An Evening With Pete Goss, MBE

Last Thursday evening we were honoured and delighted to host British yachtsman Pete Goss, MBE, for the inaugural talk night at our Bristol store.

Here at Finisterre, we have previously had the luxury of playing the captive audience when Pete joined us at a team away day. Some of us familiar with Pete’s accomplishments at sea, others newly aware and consequently flabbergasted that one man alone was capable of so much.

On Thursday night, it was plain to see that Pete in town was a hot topic. Be it Bristol’s close proximity to the ocean or its history of being a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World, everyone in attendance was in no doubt as to who Pete Goss was.

With enough stories from the high seas to occupy a solo circumnavigation of the globe itself, Pete spoke of the trials and tribulations of his 1996/97 Vendee Globe solo round the world yacht race in his Open 50 yacht, Aqua Quorum. A journey that resulted in the rescue of Frenchman and fellow competitor Raphael Dinelli.

To elaborate or try to retell any part of this astonishing feat would be an injustice to Pete’s storytelling and his ability to make even the most landlocked and sea strange folk among us feel hundreds of nautical miles out to sea.

A family man in the truest sense, Pete remains firmly grounded back home in Cornwall, his eyes forever set on the horizon. A question from the floor asked what Pete had in store for the future. His response being, he had sailed around the world as fast as he could on so many occasions, passing by continents and landmasses in the blink of an eye, that he would very much like to visit these foreign lands on what he dubbed his latest sea worthy creation, “The Landover of the Sea".

We could not have asked for a better launch to Bristol’s offering of talk nights, so for those who were unable to make it this time, keep your eyes open for our next instalment.

To leave you with a few words from Pete himself. “Life hangs on a very thin thread and the cancer of time is complacency. If you are going to do something, do it now. Tomorrow is too late.”

- L

Photographs by Jonathan Simpson