Rosa Bown, aged 15, was a keen dinghy sailor,
but she didn’t expect her mum to enter her for a
competition to win a place on Jolie Brise
“My Biscay baptism
on Jolie Brise”
56 CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2018
Below: ‘Marmite’
the swallowY
ou might think that anyone signing up for a two
week Tall Ship trip from London to Portugal,
across the notorious Bay of Biscay, would at
least have been on a yacht before, right? Wrong! I
entered a competition to win a sponsored place on the
famous Jolie Brise, during the Rendez-Vous 2017 Tall
Ships Regatta last summer, without any yacht or Tall
Ship experience. This competition was held by my town
council – Jolie Brise has ties to Teignmouth, as an
engine and an additional cabin were fitted to her at
Morgan Giles’ shipyard in Teignmouth in 1927.
My mother saw the competition on the town’s online
news page. I was a little unsure, as I had only ever sailed
dinghies, and nothing bigger than an RS Feva, but the
more I researched Jolie Brise’s incredible history, the
more I wanted to be part of it. (And in the end my near
encyclopaedic knowledge of her achievements did come
in handy, as I regaled my fellow crewmates with various
tidbits from her illustrious past.)
First, though, I was interviewed by the Teignmouth
mayor and then via Skype I spoke to a descendant of the
man who brought Jolie Brise to Teignmouth. Then there
was a medical form to fill out and after a tense few
weeks of waiting, finally I was accepted!
Joining the boat at Woolwich, London, with two
others from my town, I was quite nervous. But I soon
discovered the others on board were all lovely and that
I’d have no trouble spending two weeks with them. I was
the youngest on board, and the only girl, and I was
actually rather thankful for this, as I usually get on better
with boys than girls – there’s definitely less drama!
We spent one night on the boat while moored on
Woolwich pier and I think I slept better in the tiny bunk
with the water flowing past outside the hull than I did
at home. I even recorded this rushing water noise on
my smartphone, to use when I was at home, as you get
quite used to a particular sound after being lulled to
sleep by it for two weeks!
We set off at 2pm the next day for the parade of sail
down the Thames and then sailed out to sea, heading
round the south of England and past the Isle of Wight.
As Classic Boat readers will know, Jolie Brise has no
winches. I was prepared for all the hard work and how
my hands would hurt after pulling the salt-soakedhalyards. I took two tubes of hand cream in preparation!
But some of the crew were new to sailing and had never
experienced manual labour before. They needed my rose-
scented hand cream more than I did, as I have been
throwing logs around and helping on my family
smallholding since I was able to, so my hands were used
to being heavily relied upon.
I also took motion sickness tablets with me, but
although I felt rather seasick at times, I was fine as soon
as I went up on deck.
One thing I really wasn’t prepared for was the lack of
sleep. Four-hour shifts meant we could only sleep for
three and a half hours at most, once we’d got all the bad
weather gear off and on again.
We arrived into Torquay for the official start of leg
one of the Tall Ships Race, two days after leaving
Greenwich. Since I live only 30 minutes from Torquay, it
felt like I’d just sailed back home again, but I had a
horde of family come down to see me off, both sets of
grandparents, my parents and a cousin, which was
lovely. My nan told everyone who would speak to her
that I was crewing on the famous Jolie Brise.
Half an hour from the race start, the engine cut out.
The skipper discovered that one tank of fuel was spoiled
and we had to anchor to sort it out, but we were only 15
minutes late past the start line and had passed two boats
within the first few hours.
The first night sailing after leaving Torbay, I had the
night watch and the waves seemed to glitter as they
crashed against the boat. The next night the glittering
was brighter and by now the moon was covered by a
sheet of clouds, so I knew it couldn’t be the reflection in
the water. I realised that it was bioluminescence, which is
the production and emission of light by a living
organism. When the waves splashed up on the deck,
we’d kick about the water to make the green glowing
spots brighter. Everyone else laughed at the way I’d clip
myself onto the jackstay and then sit on the leeward side
in my wet weather gear and just stare in wonder at the
glowing waves.
On a 23-metre boat with one toilet, bunks very
close together and being the only girl with eight guys,
you expect privacy to be, at best, interesting. Wet
wipes were my saviour and I learned to take a fresh set