The die-hard solo offshore cruiser
Roger Taylor might just be the doyen of minimalist ocean sailing, though he freely admits the way he goes about it isn’t for everyone. His books Voyages of Simple Sailor and Mingming & The Art of Minimal Ocean Sailing distil a unique style of singlehanded bluewater cruising; heading far offshore equipped for up to three months non-stop sailing. Putting thousands of miles under the keel of his highly customised junk-rigged yachts, Taylor’s adventures show that less can certainly be more if you are prepared to sacrifice some comfort. ‘It all comes back to being shipwrecked off New Zealand and nearly losing my life when I started sailing. That was on a big sailing boat, under someone else’s command. From that point onwards, I was determined to keep control of everything; that meant keeping things simple and making what couldn’t be bought.’
Taylor’s current boat has an aluminum lamppost mast and a custom sail that he made at home. The orginal Mingming was a Corribee 21 bilge keeler, the same design that Ellen Macarthur sailed around Britain aged 18. Taylor turned the Corribee hull into a toughened survival cell, lining it with foam to increase buoyancy and installing a solid mahogany companionway with a sealing hatch. The result was a yacht that took him to the far reaches of the Atlantic and into the Arctic Circle. ‘It doesn’t necessarily mean that is what I advocate others do, it just suits me and what I do. It comes back to a childhood thing; I have no desire to get there quickly, because I love being at sea and close to the waterline. My first aim when I set off on a trip is to get off the continental shelf, so 200 miles offshore, then I find myself completely relaxed. It’s not to say I won’t go close in when the conditions are right. In Greenland I went very close to the shore, but because I don’t have an engine I never put myself in a position where I would be reliant on it. This sort of sailing is deeply fulfilling and so I’ve never been seduced by a bigger boat.’