| Description: | Ogden takes helm in high spirits
Even the crew call the boat "a bit of a weapon". Having a black hull, black coachroof and carbon fibre in her sails certainly gives Peter Ogden's new Nautor Swan 601 an air of benign menace. Without doubt she is one of the most eyecatching of the 950 yachts at Skandia Cowes Week.
Benign? That is because the German Frers lines are just too handsome. Sail on board and it is noticeable how many competitors look her way. Spirit of Jethou is the sort of yacht you would buy if you could. Ogden could and did.
From modest roots he spiralled upwards through life via Rochdale Grammar, Durham University, Harvard, Morgan Stanley and Computacenter, the company he founded in 1981 and floated 16 years later. He owns Jethou, a small Channel island near Herm, where he grows vines, keeps bees and cultivates a blossoming kitchen garden. "It's idyllic," he says.
Ogden also possesses one of the lustiest and mostheard laughs in all of Cowes Week. Running a big b |