Alan Priddy needs YOUR help

Mike Garside · 06 May 2002, 12:47

We all know that Alan Priddy is going for a mind-boggling first. Getting any sort of small boat round the world is a tough enough challenge, but to try and do so for the first time ever in a RIB and, for any powered vessel, in world record time, is awe inspiring.

Alan, being Alan, seems to brush off the enormities of the challenge lightly, and, because of this, most people assume he's going to succeed. And with good reason. If anyone can overcome the sort of project destroying obstacles that hit when least expected, he has proved he can do that. Alan Priddy, it seems, is one of those rare people who grab a problem that would stop most people in their tracks and just get it sorted.

As a former "rag and stick" man myself, I have met a few unusual people like Priddy during my two sailing circumanvigations. Peple like the French hero, Yvres Parlier, who, after breaking the carbon fibre mast of his single-handed 60-footer deep in the Southern Ocean, managed to get his crippled craft into the shelter of a headland where he joined the two halves of his broken mast. After re-errecting the 75ft stick on board alone (think about it!) he then sailed on to finish his race, surviving on seaweed and krill after he ran out of food.

And Brit solo sailor, Mike Golding, who's boat was dismasted at the very start of the round the world race that brought young Ellen MacArthur to fame, instead of quitting like most would have done, Mike drove himself and his team day and night to get a new mast delivered and fitted. He managed to complete this task in under a week. In fact, he did this so quickly that he was able to set after the other racers, with the clock already running, chase the field and overhaul most of it and in doind so, set one of the fastest ever times for a circumnavigation.

I have no doubt that Alan is made of the same stuff as those guys. But his bold bid may now fail for lack of money. Now that his stop-gap crew-member has jumped ship, taking with him funds pledged to the venture, the crew of the Spirit of Cardiff is likely to run out of cash to get to the finish line in record time.

After one month, Alan and the lads are now 40% of the way round the world. This means that even if they only manage to keep up the same pace that they have clocked to date, they can get back to Gibraltar in a total of 70 days. This is still 5 days less than the existing record.

But having spent almost all the money they have left in the kitty it looks as if they are not going to finish the course. In a telephone call today we have established the fact that Alan needs £10,000 to get Spirit across the finish line.

If Ribsters let this great RIB feat fail for ten grand, as a community we will not have done our bit for Ribbing. But if just 100 of us dig in our pockets deep enough to pull out ten tenners, we would save the project. If 200 of the 300 members of this Forum send off just 50 quid each, Alan and the boys should make it. They have the will; let's find the money.

Nadia has agreed to collect, and account for, the money contributed by members of the RIBnet Forums. And she will post the running total she receives each day. That's good ebough for me. My cheque for £100 is on its' way.

Come on, ladies and gents, let's make sure that Alan Priddy puts Ribbing well and truly up there on the podium with an all-comers' world record!

Brian · 06 May 2002, 13:53

Well, I for one am not going to let Alan fail to complete his circumnavigation just for want of a relatively small amount of money.
I have e-mailed Nadia with my card details and asked her to take £100 from me as well.
Now that's £200 Alan didn't have this morning !!
I wonder whether Keith (I can do anything with Ribnets polling system) Hart, or JK, can magic us up a "thermometer" type thing like you see for raising church funds, so we can all see progress towards the total.
How much do you think just us Ribnetters can raise between us?
Brian
PS Nadia said we can send her a cheque or, she has the equipment in her office to bill a credit card. Either way, she will total separately monies donated via the members of this forum, and show the result up on the thread. And...
PPS it doesn't need to be £100 or £50 either, any multiple of £5 will help enormously. Lets get that man all the way round-even if we have to do it by will power!

John Kennett · 06 May 2002, 16:23

You can add another £100 from me too.

Should it be a barometer, a globe, a pile of RIBs or what? Keith does seem to be the man to produce the graphic!

John

Mike Garside · 06 May 2002, 18:27

That's three hundred in the pot. The countdown has begun. Only £9,700 to go!

And, Jools, thanks for the DVD of the SoC send off bash. It's really excellent. Everyone should have one. I reckon, too, that you should count the contribution from your video/DVD sales towards the Priddy rescue fund. Why not let us all know on this thread how much you have been able to send off to Nadia so we can add that to Brian's thermometer? It would be great if we can crack the first grand in 24 hours.

toby.budd · 06 May 2002, 19:57

Am a bit streched at the mo so can only manage £50 will email Nadia.

Sent the following email to all my address book earlier today, about 50 people. Hopefully a good few will forward it again and so on. Fingers crossed this will help raise awareness for the buy a mile scheme. If just a few rib net users do the same at work tomorow, we could be looking at well over 1000 similar emails circulated by tomorow night.

Possibly john k could email all those on rib net and make sure they are aware of the situation.

Toby

Dear all,

Last month a 10-meter RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) called ‘Spirit of Cardiff’ set off from Gibraltar to complete the fastest circumnavigation of the World. The boat will cover over 25,000 miles, in 31 legs, in just over 2 months.

With 10,000 miles under their belt this British team are in Singapore and on line to get the record. However with the whole project run on a shoe string, greedy officials, submerged objects and a crew member dropping out; they are facing financial problems to the point that they are not able to get home.

