14 Jul Local Sailors reach St Kilda – after five years trying
West Country Boat Repairs did a lot of strengthening and reinforcing work on Jeremy Warren’s Wayfarer, Hafren, in 2020 and again in 2022 in preparation for some ‘bonkers’ long-distance sails.
We bonded in new, reinforced blocks for a second set of shroud plates, reinforced the mast gate, made a new stronger mast step and made a special set of floorboards to Jeremy’s design to make the boat stronger.
Never have we been so glad to hear that our work did the job!
We thought you might like to read the story:
Local Sailors reach St Kilda – after five years trying
Littleton Upon Severn, 9 July 2025
Amateur yachtsman Jeremy Warren has just fulfilled a five-year project, to sail an open dinghy to the St Kilda islands in the North Atlantic. St Kilda is fifty miles off the coast of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. St Kilda is a bucket-list destination for UK sailors, many of whom never complete this journey, even in much larger boats.
From the sea, St Kilda presents itself as a dramatic archipelago of towering cliffs, sea stacks, and rocky islands rising abruptly from the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a place of raw, natural beauty, known for its abundant seabird colonies and the remnants of a unique human history. The sheer scale of the cliffs, some of the highest in Britain, and the presence of large sea stacks, hint at the power of the ocean and the wildness of this environment.
Hafren sails downwind, St Kilda sea stacks in the background (Photo Helen Cook)
This has voyage has been achieved twice before in Wayfarers, but not for 54 years. Warren’s success follows four attempts in previous years which ended , storm-bound on the Hebrides sheltering in sea lochs or with the boat dragged up on beaches. This time, after an eight-day wait, a weather window cleared on 16th June at eleven at night, for the ten-hour passage. Being so far north and so near midsummer, there was sufficient light all through the small hours of the morning.
Warren comments “It never the wind, always the sea which gives the problems. On the way over we had a sturdy beam wind, but the wind waves were at right angles to the Atlantic’s swell, making for a chaotic sea up to 4m high. The return was easier, with the wind behind us, a regular 2.5m sea and glorious sunshine”.
Greeting them upon their arrival at Hirta, the largest island in the group, island Warden Sue Loughran commented “ I am astounded that you’ve managed this; I learned to sail in a Wayfarer, and I knew from last year when you got in touch you were hoping to come. It’s an amazing challenge and a fabulous achievement. I think you’re heroes”.
Kilda Warden Sue receives a Thornbury Sailing Club Burgee from Thompson
Warren was crewed by Trevor Thompson, another experienced amateur. Both are Bristol locals, Warren sailing at Thornbury Sailing Club at Oldbury upon Severn, and Thompson at Baltic Wharf within Bristol docks.
About the Team: Warren (67) and Thompson (61) have extensive offshore sailing experience, both in dinghies and other sailboats, however this is the first time they had sailed together.
Warren (right) and Thompson share a dram at journey’s end, back on North Uist
The Wayfarer Dinghy: There are more than 10,000 Wayfarers in the UK and they are the sailing instruction boat of choice. At only 5m (16ft) in length and with a crew of two, and despite an occasional tendency to capsize, even in big seas and high winds in the right hands the right handling they are formidable and doughty craft. Previous adventurers have sailed Wayfarers, unaccompanied and without engines, from the UK to Norway and even to Iceland.
This Passage: This voyage was first achieved in 1965, by Frank and Margaret Dye, leaving from Pabbay from island in Sound of Harris. Then in 1971 by Paul Reinsch, Alan Stockdale and Jim Maxfield from the Monach islands. Warren and Thompson, in Wayfarer Hafren (named after the legendary siren of the Sever Estuary), left from North Uist, Outer Hebrides, on 16 June 2025 and returned on 18th.
No Comments