Classic Boat

RECALLING THE LIVES OF ERIC & SUSAN

Leaving the ferry in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, a few steps take you to a gate in a high stone wall from which a footpath leads to a terrace of small cottages, otherwise quite hidden from view. These are a row of old Coastguard cottages. In one of these, there’s an extraordinary treasure trove of material about the exploits of perhaps this country’s greatest ever sailing couple: Eric and Susan Hiscock.

Janice Aslin, one of Eric’s nieces, invited me to stay there and explore this archive. She is now the keeper of this material and told me how it came about.

When Susan Hiscock came back to this country from New Zealand following Eric’s death in 1986, she settled in Yarmouth in one of these cottages. She lived there until her death in 1995. This was the first time she and then on .

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