Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: VX

The UK’s second ever VX One National Championship gets underway from 2 - 4 October at Weymouth Sailing Club. With boats travelling from as far afield as Ullswater, Edinburgh and the West Country, a good forecast and the sailing taking place on Weymouth Bay’s Olympic waters, the event is promising some thrilling and highly competitive, one-design racing.

The lively VX One, which has strong fleets in the USA and Australia, is already catching the eye of many top UK sailors. Last year’s Nationals saw the likes of Peter Barton and Olympian Stevie Morrison try their hand in the class, with more newcomers this year. Former Enterprise and OK World Champion, Jim Hunt will be making his debut in the fleet, along with Adrian Peach the SB20 Cowes Week Grand Slam champion.

Current VX One Inland Champions, and former International 14 stalwart, Howard Steavenson, sailing with son Tom, are racing as one of the fleet favourites for the Championship title.

Recently described as “The best one design ever!” by five times 505 World Champion, Wolfgang Hunger, and the “One of the most exciting new Sportsboats to hit the scene” by Yachting World’s Matt Sheahan, and with full support from the Ovington Boats team on shore, we can look forward to some exciting sailing over the next three days.

Published in Racing
Tagged under

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.