Mount Gay Rum And Sailing

Baitrunner · January 23, 2017

For Vaughan and and rag and stick people.

I have posted on here about my penchant for rum. Especially mount gay and how fortunate I am to have a brother who lives on the island of its birth and brings me a bottle or two now and again.

So to sailing......oh and my birthday!!!!

well on said island the 21st Jan is a national holiday (don't worry about it being on a Saturday this year, they won't lose out). Which happens to be my birthday. An excuse if ever there was one to have a few rums.

as part of the holiday fun mount gay sponsor the round the island sailing race. My brother and his family are into sailing. My nephew being not half bad.

One incentive for the crews is that the skipper of each class winner wins his or her weight in rum!!!

The last 2 years my nephew has won his class sailing a j23 with a select crew (well I think it was 1 crew and 2 as ballast).

This was a picture of what was left after the last win ( we got there late).

It was almost enough to make me take up sailing!!!

Now the bad news

This year my nephew decided to try a different class. The single handed race.

He borrowed a 33ft Beneteu from a friend of my brothers that hadn't been used for years. Last minute work to get it seaworthy. This included removing the seized up engine then fabricating a makeshift outboard bracket so that he could get it on and off the mooring buoy. And as a safety requirement. His plan to beat the old single handed record.

Well he did break it by 70 minutes. Hooray. But his best wasn't good enough. He was beaten into second by a German (boo) who was 30 mins ahead. He was in a 44ft boat so well done!! He also had an original working engine.

now you would thing taking out the engine would lighten the boat and give him an advantage. Well it did until the flaw in the plan was discovered. They filled the prop shaft hole up, but forgot about the exhaust!! Fine when going into a head/side wind, but down the east coast with a following wind he was taking on water through the exhaust. And guess what, no bilge pump. So he was not only sailing but bailing with the bucket as well.

apparently when they got him back on the mooring it took them an hour to bail it out and plug the exhaust.

So the morale is stick at what your good at, if not prepare well ahead of the race. So no cases of rum for the family this year.

And if your thinking why didn't they get some technical help? Well my brother is a mechanical engineer and his son is a mechanic!!!! I wouldnt let them touch my boat!!!!!!

a bit long winded, but you lot like a story.

And can add your drinking and sailing stories here.

Ps what was quite cool was the boats all have trackers and you can track the race either natively on a pc or android or via a free App. I would have preferred to have been there though.

JennyMorgan · January 23, 2017

I'm not and never have been a gulper of spirits although I do like the odd Morgans Spiced or a tot of Woods. However I have had the odd gin and that has been my downfall on rare but memorable occasions, although I might not remember it. Was moored at Southwold and found myself & the crew invited to a gin and cheese night at the sailing club, such is the bonhomie of the sailing community. To cut a long story short I must have had one or two, even three over the eight and I do not remember leaving the club or boarding our boat. Apparently we had to cross two fishing boats to get back onboard and, so I'm told, there was a bit of a gap between the two fishing boats and yours truly provided his body for a gangplank to the crew. Ungrateful lot left me to fend for myself and, legend has it, rather than climb down a boarding ladder to our boat I just stepped off the fishing boat, into thin air, and dropped about eight feet, didn't kill myself and went to sleep on the engine casing where I was found in the morning. It was then that we realised that we were one crew member adrift. Having resigned ourselves to the obvious and that he had drowned and as skipper I was wondering how on earth I was going to explain it to his doting mother. Gloomily I set off to the harbour master's office. The office is built on stilts and right there, on the tide line, was a body, fortunately dry and gently rising and falling, phew, I wasn't looking forward to facing his parents. From that day to this I have kept off gulpers, unless it's been beer, preferably Adnams!

Vaughan · January 24, 2017

I love Mount Gay because it reminds me of when I worked for a season in the Caribbean, in the late 60s. There was also a white rum, of higher proof, called Clarke's Court.

The real stuff though, when you could find it, was made up in the hills and there was a different recipe for each of the Leeward Islands. It was totally illegal, came in milk bottles and was called Jack-Iron. It was almost pure alcohol and had the side effect of turning you blind. I did try it, but only once!

They had some weird customs formalities between the islands as well. I met an American who lived on his yacht in Fort-de-France, Martinique, and made his living smuggling Barbados rum back into Barbados!

JennyMorgan · January 24, 2017

The George Borrow pub, R.I.P., used to serve 'Pure Polish Spirit', allegedly 110% proof although I could never work that one out. Never tried it myself but my girl-friend of the time did, I had to borrow a friend and his Luton Van to cart her comatose body home to her remarkably understanding mother. Well past midnight and the good lady offered us two lads a fry up which we duly accepted, greed and novelty value I suppose. So impressed was I with the mother that I subsequently married the daughter! My wife to be could down a yard of ale faster than I could, amazing girl!

Timbo · January 24, 2017

The Captain of the ferry between Trinidad and Tobago lived in Gainsborough for a while...often found in Tesco buying sea salt to bathe his feet...his wife distilled rum. He told us that white run especially Bacardi was a bi product and used to be sold as lamp oil.

Dad's 'liquor' collection has just produced a bottle of Pusser's Gunpowder and a bottle of Pusser's Red Label.

TheQ · January 24, 2017

Jenny Morgan,

Proof measurements are a very old measure and 100% alcohol is 175% proof. It's to do with gunpowder soaked in alcohol, a dangerous mix if ever I heard of one!! :hardhat: