Boat International – April 2018

OWNERS’ CLUB

Illustration – David Hopkins

I

almost died in January. You might have

seen it on the news. I was filming for To p

Gear in Monaco, navigating in the Monte

Carlo Rally in a brand new Alpine 110 with my

fellow presenter Chris Harris at the wheel.

The car was ridiculously quick and we were

really throwing it around this rally course.

I was in the passenger seat calling out the

corners – “Easy right 40” and “Hard left 20”;

things like that. Chris was doing a great job

but the tone of the car changed when we exited

this hairpin turn, like we’d hit something.

Then suddenly Chris is shouting at me, “We’ve

lost electrics, we’ve lost electrics!” and the next

thing I know there are flames coming up my

legs. The fire was inside the car and we had to

get out. If my belt hadn’t opened properly I’d

have been toast! We got out and ran, expecting

a massive explosion but it didn’t come. The

car just burned down to almost nothing. I’ve

never been in a full fire before, in all my years

of motor racing. I’ve broken both my legs

and been in a few crashes, but that was one

experience that I’m very keen never to repeat,

thank you very much. It was a shame actually –

the car was amazing.

I was really sad to hear the news about Oyster

Yachts. I don’t know enough about what went

on to comment too much on it, only to say it’s

a great British brand and that I’m sure a buyer

will be found. It’s the Bentley of British sailing.

I didn’t even do a proper sea trial with my

Oyster Lush. I took her out of the yard and went

straight to Tenerife for the ARC. Fourteen

months later after a circumnavigation I had

no complaints at all, so it caused me significant

pain to hear about the brilliant workers being

made redundant. My thoughts are naturally

with them. I hope someone comes along to

keep it going.

From a brush with death to run-ins with charter guests,

Eddie Jordan is thankful to have got of lightly

Lippy from the Liey

I’d better get on topic: chartering. First of,

you have to be careful who you’re chartering

to. I remember one guy who just wouldn’t stop

smoking, no matter how many times he was

told, and then it turned out to be weed. The

captain told me he repeatedly warned this

guy that he’d be kicked of the boat if he was

caught one more time, and, of course, he was

caught. He and the captain got into a bit of a

row, fisticufs and all. My captain was a former

French submariner, hard as nails. Needless to

say, the guest got of the boat.

I also remember one time having to hire

a second chef because a bunch of girls had

chartered the boat. One chef did a normal

dinner at 8pm but some of the group didn’t get

out of bed until 11pm and they’d want dinner

at 1am – and that was before they went to the

clubs! Then some crew had to be up and fresh

to welcome them back at 6am or whatever.

You just pray they don’t make a mess of the boat.

But compared to some stories I’ve heard

I’ve got of very lightly. In the 12 or 14 years

I’ve chartered my boats I’ve probably only had

one incident a year. The lesson, I suppose,

is if you’re chartering to someone you don’t

know, for heaven’s sake get some references.

It’s one of the reasons why trusted, repeat

business is so important – and the key, for me,

to luring people back year after year is your

crew. I’ve had some great crew over the years

and we’ve had very low turnover. The guests

would always ask, “Are Sean and Matt still on

board?” or “Is Patrick still skipper?” It’s so, so

important. And a busy boat means big tips for

thecrew,soit’sawin-win.Andyoumayeven

manage to ofset a few fuel bills.B

Eddie Jordan’s fee for this column has been

donated to charity

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