By Xan Atkins

It was around 4:30 am on a summer’s morning in 2015 when the 138 foot Herreshoff Schooner, Mariette, itself 100 years old that year, coasted into Falmouth harbour in Cornwall. Its small cannon fired off a celebratorysalvo to announce the boat’s arrival after a gruelling 12 day voyage in which the crew traversed 3000 miles of open ocean.

Living up to its 100 year anniversary, Mariette claimed first prize in the Classic Yacht class and finished third overall in the world-famous Transatlantic Race, from the New York Yacht Club to Cornwall.

On board, exhausted yet filled with pride at the boat’s success was first mate, Gerard (Gery) Atkins, one of 16 crew aboard. That moment was one of many highlights of an already colourful and adventurous sailing career that has seen him complete twelve Atlantic crossings and two Pacific trips to Tahiti.

Sitting down and talking sailing with Gery, you get a sense of the passion that he has for this life. His eyes light up as he describes the taxing crossing that saw them victorious on Mariette.

‘That was the best sail of my life, so far – cold,, but we were cruising and we had a very good crew on board. It was an amazing experience.’

He laughs when I ask him about the possibility of storms in the Atlantic. ‘There was some low pressure for about four days, with six metre swells and 40 to 50 knot winds, but Mariette is a big strong boat with an excellent crew, and we love those conditions.’

Such race conditions resulted in an exhausting schedule that kept the crew busy for the entire race. ‘There would be three watches of four people constantly rotating, doing three hours on and six hours off’, he tells me. The first half of that six hour sleep, each sailor would have to sleep in their ‘foulies’, their wet weather gear (or foul weather) in case the boat needed sail changes, a feat that requires at least six on deck.

So how did this 30 year old from Nairobi, Kenya end up winning a transatlantic race on one of the most famous and oldest classic yachts in the world?

It all goes back to a sailing hobby introduced to him by his father. On the smooth waters of Lake Naivasha, a volcanic lake situated in the basin of the Rift Valley, not far from Nairobi, Gerard learned to sail small dinghies.

After finishing high school in South Africa, he started studying environmental science at the University of Cape Town but quickly found himself looking out to sea, after joining the Sailing Society. He left university after only one year, to pursue a career in sailing, starting with deliveries of small, private yachts to the Caribbean and beyond. These were six week trips that would take the crew of three across the Atlantic, with a stop in Brazil.

‘We would sail as much as we could and then motor when the wind dropped in the Doldrums’, he says, referring to the equatorial region of the Atlantic Ocean with calms and unpredictable weather patterns.

Six crossings later, Gery decided it was high time that he headed for the Mediterranean, where after a few stints on several other classic yachts, he found himself on Mariette, completing several more crossings, while racing in regattas all around the Med and the Caribbean.

Today Gery is skipper of the smaller, yet just as beautiful Kelpie, a gaff schooner built in 1928. Yet, although he loves the classic yachts he has now set his eyes on a new challenge: Class 40 racing.

‘It’s basically an ocean sailing race where the boats are 40 foot long and the class rules are quite strict, so the boats are all very similar, which makes it a better competition’, he explains. ‘Some of the races encompass a team of two, whilst others are single-handed only. So, for me and my teammate Louis, this is our next big challenge.’

Gery and Louis hope to build up some experience to tackle a variety of races, including possibly the famous Route du Rhum, a single-handed, transatlantic race from France to Guadeloupe.

But the eventual goal? ‘Get into the Class 40s and get as much experience as I can,’ Gery states excitedly. ‘There’s talk of organising a Class 40 round-the-world-race which could happen in 2020. If that’s the case, we would definitely be up for the challenge and the next two years would be spent training as hard as we can, as well as finding sponsorship.’

And beyond that? Gery has big ambitions: ‘Well, it’s every sailor’s dream to get into the Volvo Ocean Race’, referring to arguably the most famous of them all – the round-the-world yacht race, which takes place every three years and sees teams racing across 45,000 nautical miles. ‘But I don’t look too far into the future’, he muses with a smile.

All those years of sailing across the oceans has certainly thrown up some interesting stories and Gery is hard pushed to choose some of the best. ‘Well there was the time we were held up at gunpoint by Venezuelan fisherman. We were sailing along, middle of the night and suddenly we heard some shouting in Spanish. A little fishing boat appeared alongside us, so we got all the sails down and stopped the boat. The man had a pistol and what followed was a pretty heated shouting match in Spanish, until we produced 50 dollars which seemed to satisfy him and he went on his way. Of course there’s many more, but I could go on all day.’

So, what’s his advice for those wanting to follow in his footsteps? ‘It’s a hell of a journey and it’s fun and that is the most important thing in life. So if you do take it up, don’t get sucked into the money. Always remember why you’re doing it.’

If you would like to sponsor Gery in his Class 40 racing, please email xanatkins@gmail.com.