Hi ,

I’m on the scrounge, I need to beg steal or borrow some courage from somewhere and I’m hoping you can help. You’ll shortly see how I manage to convert courage into a plea for hard currency.

Here’s the thing, call me rash if you like, but I’ve entered a speed sailing competition - Weymouth Speed Week... the fastest sailors in the world all get together in a testosterone fuelled environment to posture and work out who’s the fastest. (I’m not one of them, just some amateur mug that’s got accidently embroiled in the affair). Now sailing fast might not sound like it’s terribly nerve-wracking but you would be mistaken, it really really is. Most windsurfers zip about at a modest 22 - 25 knots. At 25 the world seems reasonable - in a crash the water feels like water and not at all like concrete. But add a knot or two and things start to change... crashes result in rag doll bounces in a storm of white water and flailing equipment. None of which is appealing or particularly good for my rapidly aging physique.

So I need courage... I want to do at least some of the course with my eyes not tightly shut, but as you know courage can’t be bought. So in a rather convoluted piece of thinking I worked out that I might try a bit harder if I was doing it all for a good cause... in this case: the Air Ambulance Service. I’m hoping that you will be kind enough to sponsor me per knot that I can achieve. My personal best is 28, and I would like to think that I will hit 29 with your encouragement, which would be a brilliant result. There is simply no chance of me getting anywhere near the world record (49) or last year’s best speed (36), I’m just not that good or indeed stupid enough to go that fast.

The organisers of the event have been brilliant and given me the rather appropriate sail number of 999, so if the event is covered on TV you can keep a lookout for me, probably at the back of the queue of wannabes! To donate all you need to do is reply to this email with a pledge of cash per knot and I’ll let you know how I did after the event.

I’m very much hoping that you will be able to sponsor me and thank you for reading this miserable begging letter.

Best wishes, Rick

PS: The next time you see the Air Ambulance overhead be really thankful that you’re not inside it, but I guess, be really thankful too because it will be almost certainly saving someone’s life.

For further details and to make a donation