MORE THAN JUST A BOAT IT’S A GIFT OF LOVE…
From her home onafarmin Nor thern Ireland, broadcaster Helen Mark tells us about her life
I’ve done a lot of clambering in and out of boats in my radio career. I did so again in Suffolk recently, into a beautiful 2-seater, sky-blue sailing boat. It’s never an elegant procedure.
I vividly remember many years ago disembarking from a small fishing boat. I had one foot on the deck and the other on the pontoon when they started to drift apart! I flung my recorder onto the quay and a split-second later plunged between it and the boat. I was hauled from the water by my jacket hood and lay spluttering on the quay, relieved my recorder was still bone dry.
Anyway, safely aboard the aforementioned pretty blue boat, journalist and writer Jonathan Gornall rowed us into the River Orwell. In his younger days he’d made two heroic attempts at rowing the Atlantic. On the latter crossing, the boat was overturned by a hurricane and, seconds from drowning, he was rescued by his crewmate. As we rowed, on a windless day, he told me one of the most heartfelt stories I’ve heard when making Radio 4’s Open Country. It was about this boat and why he’d built it for his daughter Phoebe to sail in when she turned 5 years old.
“I was 59 when Phoebe was born and I’d recently had bypass surgery. Late one night I was nursing her in my arms, and I realised that at my age I didn’t know how long I was going to be around for her. I was suddenly seized with the idea of bequeathing her my passion for the sea, which has meant so much to my life and I’d do that by building her this boat.
“I wanted something to remain behind me that would remind her of how much her Daddy loved her…” He faltered in his speech, his emotion was palpable, he pulled hard on the oars as he regained his composure.
“It’s a token of that love that will outlive me, to help her learn about life and inner strength and give her the courage to take on the adventures and possibilities that lie ahead of her.”
Jonathan knew nothing about building a traditional wooden clinker boat. He had to learn each torturous step, gaining knowledge from local boat builders.
It was an extraordinary undertaking for someone who could barely put up a shelf! It took a year to build, during which he wrote a journal, now an engrossing book that recounts his story and the challenges of his quest. There were many highs and lows, distress and joy until finally it was done.
“Relieved that Phoebe didn’t insist on it being painted pink we named it ‘Swift’. On our maiden voyage she’d press-ganged her favourite toy rabbit to join her, an expression of confidence I felt! I watched her sitting at the tiller looking as if it was the most natural place for her to be.”
As he pulled the final strokes back to the quay and I disembarked, my thoughts were of how this boat creates a voyage of discovery for both of them.
She sat at the tiller as if it was natural to her
Jonathan’s book How To Build A Boat: A Father, His Daughter, And The Unsailed Sea is published by
Simon and Schuster