Josefine ' Star of the Sea'

Josefine ‘Star of the Sea’

Somerset-based wooden sailing boat, Josefine, has had an eventful year so far. Not only has the Danish ship turned seventy-five years old, but also, she’s started her first season offering charters and trips all around the South west, Pembrokeshire and Southern Ireland. And she’s now the star of a new film following Josefine’s adventure to the Milford Seafair Haven this summer.
Custodian and skipper, Charles Atkinson, set sail on his venture almost two years ago when he first decided life on the sea offered a welcome alternative to his Oxford Ironwork business. 2006 marks the culmination of a great deal of preparation including rigorous testing of Josefine to ensure she’s seaworthy, and of Charles, to become a commercially endorsed yacht master – not to mention the search for crew. Charles says: ““My Ironwork business eventually became the victim of it’s own success.
“I had in excess of two years worth of orders on my books and found I never had any time for my family or myself.
“I considered moving abroad but eventually asked myself – what would I really like to be doing? And the answer was, I’d like to sail a fine ship.
“We can now take people onboard and out sailing which is what I’ve wanted from the offset so I intend to make the most of being able to share her with as many other people as possible.”
The main function of Josefine is to offer team-building voyages for companies and individuals who’d like to learn traditional sailing techniques. Charles considers it essential for us not to lose these skills. He says: “As a society, we need to know about how things were done yesterday in order to do things effectively today.
“The other vital thing about sailing is that it offers a way of travelling all over the world using little or no fuel and being virtually self-sufficient on your own Island.”
The environmental factor is important to Charles and his crew and they all flag this reason up as to why they enjoy sailing, particularly on Josefine. Alongside training people to sail Josefine, the Sailjosefine crew also host wedding receptions, artists’ days and fishing trips. In addition, Josefine will be used for producing footage for use on television and film and has her own film crew available when required.

M/F
Josefine’s sailed at least a million nautical miles – that is the equivalent distance of thirty-eight and a half times around the world or to the moon and back twice. She became Charles’ boat in 2003. The sixty-six foot, oak on oak boat was built in Denmark by ship-builders, Andersen and Ferdinandsen and officially registered for the first time in 1931. Rigged as a gaff ketch, Josefine was used for ring seine fishing in the Baltic and North Sea for forty years. The boat would be away for several weeks at one time before returning to port. However, her fishing days drew to a close as she was re-commissioned and used as a sail-training ship in Denmark for almost fifteen years before being re-registered under the British Flag in 1989. She was then relocated to the south coast of England and completely rebuilt and refitted. After this, and for a brief time, Gibraltar was her home until Charles became the proud owner of the ship. His first challenge was to find her a new home in South West England. After a number of stops on the way, she eventually arrived in Watchet, a coastal harbour town in West Somerset, which is now the permanent home of Josefine. She officially conforms to the M.C.A. codes of practice category 2, for up to 60 miles offshore.
Sail Josefine – Pembroke is released at the end of November this year. It follows the journey of Josefine and her crew to Milford Haven and features information about sailing techniques, charting courses across the Bristol Channel and spectacular footage of the Welsh and Somerset coast plus highlights of the Milford Seafair Haven 2006.

More details about Josefine and how to get your copy of Sail Josefine - Pembroke can be found at http://www.sailjosefine.com/webmail/redir.php?http://www.sailjosefine.com/webmail/redir.php?http://www.sailjosefine.com/ or call 07971 376172 for more information.