Hi Niven:
Just for clarification:
Niven, there can be no doubt, was indefatiguable in his support for the
voyage and he certainly put his money on the line as well.
>From the Canadian point of view, I would not like it to be thought that
Niven's was the only money in the pot. There was my $25.00 for one
(laughably small perhaps but projects such as these are often made on such
"widow's mites") but there was also the very genreous gift of, I believe,
$5000 CDN from Andrea Sinclair of Toronto. She donated it to the project in
1995 I think, and when Gary Smith was the primum mobile. It was she who was
alluded to in your email as somehow refusing to respond to the fund-raiser
when her reasons were a little more complicated than being merely
tight-fisted:
1: there was no tax receipt available and she had already taken the full
hit on the $ 5000
2: in her opinion, and Nick's fantastic presentation to the contrary, she
did not feel there was enough time for the voyage to happen.
3:she is Chairman of the Board of Sinclair Technologies and is subject to
board decisions. She is very much not an autocrat and her board made the
decision not to support further the voyage.
So, in fairness, I submit this to the assembled to fill out the record
But may I also echo Niven's thoughts concerning those who gave but wonder
what happened to their money if the voayge did not, in fact, take place.
There was enormous preparations and the model itself had a tidy fee. The
project sputtered along for as long as it could before it was clear that it
could not continue. So rest assured that the money that came in was spent
in a good cause, if it was also an unsuccessful one.
Yours aye, Rory
-----Original Message-----
From: Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>
To: sinclair@mids.org <sinclair@mids.org>
Date: Tuesday, August 03, 1999 9:55 AM
Subject: Re: The St. Clair Voyage - 1398 to 1998
At 14:10 01/08/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Has anyone seen this page?
>
>http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/~exped/stclair/stclair.htm
>
>Amber
Replica boat to re-enact the crossing of Prince Henry Sinclair.
I gave the enthusiastic Edinburgh University' students £400 to get them
started. This was followed by a
further £10,000 to prepare a model (now in the United States) but, as there
was very little money being
contributed from other sources (including zilch from the United States and
an equal sum from Canada), the
project ran out of money rather than steam. I also paid the air-fare for a
fund-raiser to go to Canada
to present the case to a large Canadian Company (founded and run by
Sinclairs) in the hope of generating
interest there. Again there was lots of enthusiasm but a complete dearth
of funds.
The students had gathered some very experienced boat-builders and seamen
together. They deserved
greater support.
A lady is now planning a voyage from Venice to the New World via Orkney and
Shetland. She already
has a boat. I have agreed to address a gathering in Venice later this year
to raise funds. This has the
support of the Mayor of Venice so we are hoping for a happier outcome.
Niven Sinclair
Ideas are wonderful but money is needed to carry them through
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