We added Robert to the crew driven by the potential unavailability of Joey. Joey underwent major surgery in August, and is currently trying to regain physical fitness. There is a risk that he may not be fit for heavy work, or perhaps not to be onboard at all. Robert Bradley, will be joining us from Australia.
The start date will reportedly be earlier than our working assumption of 10th November. This change means that Bob Shepton has had to withdraw due to conflict of commitments. We’re sorry about that, but pleased to welcome his replacement who is Colin Campbell. Colin is a long standing racing crew member on Tangle o’ the Isles.
Colin Campbell
Colin is an experienced sailor with 25 years of racing / cruising the local West Coast Area, European and Scandinavian Waters. He has raced on Tangle o’ the Isles in several Scottish Island Peaks races, Scottish Series, and West Highland Yachting Week.
In 2009/10 Colin was a watch leader on the Clipper RTW yacht race. This included a full Circumnavigation of the Globe including stops on all 5 major continents.
He is a Naval Architect, and spends a lot of his time offshore. So we are lucky that he is in Scotland at the right time for this event.
Colin is Type 1 Diabetic and needs to control his condition, especially while sailing.
Joey Gough
Joey is in his 70s. He bought his first sailing dinghy when he was 16, funded by the profits from breeding budgerigars. He joined the University Air Squadron at St Andrews in 1966, and went on to serve 12 years in the RAF. This included 2 tours flying the Lightning on which he accumulated over 1000 hrs. He then worked in industry for 20 years before taking early retirement and moving to the West of Scotland. He married Verna in 1970 and they have two children, one of whom lives in Denmark, and the other in Australia. (“We think it might have been something we said!”) They have 4 grandchildren.
Besides his sailing in Scotland and Scandinavia. Joey has cruised and raced in Australia including racing Sydney-Hobart, several Melbourne-Hobart, Melbourne-Vanuatu and the big one, Melbourne-Osaka.
Joey has been involved in the management of sailing in Oban Bay for over 20 years. He has spent many years on the committees of both Royal Highland Yacht Club and Oban Sailing Club, and is a past Commodore of both. He is a director of Oban Bay Community Berthing Ltd.
He was diagnosed with Prostate cancer in 2010, and underwent surgery and radiotherapy. The good news is that he is clear of cancer, but the bad news is that there was a lot of collateral damage from the radiotherapy. This makes life difficult, especially on a small boat.
Twig Olsen
Twig is in his 60s. He started sailing dinghies at the age of 11 and progressed through a wide range of keelboats, from Flying Fifteens and Dragons to 50 foot offshore racing boats. He completed his Yachtmaster Ocean at the age of 22, originally for skippering Ocean Youth Club Boats.
Twig studied engineering at university and was then recruited by Rolls Royce aero engines, after which he moved back to the family sawmill business at Taynuilt.
In 2005 he went to full time boating activities, and now spends his time managing, maintaining, delivering and skippering recreational yachts.
He is married with two children Alistair and Lorna, and anticipates being a grandfather before the BBC Children in Need event.
Christine McFarlane-Slack
Christine is in her 50s. She had an early introduction to boating. She was just 2 when her father bought Fulmar, a 30 foot clinker built ex-naval pinnace.
Christine was introduced to sailing when her father decided to make sails for Fulmar as a backup in case of engine failure, which was an annual summer holiday occurrence! There followed many family adventures from their base next to where Craobh Haven is now, motor sailing northwest to Stornoway and southwest to Rathlin Island.
Fulmar was retired in the late 70’s so Christine was land bound for a few years until her enthusiasm for the sea and learning to sail led to her taking a dinghy sailing course. She was then invited into keelboat racing initially as ‘ballast’. Christine continued to learn and compete on a number of keelboats however, she spent most of her time racing as permanent crew on Redwing, a Trapper 28, which successfully competed at West Highland Week, winning their Class three years in a row as well as winning their Class at Scottish Series in 2012.
Christine has also sailed in the Mediterranean and in Norway (on Tangle o’ the Isles) where there were even more adventures including being ‘pooped’!
Christine was an active member of Glencoe Boat Club for many years and was Commodore for two years. She is also a member of Royal Highland Yacht Club.
Christine is married with one daughter. The family own Trebizond, a Legend 34 which is based on Loch Leven.
Originally trained as a Registered General Nurse specialising in pre-hospital trauma care, she now works for the Scottish Government in an advisory role promoting the use of technology to improve access to health and social care.
Robert Bradley
A late addition to the crew, Robert is 62, lowering the average age of the crew if only slightly. Robert only mucked about occasionally in sailing boats until 1996 when he took the family on a sailing holiday in Greece at which point he decided his retirement plan was to learn to sail and to speak Greek.
Not much happened on either front until 2002 when he realised he was getting too old for mixed netball and took up sailing. A chance conversation with Joey’s daughter Nicky before his first twilight race has lead to a long friendship and many sailing adventures together both in Australia and the northern climes … with many more to come.
Robert owns Escapade, a Farr 38 IMS which has seen many thousands of ocean miles both competitive and cruising. When asked why he has never contemplated doing the Sydney – Hobart he usually responds with “not enough of a challenge and the scenery is boring”. Last thing on his bucket list is the Fastnet race in his own boat Escapade which, of course, will involve sailing Escapade to the UK :) once Joey has recovered.
