With Sails and I

A trip to Cornwall before the whole thing took off -

John and Richard — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:45:45 +0000

They head down to South Cornwall, The Lizard, where John's family has long had connections. They hope to get some advice from some of John's fishermen friends and get gee-d up with the romance of the sea and the life around it and end up pissed in the fisherman's loft. This was long before they knew they could get training, or had even started raising money for a boat. Long before they knew just how far the project would take them. Little did we know this would be a year of our lives and we would lose our home in the process. But we are now fully trained salty sea dogs and, as ever, all we need now is a yacht and the money to finish the film.

Geoff Holt Crossing the Atlantic

John and Richard — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:07:01 +0000

Dear Friends of With Sails and I - John Here - I have just finished editing four sequences from over 200 hours of footage in order to try to raise finance to complete this journey. Its not easy sitting through that much footage, just to watch it takes a month and that’s a month of looking at yourself which is somewhat …challenging for the soul. The upside is I think we’ve been making something very funny and very compelling. We now have a great production company on board to help us on our way but more details of this later so as not to put them under too much pressure. Fingers crossed and thanks for sticking with us.

Another reason to write is I wanted to bring all of your attention to the incredible journey of one lovely man we met on our travels and that is Geoff Holt. Geoff got in touch and took us out for a day when he heard about our story and taught a few tricks. Geoff Holt is the first quadriplegic man to have circumnavigated Britain. (He broke his neck diving through a wave many years ago as a young sailor). He is currently crossing the f*****g Altantic in an adapted catarmaran. Sorry about the swearing but what a f**** **** S*** C*** nutter - I mean f*** s*** h** . I wanted to draw all of your attention to his blog which is this:

http://www.geoffholt.com/

His is currently in the middle of the Atlantic and his wind instrument is broken and his story is one to follow and all support would probably be welcome.

I hope you all have a splendid Christmas. More news soon. Best regards - John (and Richard)

Mission Still on but Edinburgh Show and Adventure Postponed until next Summer.

John and Richard — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:36:37 +0000

So as you know, after serious deliberation and with a heavy heart we have to make a very difficult but sensible decision, to delay our great adventure (and the Edinburgh show) until next year.

We thought we had found our boat. A 32’ MacWester, more Steptoe and son than Julio Iglesias and Rod Stuart, it was described as ‘the land rover of the sea’. After a seven month, 24/7 struggle to get to the starting line and the clock ticking we were finally informed, after a thorough survey, that ‘our boat’ needed a month’s worth of work.

In yet another stunning display of support for the project the sailing community of Tarbert Loch Fyne, where the MacWester lay, rallied round to see if the boat could be made ready in time but there was just too much to do in the short time we had. The commnunity, including the sail maker, the harbour master and the Surveyor (Jimmy the Biscuit) then even networked to try and find us a boat to keep us on track and incredibly, found a 26 foot yacht that some one was prepared to lend us for the journey.

Sadly we had to accept that filming and doing this dangerous journey on such a small boat, with our limited sailing experience, combined with the schizophrenic Scottish weather, plus the Edinburgh deadline forcing us into a dangerous rush, meant that we had to find the courage to turn down this generous offer and accept that we would have to delay. We were gutted.

But the mission is still on and we now have lot more time. We have learned that if you don’t have money you need time. Having started this whole mission by turning on a camera we are also in the middle of making an amazing and funny documentary. We owe it to the people who have given their time and energy to support us; to those who have taken part in this filming; to the places and the people we intend to visit; and in particular to our training school, On Deck, to make the right decisions and to execute this fantastic mission,
and frankly brilliant idea, properly.

So what’s next? This all started with an incredible reaction to a short film, so I reckon the only real way to show you all what an incredible feat we have already achieved, and hopefully raise more money for the mission is to attempt another short edit. There is a hell of a lot of footage and this may take some time but hang on cos this should be good….

Day Three Training

John and Richard — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:15:22 +0000

Training Hard…

John and Richard — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 10:45:24 +0000

Some Funny and Scary Reactions to our Mission

John and Richard — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:11:55 +0000

Tonight! Don’t forget.

Gavin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:18:46 +0000

Don’t forget tonight, the big charity-fund-raising-comedy-get-us-a-yacht-show starring us, hosted by Lenny Beige and featuring Phill Jupitus at The Pigalle Club, 215 Picadilly, London W1J 9HN.

Reservation: 0845 345 6053

(Or just turn up at the door!).

