Sixty years ago, Dr. Robin Tattersall arrived in Tortola aboard a 28-foot sloop.
“I came in my own little boat, and I thought, ‘Well, this is somewhere I’d like to stay,’” the 94-year-old recounted for a small group of media early on Friday morning at the BVI Spring Regatta. “So two years became four, and then I stayed forever. I never went back to England. And don’t regret it either.”
According to the surgeon, he used his yacht for transportation across the territory.
“I used to sail around the islands to visit my patients, which was good,” he said with a grin. “[A] better way to do it than being in the traffic in London.”
As Dr. Tattersall sat with a wooden cane in his hand at F-Dock at Nanny Cay, his crew adjusted the riggings aboard Jitterbug, a bareboat they had borrowed from Horizon Yacht Charters.
In the process, they stepped nimbly around the photographers, seemingly accustomed to the media attention the surgeon had attracted.
Of course, those who have known the doctor for long enough could tell you that he has never been one to completely avoid the limelight.
Before coming to the VI in 1965, he pursued a brief modelling career in fashion, appearing alongside fellow model Suzy Parker in a famous Paris photoshoot by photographer Richard Avedon.
Sixty-eight years later, the surgeon sat in the cockpit of the bareboat that took him and his crew to victory last week in the ’Round Tortola Race.
“For me, it was just a question of holding on, physically,” he said of the race on Monday of last week. “You know, at my age, it’s a bit difficult.”
‘All my life’
On the other hand, he has plenty of experience.
“I’ve sailed all my life,” he said. “In fact, I mean, I can remember sailing before walking. I mean, that’s my impression.”
After arriving in a place where he could sail every day instead of two months out of the year like in England, Dr. Tattersall said, the choice to stay here was clear.
“It was very easy to me make a decision to, once I got here, to stay forever, rather than just the two years,” he said. “I can’t imagine what it would be like if I had to go back to England … in some northern town.”
Speaking on his favourite sport, Dr. Tattersall differentiated sailboat racing from events like track and field.
“Our track is changing every moment — the conditions are changing every moment, so you have to think about it all the time,” he said. “It’s not just a question of going fast, especially taking all of these things into consideration. That to me is just an amazing sport.”
Mid-race nap
During the first day of sailing on Monday of last week, Dr. Tattersall began his winning circuit around Tortola at the helm. Despite the rough conditions, however, he announced he would be taking a nap around the half-way point.
Jitterbug crewmember Emme De Villiers told the Beacon that such naps aren’t unusual for the doctor.
“He’s been around the island 52 times,” Ms. De Villiers said. “He knows the waters, and he knows when he can take a bit of downtime, so when we came round Beef [Island], he needed just a little bit of a break.”
Before lying down on the pile of pillows arranged in the cabin, however, Dr. Tattersall asked her to wake him to wave to a special spectator.
“He did say to me, ‘Emme, please, please wake me up when I’m at Brewers, because I would like to wave at my wife, at Crista,’” Ms. De Villiers recalled. “And so, just five minutes before we got to Shark Point, I think it is, I said, um, you know, ‘Doc, it’s, it’s time to come up.’ And he was quite willing and, you know, he was quite excited.”
She added, “And so he gave Crista a wave, and then he had a little nap again.”
Winners
Dr. Tattersall and his team aboard Jitterbug won their class in the ’Round Tortola Race, before skipping the Scrub Island Invitational the next day to rest and prepare the boat for the official Spring Regatta from Friday to Sunday.
In the races held those days, Dr. Tattersall’s team took a close second in the Bareboat Two class to Mi Piba, a Sunsail 42 skippered by Charlie Gerrard.
Speaking to the regatta committee after racing, Mr. Gerrard praised his time spent competing against Jitterbug.
“Having the opportunity to sail against the legend Dr. Tattersall made our week,” he said. “He kept us on edge right through to the last race.”
