Gladlee of Guernsey

Brief History

Gladlee of Guernsey was built in the Westerly yard at Waterlooville near Portsmouth in Hampshire in 1985. She is a Westerly Seahawk with an overall length of 10.26 metres (34 feet), centre cockpit, bilge keels and apparently sleeps 7!! The original owners decided to reverse the normal Westerly hull colours and opted for a dark blue hull with white boot-top. The family came from Guernsey with a surname of 'de Lee' and were left an inheritance by their aunt Gladys with which they bought the boat and named her Gladlee in remembrance. Julie Smart and previous partner Nigel Morley, bought her in 1989, sailing initially out of Ramsgate on the south east coast of England cruising the north coast of France, Belgium and Holland and south coast of England as far as the Scilly Islands and back.  In 1991, after retiring they sailed her down to the Mediterranean. She sailed there for three years cruising the Greek Islands, Turkey, the Black Sea, the East Med Yacht Rally (EMYR) in 1994 and wintering for three consecutive years in Setur Marina, Antalya, Turkey. In 1996 they went down the Red Sea taking in countries such as Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Yemen and Oman before venturing across the Indian Ocean, a passage of 12 days, to Kenya. Unfortunately after settling in to Kilifi Creek just north of Mombassa, Nigel became ill and died in September 1997.

Gladlee was looked after by Tony and Daphne Britchford in Kilifi at this time until Daphne's brother, Ken delivered her back up the Red Sea to Antalya. She stayed there for another eighteen months and got a bit of a refit with new rigging and the hull re-sprayed and many other jobs. She was then sailed in June 1999 to Levkas in the Ionian with Julie, Phil (Julie's brother) and George (a young cousin). Julie at this time was working in Libya and met Ron Hayton there, who came and sailed Gladlee from Levkas to Malta for his very first sailing adventure and later on, to Barcelona.  Gladlee was layed up for nine months in Casteldefels just south of Barcelona while Ron and Julie went to work in Oman. After the job finished they returned to Gladlee in July 2001 and started cruising again full time and headed east via France, Corsica, Italy, Greece and finally Turkey and Kemer Marina for the winter. The next summer they cruised the Black Sea (2002) and the following one Croatia (2003). 2004 saw them married in Kemer Marina in March, doing the EMYR in May/June as crew on S/Cat Vision with Frank and Tari and then headed west to Mallorca.  Gladlee was then put on a ship to Port Everglades in Florida, USA, where Ron and Julie picked her up mid-December. They stayed at Maule Lake Marina just north of Miami for a couple of months then cruised the Keys, West coast of Florida and then the Intracoastal Waterway up the east coast of America to Chesapeake Bay where she will remain for a few years.

She is now 20 years old and has over 40,000 miles under her belt and is still going strong.