Back from the first weeks Sailing Training to do a Show at the Pigalle Club

John and Richard — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:10:46 +0000

So we’ve made it back from our first ever week at sea in training with the amazing On Deck who have taken it upon themselves to make sure we are not completely ignorant of the enormity of our task. Both of us feel like we are still not to be left alone with a yacht by any means. We can safely call ourselves incompetent crew. Next week we do one more week training and we HAVE to pass the day skipper course if we are to be able to go. We have realised just how damned dangerous this is. Shit!

In the mean time we are doing a show to raise money for the yacht which we still don’t have. (Remember the bigger the yacht the more money goes to sailability. Please come and support us! We need your help.

Take care and see you at the Pigalle Ckub 215 Picadilly W1 to reserve call 0845 345 6053 or email reservations@vpmg.net
Phill Jupitus plus Britney Spiers will be appearing.

Pigalle Club - 7th June

John and Richard — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:29:23 +0000

Dear Friends,

I want to invite you to our Boat Show Comedy and Music Extravaganza hosted by Lenny Beige, featuring Phil Jupitus, Matt Berry, Oram and Meeten, Waen Shepherd and us, Hopkins and Glover plus many more and surprise guests. It happens on Sunday 7th June at The Pigalle Club (215 Picadilly W1) all that and it raises money, in a very extraordinary way, for charidee too!

Watch this 5 minute clip and it will explain amusingly what its all about (if you’ve seen it already just read on):

With Sails and I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K-4HQwzkiI

Busking and small gigs aside we need to do a final big comedy and music extravaganza to get this boat and more money for sailability:

Its on: Sunday June 7th at The Pigalle Club, 215 Picadilly, London W1J 9HN. It’s hosted by Lenny Beige. There’ll be some classic Hopkins and Glover sketches plus support from Phil Jupitus, Matt Berry, Oram and Meeten, Waen Shepherd, Tony Way plus many more special surprise guests to excite and amuse. Its going to be excellent, with a live house band to back it all up. Ticket price £20 = The profits we make from the show will be matched by the production company. They will use this money to buy the yacht. We will then sail the yacht to Edinburgh, the yacht will then be sold after the show. All the profits from the sale of the boat will go to Sailabily.

If you can’t make it to the show and want to effect what kind of boat we do it on, and be part of the story, go to the donate page.

Reservation: 0845 345 6053
(after 6pm call: 020 7734 8142)

The idea

John and Richard — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:10:57 +0000

So, I decided, when I was completely broke at the beginning of the year, to try to defy the credit crunch by attempting to sail out of it on my own yacht (I don’t actually have a yacht). I decided I would try to get one using only positive thinking, a camera and talking to people - I had nothing to lose.) I soon convinced my close and foolish mate, Richard Glover, also completely broke, to come come with me. He had never sailed anything in his life before either but, like me, had always wanted to have a yacht and be like Julio Iglesias or Rod Stuart. As we’re comedians we decided that, if we could actually somehow get our dream yacht, we would sail it around Scotland, from Glasgow, around Cape Wrath, to the Edinburgh Festival. Our plan: get a yacht, learn to sail it from scratch, sail it around Scotland, from Glasgow to Edinburgh, write a show about it on the way, and perform it live at the Edinburgh Festival. (Perhaps recklessly, we have already booked the 400 seat venue in a gung-ho moment of frightening over confidence.)

Since we started this though, to our delight and astonishment, the reaction has been bewildering and incredible. All kinds of fantastic people have got on board in a wave of incredulous support. Many seem to like the spirit of it and the “With Sails and I” network is ever growing: we are now being fully trained by “On Deck” to become skippers; website designers TBS, via Gavin Pearce, have offered to do all all our online work for free; people have offered to lend our producer enough money to continue filming until after Edinburgh (we haven’t sold the documentary though); sailors have offered us sailing lessons on their boats; we have even been offered lessons in beach foraging skills. Offers of encouragement and help have come in across the board, from Tracy Edwards MBE (the first lady to skipper an all female crew around the world) to Pete “W*nker” Bennet (the best big brother winner ever).

Through our clip, and as it snowballed, we met Geoff Holt, the first quadriplegic yachtsman to sail single handed around Britain. He got on board and threw us off his speed boat in the Solent - to teach us Man Over Board procedures. Through Geoff we heard about Sailability, a charity that he set up, and this gave us the idea to make this story even more uplifting. Not only are extraordinary things now happening to Richard and I and all involved, but its also all going to help loads of other people too. Its a win-win situation BUT even more of a responsibility for us to get there.

So to make this hair brained scheme work, all we need now is… A yacht!