area a bit above 1000 sq. ft. Built by Pearson Composites in Warren, Rhode Island, she came off the line in March, 2000.
She’s a relatively light cruising boat with an easily-driven hull, making sail handling easy for two. We can reef early and still go fast.

The boat actually reflects two of our cruising themes:
'Fast is Safe' - beating out bad weather, sailing easily is less stress, and
'We are not camping' – she’s well equipped inside: generator, water maker, separate freezer, etc. and carrying clothing and supplies for long periods away from home.

After 47,000 miles, we still love the boat!

YOU MENTIONED CHILDREN ?
Yes, our three children are aged 29 to 24, and they are currently all in Post-graduate or University education. We waited until they had all finished high school before we went cruising. It was maybe tougher on the youngest one when we left, but she and the others have adjusted well to our being out at sea for a long time. We have a lot of communication gear, including two satellite phones. They allow us to talk to any of our family (almost) anytime we want to, a big plus. This lets us cruise without the feeling of deserting the
children (and parents) at home.

WHEN DID YOU DEPART FOR THIS CIRCUMNAVIGATION?
October 2003 – After cruising her between the Caribbean and home waters every year for the first three years, we wanted to sail some new waters, so we joined the Blue Water Rally 'Round The World Rally' which left the Caribbean at that time, and headed off through the Panama Canal.

TELL US ABOUT THE ROUTE THAT YOU HAVE TAKEN WITH THE ‘ROUND THE WORLD RALLY’ As we said, from Caribbean we went through the Panama Canal. Then we went on to the Galapagos, French Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Djibouti, Egypt, and Crete. We have cruised the Med the last two summers: Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Italy, France and Spain. Now we’re in the Canary Islands planning to transit the Atlantic to Antigua, leaving about 18 November with the Blue Water Rally.

DID YOU HAVE A SAILING BACKGROUND?
DICK: Yes I did, but Leslie had not sailed earlier in her career. I started sailing informally as a teen. Then I started serious racing on others 'one-design’ boats – that was after school when I had started working. I also sailed dinghies during the winter racing season. However, it was when I was offshore racing that I found that I love ‘being at sea’.

We bought a cruising boat in 1983, but raising kids and developing careers meant that we were sidetracked for many years. After work ended, in the 90’s, we wanted to do some serious sailing, and therefore moved back to salt water sailing, and bought Aragorn. So you could say it was something we wanted to do for a long time, but had to wait for the time to be right.

WHAT HAVE BEEN THE HIGHLIGHTS SO FAR?
That’s hard to answer, as we find everywhere is great. So, in chronological order:
CARIBBEAN is great cruising.
SAN BLAS is a great step back in time, meeting different culture, as well as good
cruising.
GALAPAGOS is absolutely enchanted; the animals are not afraid of you, so you can have a great relationship with them.
SOUTH PACIFIC Islands have wonderful people as well as the best sailing/cruising in the world. VANUATU is even a better step back into time if you get to one of the festivals.
AUSTRALIA ... good people, good sailing (bad swimming).
INDONESIA AND THAILAND have the nicest people in the world.. The Indonesians are always smiling. The Thais are wonderful.
INDIA was a pleasant surprise... the people are very nice, warm and willing to help you.

WHAT WAS YOUR MOST DIFFICULT/FRIGHTENING/SCARY EXPERIENCE?
I would guess the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 26 Dec 2004 has to qualify. Although we remained safe, we were anchored off an island that lost over 1/3 of the people on shore that day. We were able to handle the wave issues by following good technical seamanship, although having to deal with the psychological issues with our friends was more difficult.
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HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR NEXT LEG (CROSSING THE ATLANTIC)
The Atlantic crossing is a long one, and we do not minimize the issues with any long trip at sea. So we have spent some time preparing the boat for sea after cruising the Med for two years ... looking at things from the perspective of a long passage.

Also, this crossing and reaching Antigua would mean we have crossed our outward-bound track and completed a circumnavigation. We are really looking forward to achieving that goal.

WHEN WILL YOU BE HOME? Current plans are to passage the boat north in the late spring of 2007, so we will be back in the NY/Suburban Connecticut area by late May or early June.

DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR PEOPLE WHO WOULD LIKE TO GO LONG RANGE
CRUISING ?
Ye, it’s definitely worth all the time, effort and money, so here’s the advice:
1. Go NOW! Realistically, there might be family and money issues, but set a personal goal to go, and you will find a way to go and sooner than you think you are able to.
2. Read all the books. Not all the advice is good, but you will have more knowledge at your disposal.
3. If you don’t already have a long background in offshore sailing, get as much experience as you can with others who are better sailors than you. I went offshore racing on someone else’s boat, and I found that I learned a lot in a short time.