What's in a name?

Herge, inventor of the world famous adventures of Tin Tin (and Snowy the dog), was once criticised by maritime experts. They said that the ship "Aurora", that features in The Shooting Star, would never sail let alone cope with the kind of seas that Tin Tin and his dipsomaniac chum Captain Haddock would have to endure to make it to the Arctic. Herge was unable to travel to the docks to draw ships during the second world war as his home country of Belgium was occupied by the Nazis and he would have almost certainly been accused of being a spy if found sketching at the coast. "Aurora" was drawn from his imagination and not based on any real Arctic exploration ship. The criticism of "Aurora" precipitated an obsession in Herge who went on to research every aspect of the technical elements in all his future comics. In Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon Herge employed scientists to help research every detail of a manned trip to the moon. It was not until the real moon landings almost 20 years later that the world realised just how accurate Herge's predictions were.

 My Gull dinghy is named after the ship in The Shooting Star and like Captain Haddock's "Aurora" she certainly had her faults when she was new. In fact it took me over a year to have her problems ironed out. She's 8 years old now and has been repaired, beefed up in places and generally improved on. Like Herge, I enjoy researching the small details and I will continue to do so until my boat is perfect. Unlike Herge I won't be going on any moon adventures. Although I am hoping you will be joining me for some fine sailing in some new locations next year and I'm sure we will all be improving and perfecting our vessels in the meantime.

 Have a good Christmas and some excellent sailing in 2012.

Calculus, my new Lightning dinghy is named after the hard of hearing professor from the Tintin books. Don't worry it's only for racing!