Wyldwind - About
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Wyldwind is
a Nauticat 35 yacht purchased by John & Julia Strudwick in May 2013.
She was built in Finland in 1993 - 1994 and launched May 1994. She is now British Registered and owned by us, and she was launched at Hamble Point on Thursday 23 May 2013. We are the second owners, the previous owner, Mr. Hempelmann having bought her new from Nauticat. We bought the boat through the current Nauticat dealer Gruendl in Hamburg, and she was shipped to the UK by lorry after months of sorting out the paperwork and finances. She now lives in our berth at Haslar Marina in Gosport.
We are keen cruisers and most weekends we are out in the Solent or crossing the Channel.
We are members of the Area 15 Yacht Club. John sailed Merlin Rockets for 13 years both as crew and helm, and was a regular on the open circuit and on the National Committee.
He was a member and later Sailing Secretary at Upper Thames for many years. See John's Boating / Sailing BIO below. |
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John's Sailing / Boating BIO As a youngster, John was in the Sea Scouts and was always into boats, especially canoes and rowing. He rowed for his school (Rowing 8) Hampton Grammar. However, it wasn't until 1980 that he was introduced to sailing in Salcombe on a day boat. Very shortly afterwards Merlin Rocket Gwylan (894) was purchased and John learned to sail on the river at Tamesis Club in Teddington. During this time he expanded his sailing horizons and crewed a trimaran to Alderney and Cherbourg and raced as crew a number of times on various offshore racers. He then teamed up with Chris Rathbone of Upper Thames and crewed Merlin Rockets for a few years. They had tremendous success together winning nearly every trophy at Upper Thames and doing well on the open circuit, including winning the Ranelagh Autumn Trophy (sponsored by the Royal Thames YC). John joined Upper Thames, where he was a member and Sailing Secretary for many years, and took up helming Merlins competitively again. It was a hard first season, having been in the top three for the past few seasons, being nearly last in every race during the first season of helming at this level was tough. The hard work did pay off, and soon John was out on the open circuit, was winning the major trophies at his home club, beating his old helm Chris, and he was a regular in the Merlin Fleet, being on the National Committee for a number of years, and re-writing the class history.
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During this time John had a SeaMaster 23 motor boat "Wind in the Willows" and in 1984 he bought and lived on "Whim" a converted 1912 Humber Keel Barge - some 84' long, 13' wide and 11' high. He could often be seen taking up most of the River Thames at Bourne End in this which only had a 40hp engine and chain steering.
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John gave up Merlins in 1991 and after a season in OKs, crewed for Pat Blake for a season in his X99 "Reflex". He was the "Foredeck Monkey" and had a great season - they won the Warsash Spring Series and were second in the Nationals. After a break of around 10 years, John took up cruising and bought "High Tension", a Hunter Medina 20 footer and he and Julia liked cruising so much they upgraded to Selene in October 2005. John has so far attained the following Qualifications: VHF Radio Certificate 16th December 2004 Yachtmaster Theory (Shorebased RYA/MCA Coastal Skipper & Yachtmaster Offshore) 10th November 2006 RYA First Aid Course 18th February 2007 ICC (International Certificate of Competence) 1st March 2007 RYA Radar Course 20th May 2007 Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate on 8th November 2007 (RYA / Department of Transport)
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