 Born on July the 12th 1955 in
Exeter, Devon, on the south west coast of England, Trevor Keith Lawrence was always interested in
engineering, with a particular enthusiasm for sports cars, causing him to build a sports car for
himself, in his late teens.
Like his mother, formerly a ceramic figurine painter with porcelain company,
Wade, whom he lost in 1994, Trevor has an artistic bent which combines well with his engineering
talents.
Although he gained a degree, Bachelor of Science in Technology, Design, his interest turned to the world of computers and his career with
it.
Working for companies as diverse as Hawker Siddeley, the aerospace giants, in the city of
Bath, the Wessex Water Authority, Bicton agricultural college and Sphere Drake Insurance in
Brighton, Sussex,
he purchased a series of homes, using mortgage facilities.
He had always thought that, like his father, a telecommunications engineer, who passed away in 1986, he would pursue a conventional career and a settled life
ashore.
Reading 'Maiden Voyage' by Tania Aebi changed all that! In her book, Tania, the
youngest person at the time to sail alone around the world, gives a jolly
account of her trials and triumphs as a novice sailor. (You too can read Tania Aebi's
'Maiden Voyage' if you haven't already)
Trevor says his main thought was "If Tania Aebi can do it, why shouldn't I be able
to?" and he had decided that, while he figured out how to raise the necessary finance to acquire a suitable
boat, he would take some courses and get a grounding in the art of sailing.
In Plymouth he took a weekend Introductory Sailing course. In Southampton he went on a five day Competent Crew
course. In Poole he learned to operate VHF (Very High Frequency) radio, and meanwhile he studied navigation by correspondence and attended a
day-skipper course with one of the many sea schools in the area. Wessex Water offered him the opportunity to go on a
First-Aid course and Trevor was delighted to accept.
Purchasing a Fairey Firefly dinghy for 300 pounds (approximately US$500), Trevor enrolled in a
dinghy-sailing school on the river Avon. Every Wednesday evening and weekend would find him out sailing and
racing.
" It had a hot-moulded hull, laminated planking, with a great steel centre plate which made it pretty damn stiff - they were designed for
single-handed Olympic racing. The best thing one of the guys running the school taught me was to just let go when things become too
hairy...".
One of the instructors was a very good sailor but suffered from sea-sickness and never left the
river.
Trevor couldn't wait to get to the sea and pondered endlessly over how he might acquire a
'serious' boat. He had thought he might be able to manage to acquire a boat and leave within a year but it wasn't quite working out like
that. Trevor decided to liquidate his endowment policies and
figured that he should be able to acquire the sort of boat he was looking for at somewhere between twelve and fourteen thousand pounds
(approximately US$ 20,000 to 23,300) which would mean getting a bank loan
to make up the difference. He was offered the opportunity to acquire a Dufour Arpège lying off the east coast of
England. When he and a friend arrived to take a look at the boat, the broker announced that it had just been sold
but that there were other boats Trevor might care to see.
"One of them was a 1975 Verl 27' cruiser/racer in GRP
(glass-reinforced plastic), needing a bit of TLC (tender loving care), designed by Robert Clark the ocean racer
designer. She was afloat and I accepted the broker's invitation to board her. I sat aboard and thought about
it. The asking price was 7,950 pounds (approximately US$ 13,250) and I offered seven
thousand, subject to survey.
The survey revealed osmosis requiring treatment."
Stated briefly, osmosis is the 'skin cancer' of
the fibreglass boat world. Water penetrates the gel coat on the hull below water level and reacts with chemicals there to form molecules too large to return whence they
came. In itself, this merely causes ugly blisters which, if caught soon enough could be burst and
drained, the area cleaned and dried and new gel coat applied to it, but when left
alone, the liquid may penetrate deeper layers and cause de-lamination or rot.
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In July 1992, one year after Tania's book (Tania
Aebi's 'Maiden Voyage') had prompted Trevor to contemplate becoming a
sailor, the boat changed hands at 5,900 pounds (approximately US$9,830), the Fairey Firefly was sold for 100 pounds and the bank agreed to a five thousand pound loan, enabling Trevor to purchase a dinghy and outboard motor, foul weather
gear, flares, navigation equipment, charts, anchors, chain and "all the stuff necessary to get the boat
sailing..."
Trevor named his new acquisition after his own initials, Ta(ngo)Ki(lo)Li(ma) and, by April 1993, was ready to move her from the east coast down to Poole
harbour.
The story continues...
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