Bertie and Voortekker approach the BOC finish line in the USA.
Voortrekker after being restored by its owners,The South African Navy,Simonstown,Western Cape.
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Bertie (biltong) Reed was a sailor,a mans man and a star to so many in both South Africa and abroard,witness his being taken to the Hall of Fame in the USA and being awarded a prize for his sailing acheivements.One of which was to race an outdated and very basic boat called Voortrekker around the globe in the 1983 BOC Race,Bertie came second to Credit Agricole and out an out state of the art brand new boat built specially for the race,Voortekker may as well have come from another planet by comparrison!
I was fortunate enough to know Bertie on a first name basis,he was one of those guys you would always be proud to know,I asked him once about celestial navigation,we were in the mens bar at the RCYC,my mate Alex(notty)Notman had been discussing how good a sextant position at five miles was,Notty thought it not so good,so we asked Bertie,he said 'five Miles!if I am in a ten mile ring,its good enough for me',Notty never worried after that.
Bertie was the person who showed the powers of his navigational skills once in the Southern Ocean,his friend and in this case race competitor,John Martin,on the Open 60 Allied Bank,a design by Angelo Lavranos, had just hit an Ice Berg while in the lead of the BOC race of that year,he was sinking,could anyone find him in the time he had?Now on a new boat named Grinaker,a Roger Martin designed boat, Bertie heard the call for help and altered course to the position John gave,finding him seemed an impossible task but find him he did.It was no big thing for Bertie it seems,even Sir Robbin Knox-Johnston (the first man to race single handed around the world) commented in a magazine story on the huge importance of keeping a detailed log book,mentions the fact that Bertie Reed said very little in words of the rescue in his own log book,the loss to the world was that we have no details writen down.
Overall Results:
First Class: Boats 45-56 feet long
Name - Boat
Final Place
Total Time
Average Speed*
Country
Phillippe Jeantot
Credit Agricole
1
159d 02h 26m 01s
7.10 knots
France
Bertie Reed
Altech Voortrekker
2
170d 16h 51m 21s
6.61 knots
South Africa
Rich. Broadhead
Perseverance of Medina
3
192d 10h 06m 48s
5.87 knots
Great Britain
Neville Gosson
Leda Pier One 4 202d 02h 18m 25s 5.59 knots Australia
Taken from the web:
"Hamba Gahle" Bertie Reed
http://www.bertiereed.co.za/ Legendary South African yachtsman "Biltong" Bertie died at his home in Gordon's Bay on Monday at the age of 63. Stanley John Reed had been suffering from cancer, SABC radio news reported. Reed was born of humble stock in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and was the first South African, and one of only a few yachtsmen in the world, to complete three singlehanded circumnavigations of the globe, during the 1991 BOC Challenge. It was during this circumnavigation in a Yacht named Grinaker, that he also gained fame for his heroic rescue of fellow-South African John Martin, whose yacht, Allied Bank, sank after hitting a submerged iceberg in the Southern Ocean, during the 1990/91 BOC Challenge and dramatically described in long time friend, Roger Williams's book, Reed In The Wind He was awarded South Africa's highest civilian award, at that time, for bravery, the Wolraad Woltemade Decoration, for the outstanding seamanship he displayed during Martin's rescue in extreme conditions. He also received a presidential citation and was listed in the Civic Honours Book of the City of Cape Town. Reed joined the South African Navy in 1961, at the age of 18, and rose to the rank of Warrant Officer during his 22-years in uniform. It was in the South African Navy that he began his sailing career, which led to him achieving world fame in the inaugural BOC Challenge singlehanded race around the world in 1982/83, when he finished second across the line and first on handicap in the 14-year-old sloop "Voortrekker", considered obsolete. This lightweight 50-footer, built specifically for the 1968 solo race across the North Atlantic, was by now - under her sponsorship name Altech Voortrekker - being seen as a spent force, as obsolete, and even as 'a museum piece'. Yet Reed fought his way round the world in the face of adversity that included a spell of acute blood-poisoning, to finish second across the line at Newport, Rhode Island, and first on handicap! Bertie Reed was one of four Inductees honoured with placement in the Single Handed Sailors Hall of Fame, in 2006 along with Ellen MacArthur, Minoru Saito and Jean-Luc van den Heede. Current Hall of Fame Members include such extraordinary single-handed sailors as Joshua Slocum, Sir Francis Chichester, Harry Pidgeon, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Isabelle Autissier, Christophe Auguin and Phillippe Jeantot. He sailed some 170 000 nautical miles competitively รข€” over 100 000 singlehanded. Reed married his wife Pat in 1968, had four children, a son and three daughters and three grandchildren. John Martin and Bertie Reed. Bertie is at the helm of the South African Navy Yacht, MTU Fascination of Power. (Hamba Gahle is Xhosa for Go Well) Full Story »
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