Just a little feel good story of possibly the oldest Hanse crew out there sailing. Fair winds from all at Hanse in the UK for your last voyages.

Dear Sirs,

I read Rod Heikell's article with interest. I have sailed my own boat for 40 odd years and have been able to prolong my sailing by, firstly, moving from a swinging mooring to a marina, and secondly by changing my Westerly GK34 for a Hanse 371. The virtues of the Hanse are manifold but for oldies, the greatest is the self tacking jib. I simply love short tacking up rivers and, if the sail setting is improved thereby, rigging a lazy sheet for long tacks. Everything is led to the cockpit and easy for geriatrics to handle. As for performance, well I raced for many years, offshore and local, and am constantly surprised and pleased when dicing it with other yachts (unofficially of course). Many friends crew for me and we are all very old, ranging from 60 odd to nearly 90! Mad? I expect so and I'm told my boat goes out more often than the vast majority of my fellow marina inhabitants, and I've had my eightieth.

Sincerely,

Ken Brown

(Article from YM)