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circumnavigation. Harry’s yawl, Islander, was a Seagoer design
which had been published in the popular Rudder magazine.
Frank liked the look of Islander, purchased the plans and over
the next 12 months built Wylo behind the Royal Cape Yacht Club.
Wylo was nothing much to look at with a flush deck and hard
chines, yet with her stout construction and seakeeping abilities
she was Frank’s dream ship; a dream that endures to this day.
Having escaped the rat-race and built his beloved boat,
Frank was snookered by WWII. He was posted to the Navy
and endured a war of boredom while Wylo lay rotting in Cape
Town. By the time he was discharged from the Navy and had
resurrected Wylo it was early 1947 and Frank and his shipmate
Graham Young were ready for the adventure of their lives.
The voyage to the Caribbean was full of the highs and lows
an ocean voyage can offer. Somewhere along the way, Frank
decided to take notes and it was from these that he began to
piece together the idea of a book. What could have been a dry
account of a perilous voyage was catapulted into art by Frank’s
hidden talent for writing.
Frank was a consummate observer of the ocean and of theABOVE Wylo’s spartan interior- an accurate reflection of her owner’s
sentiments about life.
LEFT Wylo – the product of a poet’s dreams.
FAR LEFT Frank Wightman.
BELOW Frank and Graham Young (left)
aboard Wylo.
You get the feeling
that Frank has
thought about
things for a long
time and distilled
them through
his considerable
intellect.