Whether yor interested in boats or not, think a RIB can only be found on a barbque rack or have just got back to work afer the bank holiday and couldnt really care less, I am appealing to that bull dog, patriotic, generous and what the hell its only a couple of quid side of your nature to log onto the website www.spirit-of-cardiff.com click on the ‘buy a mile’ button and help the boys get home with another British world record.

Whether you chip in or not, do us a favour and forward this email on to others who may take up the opportunity.

Hopw this works!

Thank you,

Toby Budd

Mike Garside · 06 May 2002, 20:05

Knowing how stretched you are until you get the season going with the water taxi, Toby, that is VERy generous. Good on yer!

That's £350 on the board, folks. Keep it coming!

Keith Hart · 06 May 2002, 20:38

Firstly count me in for £50.00 I'll put a cheque in the post in the morning. Sorry I can't manage any more at the moment but at least it will be a help (this is comming out of my Fish Finder, sorry Charles, Sonar fund, but I guess they need it more than I do at the moment).

Barometer:

John as moderator can you access the polling? What it would need was you to start a poll and then update it as the money came in. If, for example each 'vote' was worth £10.00, then it could be updated with the required number of votes as the money came in. Us mere mortals can only vote once as far as I am aware. The alternative would be to have a poll with votes worth different amounts. For example £10, £20, £30, £40....etc. Then as a person sent money they could 'vote' how much they sent. This would probably be the easiest method it would just mean that people must make sure they 'voted' after sending the money.

I could start this now and if you do not wan't to do it you could remove the posting with the poll. Let me know and I'll start it off.

Keith (you can't take it with you) Hart

PS Just had a thought who is the Cheque made out to and where do we send them?

Keith Hart · 06 May 2002, 21:09

The story so far....

Keith Hart

narked · 06 May 2002, 21:36

To save the polling system being hacked to pieces, I could put my PHP skills to decent use and knock up the sort of thing we need. Then it can be hosted either on this server on my local server.

When you contribute, just go to the page, put in the amount you've paid, and it'll update the graphic accordingly.

All those in favour, shout boating related words in my general direction.

Charles · 06 May 2002, 22:12

My £100.00 is on the way....come on chaps lets keep/get the momentum going! Mike is right, £5.00, £10.00, every little bit helps.

Mike Garside · 07 May 2002, 05:33

Thanks to Keith and Charles, there's another hundred and fifty smackers in the bag. That makes 500 quid in under 24 hours. Are we on a roll?

Hey, Nadia. Can we have your address and bank account name for the cheques that are piling up out here? Better let us have a phone number as well for those folks who prefer to use their plastic.

John Kennett · 07 May 2002, 06:56

I have sent an email to everyone on the forum who has signed up to receive emails. I'll also send out a newsletter to the Spirit of Cardiff mailing list later on.

If you do email other people about this, please be sure to only email friends and other people who you know are willing to accept email from you.

We know it's a good cause, and it's important to get things moving, however if someone receives an unsolicited email and decides that it is spam then it will mean trouble for rib.net and spirit-of-cardiff.com

For more information about why spam is bad (however well meaning!) have a look at some of these sites

Cheers!
John

Nadia Lehmann · 07 May 2002, 07:36

Hey, this is going great already and I have just charged Brian's card - thanks.

Thanks for all the pledges on the thread - you lot are a great bunch - but you know that already!

Postal address:
Nadia Lehmann
Spirit-of-Cardiff
PO BOX 401
Cardiff CF11 7WP

Cheques payable to: Offshore Expeditions.

Credit cards - either via the website - but more difficult to differentiate unless you tell me you have done it that way or call me: 07811553925 / 07802795583 24hrs.
Home 02920220757 / centre 02920450583
Just ask for me!

I can charge the card direct then.

Thanks again and hope to hear from you all soon.

Nadia

Nick · 07 May 2002, 07:38

Alan had invited me along for the trip, but I was unable to go due to starting up my own business. The best I can do is help him out with a donation. I have just bought 10 miles on the S.O.C website which seems an easy and quick way to get funds into Alans account.

Nadia Lehmann · 07 May 2002, 07:59

Cheers for your phone call Nick - just charging your card now.

What are we doing with this money-ometer then?

JK - you handling and I can call you daily?

Nadia Lehmann · 07 May 2002, 08:36

JK just had a thought - you guys may want to pay direct into bank:

Royal Bank of Scotland
Portsmouth Branch

Alan Priddy
T/A Offshore Expeditions

Sort code: 16-28-24
A/C: 10017763

You just need to let me know it has gone in so we can keep the money-omter up to date.

Thanks

Mike Garside · 07 May 2002, 08:46

Thanks to Nick at Sea Lion, I now make the total pledged so far to be £550 quid. Keep it comin' people. We need to make sure that Priddy & Co deliver that record...

Nadia Lehmann · 07 May 2002, 09:00

Just spoke to the man himself - and adv of what you lot were doing - he said"great, that really helps us and takes some of the pressure off"
Their ETA in Kota Kinabalu is Wed 08th May at about 05:00 BST
midday localtime.

Mike Garside · 07 May 2002, 09:04

Thanks for address and account details. The cheque, as they say, is in the post....

Nadia Lehmann · 07 May 2002, 11:04

Add another £2,500 -yes, all those numbers are correct, with all those 0's at the end.!!!

From an anonymous donor - can't say anything else!
Cheque in the post too.

So far: in credit cards and in AP's bank is:
£250.00 from today!