Swapping sheep for ship in round-the-world yacht race
Swapping sheep for ship in round-the-world yacht race
PAUL Burke has forsaken flocks of sheep in the Pennines to sail round the world.
He will be skippering a 14-strong mixed crew, half of whom have never sailed before, in a 60ft yacht that will compete against seven other boats in a race lasting 11 months.
It is a far cry from the Yorkshire moors where this time last year he was tending 700 Derbyshire Gritstones and Cheviots. Paul comes from a farming family – his grandparents, Fred and Pauline Jennings, kept Knowle Top Farm at Todmorden before they retired recently. Paul would spend weekends and holidays with them while at school and later lived and worked on the farm.
When he married four years ago, he moved to a tied cottage at nearby Hebden Bridge to work as a shepherd. Since he first became interested in the sea, he has managed to farm in winter and sail in summer.
He crossed the Atlantic for the first time in 1994 and later sailed from Panama to Tahiti. Now he has 35,000 nautical miles under his belt. A lot of his maritime work has been with the Ocean Youth Trust, where he rose to command his own yacht, taking disadvantaged youngsters to sea.
Paul will leave Portsmouth this weekend (Oct 15) in the Times Clipper 2000 round-the-world race on the first leg to Cuba. The circumnavigation will follow the tradewinds, passing through some of the worlds classic yacht-racing territories.
The crew of his boat, the Leeds Clipper, are amateurs from all walks of life who have only had a few weeks training. They arrive back in Portsmouth on Sept 21, 2001.
The prospect of being cooped up for months with 14 others doesnt faze a man who is used to the wide-open spaces of the moors. "You find your own space on a boat," says Paul. "You do get time to be on your own with your thoughts but you can be very busy working as a team. In a way, farming and sailing are very similar – both require a lot of patience."
With his own tiny cabin, Paul will get some privacy, unlike the crew who will share a larger version with individual bunks. Clothing has been restricted to two bags but there is a private freshwater shower.
Paul says he enjoys farming and may go back to it in the future. But not before fulfilling a commitment to his wife, Penny. Hes promised to take her on a year-long voyage in her fathers 30ft yacht when he gets back from the round-the-world race.
Paul Burke.
This weekend a 60ft
yacht sets sail from
Portsmouth on the first
leg of the Times Clipper
2000 round-the-world race.
In charge of the 14-strong
crew is a shepherd
from Yorkshire.
Tom Montgomery reports
The Leeds Clipper, which Paul will skipper round
the world.