Our September 2023 club night featured a conversation with Nick Grainger about his new book: “The Voyage of The Aegre – From Scotland to the South Seas in a Shetland boat”.

The longer serving members of the WBA will know Nick Grainger, a member of WBA from about 1996-2002. He sailed the Caledonia Yawl Crazybird, often with past WBA member John Freeman and the late Colin Hunt, and one or more of his two (then young) daughters Erica and Mariko, and wife Tommy. The Gippsland Lakes, Port Phillip, Lake Wendouree, Albert Park and the SA Wooden Boat Festival were their usual haunts, but Nick had a sailing background that other members vaguely knew of, a voyage in his early twenties from the north of Scotland to the Pacific in a 21ft decked in lapstrake engineless Shetland boat. It all seemed rather unlikely. But then one evening at a club meeting, Nick told us the story and had the photos to prove it. ‘You have to write a book’, we all said. Well, the book has finally been written, and published, and in September Nick came back and talked us through the voyage of a lifetime.

For more information on The Aegre voyage and the book, visit Nick’s website at https://nicholasgrainger.com.au