Jessica Watson, Don McIntyre, Mike Perham - all at Sydney Boat Show
by Nancy Knudsen on 24 Jul 2010
Remember that moment? Exclusion zone around 16-year-old solo sailor Jessica Watson as she heads from Sydney Heads to Opera House NSW Maritime
http://www.maritime.nsw.gov.au
Jessica Watson, the young sailor who thrilled sailing and non-sailing Australians alike with her around the world exploits. Adventurer Don McIntyre, who has recreated the voyage of the legendary Captain William Bligh. The amazing Norris family, who spent five-years sailing around the world....and now Mike Perham, who became the youngest circumnavigator a couple of years ago - they'll all be at the Sydney International Boat show (29 July – 2 August).
The show has in recent years brought together an interesting line-up of guest speakers that have had show visitors absolutely enthralled, but the 2010 show is promising to beat them all..
The Better Boating Lounge is expected to be a major attraction at a the show.
Norris Family:
From Sydney’s Northern Beaches, the Norris family are unlike any other with an extraordinary tale to tell of their sailing trip around the world in 1825 days at this year’s Sydney International Boat Show.
Like many other parents whose key priority is to spend more time with their children, Adam and Bronwyn Norris spent more time with their children through an unprecedented sailing journey around the world for five years, even selling one of their houses to finance the trip. Accompanying them on the trip was their two children, Jack aged 7 and Amy aged 5 who would make this recreational boating experience even more memorable for their parents.
The world voyage took the Norris Family through Asia, across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope, through the Caribbean and the Panama Canal before sailing across the Pacific into Pittwater, returning the Norris Family back into the norms of Sydney life.
Mike Perham:
The recent addition of young UK yachtsman Mike Perham, who gained an additional ‘15-minutes of fame’ in Australia when he boarded Jessica Watson’s Ella’s Pink Lady as she sailed down Sydney Harbour to her tumultuous welcome at the Sydney Opera House, will add to the line-up, especially since he has just announced his next plan - to fly solo round the world.
Jessica and Mike had become close friends via radio, e-mail and Facebook as he supported ‘Ella’s Pink Lady’ throughout the voyage.
Mike Perham began his sailing career as a six-year-old (he was born in 1992) and just eight years later, aged 14, he become the youngest to sail across the forbidding Atlantic Ocean, solo and unassisted. That achievement remains a ‘one off’ to this day.
Three years later, Mike again sailed into the record books when, after 158 gruelling days at sea he became the youngest person to sail around the world single-handed; when he set sail, he was 16-years-old.
He celebrated his 17th birthday in the southern Indian Ocean, covered more than 30,000 nautical miles, some 6000 miles more than originally planned and he was forced to layover for technical repairs and assistance in Portugal, the Canary Islands, Cape Town, Tasmania and New Zealand.
His voyage, originally estimated to take four and a half months, was doubled and when he finally sailed into Portsmouth Harbour and crossed the finishing line his welcome home was similar to that experienced in Sydney Harbour by Jessica Watson. The project was carried out as part of his studies in the Diploma in Sport at the Oaklands Athletics Academy in St.Albans in Hertfordshire.
Don McIntyre:
Don McIntyre, accompanied by three crew, recently completed a recreation of one of the most extraordinary stories of survival and determination, Captain William Bligh’s 4,000 mile open boat ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ voyage after the mutiny.
The reenactment, following the journey across the Pacific from Tonga to Timor, launched on the same day (April 28th), at the same time and in the same place 221 years after the original mutiny journey.
The seven week expedition aboard the Talisker Bounty Boat – a 25ft long, 7ft wide, open wooden vessel – saw the crew -facing the same deprivations as the original crew that were cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific, including: no navigation charts; only two weeks of water; hardly any food; and, of course, no luxuries like a torch or toilet paper!
The small crew encountered many challenges, including psychological ones, and a couple of times had to resort to the locked away GPS. Don's humble attitude to the expedition 'Once again, I must say that Captain Bligh is the better man,' distinguished what was a great achievement, and makes him a worthy speaker.
For more information and to book tickets on-line (and save a dollar) simply visit the show website, www.sydneyboatshow.com.au or call the recorded information line on 1300 7 26287 (BOATS).
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