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KINGSLEY COX SAILING Sailing is perhaps the ultimate way of passing the time, and I try to do it whenever I can. I sail racing dinghies and larger cruising catamarans. Fireballs A Fireball is a 2-person racing dinghy that is fabulously fun to sail. It was designed in the UK in 1962 and quickly caught on as a racing class. Tim, my brother, and I have a Fireball which we race at Seaford on the sea in the UK. The boat is 16 feet long and has a mainsail and jib as well as a spinnaker. To make things interesting there is a trapeze for the crew. Last year we entered the World Championships and forced our way into the top 140 (out of 175). Well, our boat is an old wooden one and can't really compete against the newer composite ones and besides, one has to train week in week out to have any sort of chance to make the top 10. Here is a picture of Tim and me in the 2005 Worlds (we are the Fireball at the back) and here is my report of the Worlds 'How we saved the Fireball Worlds'. Wharram Catamarans To truly get to grips with the meaning of life we go sailing on voyages in Bumble Bee, our 35 feet Wharram style catamaran, or on Jumble, its 28 feet baby sister. Tim and I calculated that over the past 20 years we have spend a total of a year on board one or other of these fine vessels. Not enough of course, but not bad. The aim to do a proper long distance trip over a period of several months and finances and families will hopefully permit this in 2007. In the meantime its the English channel, the Channel Islands, and France. Jumble was launched in 1985 at Poole, England. She is a 28ft classic Wharram design polynesian style catamaran. Jumble is currently moored in St. Aubins Harbour, Jersey, U.K. Bumble Bee was launched in 2002 at Plymouth. She is a 35ft Wharram cat but with a central pod and the whole boat is completely covered in fibreglass. She has 2 masts, the fore mast being 3 foot higher than the mizzen. Jumble and Bumble Bee Photo Gallery Sailing sites http://www.multihulls.uk.com/wharram/ http://www.fireball-dinghy.org.uk/ http://www.fireball-worlds.com/
Squash Squash is the finest sport of them all (except racing Fireballs). Tennis is slow motion in comparison, for the elderly. I play squash three times a week with a motley but devoted crew of expats and one or two more enlightened Americans. Each year we go on a pilgrimage to Grand Central Station in Manhattan to watch the best players in world vie for supremacy at the Tournament of Champions. Watching these pros is exhilarating. They are so unbelievably good - from another planet. You see, you need stamina, racquet skills, flexibility, quick reactions, cunning, guile, most of which is missing in something as pedestrian as tennis. As for racquetball, you don't have to move! The absurdly bouncy ball will come to you in the end, and when you do hit it, anywhere will do. Squash sites
Chess and Go I love playing chess, but am only average. I can really only see about three moves ahead, but that is one more than Tim. We sometimes play Go, a fascinating and more complex game than chess. Computers currently cannot play Go beyond the level of a gibbon. Chess sites http://www.chessbase.com/index.asp http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html
Writing Tim and I now have book out about the genesis of Jumble called 'Escape From Western Civilisation by Wooden Catamaran' which you can purchase on Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc. Please have a look the following excerpt from "Cut rate super dangerous tree felling". This book was written by a very close friend of mine - if you like what you see you can buy it online at Amazon.
Hang-gliding and Paragliding I have fiddled about with both of the above which are exciting but of course risky sports. It is really the area of my brother, Tim, who runs a hang gliding and paragliding school in Sussex, England. You can find out all about his school here, or here. |
