STORM AFTER SUPPER

The name of EP De Guingand will be well known to crews on the RORC circuit. The race for the trophy known as the De Guingand Bowl is run regularly in memory of him and his wife. Many of us, myself included, have competed for it in the dark of the moon around the back of the Island, sometimes onward to Guernsey, sometimes to the central headlands of the English Channel.

‘Buster’ de Guingand was an ocean racer of the old school. As well as being a good navigator, he was a bon viveur and a regular crewman aboard Thalassa, a classic 1906 yawl. Quite the gourmet, when the genoa luffwire parted off Berry Head at the start of a notably heavyweather Brixham to Santander Race, he observed that although windward performance under staysail was limited, all was not lost. “Think of all those lobsters in Brittany,” he said. The crew saw the good sense in his judgment and spent their time cruising the bistros of Northern France instead. They declared it a fine result.

De Guingand later became a Flag Officer of the RORC. Because he had considerable experience sailing in the