'On the nose' by Bob Cooper
How it all started
In the Spring of 2004, Bob and Liz set off in their Warrior 35, ‘Yanina of Bosham’ to see how far round the world they could get without sinking, starving or pushing each other overboard. Yanina hasn’t sunk, they haven’t run out of food yet, and fortunately both Bob and Liz are good swimmers.
The book
From the trip so far a book has emerged: 'On the nose'. So called because if you ask any Mediterranean yachtsman where the wind was blowing on his last trip, that's what he'll tell you. It started with Liz's newsletters to friends and family, and then the cartoons gradually took over. It covers the first 18 months or so from Scotland to Siracusa. For anyone who wants to explore the
In addition to current news, links to photos and cartoons and Liz's original newsletters, you will find extracts from the book here on this site, and if you are interested in buying it just have a look at The book section.
On the nose is available priced £9-99. It is stocked by Kelvin Hughes our distributor Buy it online now
It is available, to order, from many other websites -Amazon, Waterstones', WH Smith, to name a few. In the The book has an ISBN number 978-0-9559256-0-3
Designers, Sailors and Cartoonists
Liz’s view
For 30 years, Bob was a director of Buxton Wall McPeake, a design consultancy based in Manchester, where he designed almost everything manufacturable, ‘from trains to toys’ as he once put it. I spent 20 years designing furniture; at first freelancing, then for a spell with ARC Design Consultants, http://www.arcdesign.co.uk/ and finally as designer for the Galt Educational Furniture catalogue.
Sometime in the mid ‘90’s we started sailing - Bob’s idea- and it wasn’t long before we were dreaming about doing some extended cruising - my idea. The planning and preparation to ‘get away’ took us both till 2004.
One of the things about being a design consultant is that it’s a portable skill, and thanks to email and the internet, we have been able to carry on designing for the Designs for Education and Millwood Education catalogues. http://www.designsforeducation.co.uk/
So where did the cartoons come from?
When we reached Almerimar in Southern Spain in 2004 we stopped for the winter and Bob thought he’d try watercolour painting. Before he could start, we had to organise one of the quiz nights and he drew a ‘spot the difference’ cartoon of the marina jampacked with boats at all angles. This went down so well that several people wanted copies, then someone suggested Christmas cards. A commission for a Christmas gift was next, and it’s never stopped since. ‘On the nose’, the first book of our journey, has been 3 years in the making and contains 140 cartoons and illustrations.
In the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook it suggests that cartoonists are born, not made, and I think this is true. When I first saw Bob’s cartoons I was bowled over by the detail that he’d put in them. I was in the same place, looking at the same things, but he had firstly endowed them with some delightful and playful characteristics that he’d obviously imagined and I’d never have thought of, and then developed them into scenarios triggered by his gently irreverent sense of humour. I laughed out loud, and this is the reaction of most people.
Bob’s view
Thirty years in the wrong career. Good grief...
P.S. I think this is the point where I should thank everyone who bought a Christmas card or a birthday card, and all those who liked the cartoons enough to commission one for their unsuspecting spouse. I enjoyed doing them, I enjoyed the reaction when I showed them to you, and I've got some great material now for a second book. You might end up in print! P.P.S. So who is this Bob Cooper then? Well, it's me of course. My father was a plumber and his name's got me this far in life, but my mother was the one who could draw. Cooper was her maiden name so it seemed appropriate. And of course the taxman may never find me.
