Trollsfyord, Norway, 2008

2009

2010

2007

Introduction

John Bartle, started sailing in 1964 at Chasewater in the West

Midlands, in very decrepit ex-Royal Navy whalers converted to

sailing boats used to train Scouts. Here his lifelong love affair

with sailing was firmly established. He has owned and sailed a

wide variety of sailing boats over the years currently owning a

Dart 16 catamaran that lives at Rutland water. He has collected

a range of sailing qualifications - Dinghy Instructor, Power Boat

Instructor, culminating in Yachmaster Instructor in 1993.

A move into offshore cruising/yacht sailing happened in the mid

1980’s through some work friendships made while working for

Nottinghamshire County Council. John with colleagues Ian Masson, Sarah Burroughes (ne

Crookes) and Tony Burroughes. This association developed the idea of taking groups of

people with disabilities off shore cruising. That programme ran for quite a few years with

trips to Greece, Channel Islands, Brittany,

Normandy and the Clyde. John joined the

Radcliffe on Trent Male Voice choir in the

late 1980’s and soon inspired choir

members, including David Culm and Dai

Elliot, to assist with his disabled sailing

programmes. His enthusiasm for sailing

was clearly contagious and resulted in

trips with Choir members being organised

in the UK which were often based on long

weekends including cruises to Cherbourg,

Channel Islands and local south coast ports. In 1993 David Smith moved north and joined

the choir and soon became a major contributor to the group. At that time David, with 3

friends, also had his own boat and welcomed several choristers joining him on his cruises.

David, on R, is shown above with Dai Elliott and Martin Clarke while skippering in Norway in

2008.

A further expansion of the group’s activities occurred as a result of bad weather during a

trip planned as a quick flip down the south coast in the middle of summer when horizontal

driving rain, big seas, too much wind and, to cap it all, fog, were all experienced. Whilst

drying out in the pub it was suggested that there were other opportunities where the

weather was warmer and much more predictable, e.g. Greece. So, in 1994 an intrepid band

set forth for a week’s sailing out of Athens in 2 boats. So a new range of cruises were

launched based on a minimum 1 weeks with 1 or more boats. The group has grown well

beyond the choir with friends and relative being also invited to join. The maximum number

of boats has been 3, with parties never exceeding 22 people in total.

During the late 1990’s the trips became biannual with both David Smith and John Bartle

organizing, and eventually consolidated into the present organization about 10 years ago.

The activity has been only possible because of the willingness of a few people to obtain

formal qualification as Skippers.

Destinations now visited include many parts of the Med, NW Scotland, the Baltic, Norway

and several outside Europe, the first of which was to the Florida Keys in 1997 and since then

the Seychelles, Caribbean and the Canary Isles have featured. During most of this time John

has been the leader in researching destinations and comparing charter companies but without

David, Sarah, Ian and others prepared to take responsibility as skipper the whole operation

could not progress. It should be noted, however, that David Smith has been solely responsible

for the planning and execution of several of the cruises listed on this site. The only limitation

on cruises covered here is that 2 or more RMVC members should have been amongst the

crew(s).