The genesis of flotilla sailing is tied into the era of the 1960s and 70s when the democratisation of sailing, of the idea of going on holiday in the Mediterranean, was beginning to take root, not as the prerogative of the rich or an adventure for the tough, but as something the man in street could aspire to. The very idea of sailing in turquoise waters under a blue sky with the heat of the sun on your back was to tempt many who would otherwise have turned down a sail in the muddy swatchways of Essex or the shouting and testosterone enveloping racing in the Solent. I should disclose at this point that part of this history takes a personal twist since I was involved in the early days of flotilla sailing, though I have tried to be as objective as you can with a personal history.
Flotilla sailing started in Greece in the 1970s and has proved enduringly popular ever since. Eric Richardson started the first flotilla, the Yacht Cruising Association (YCA), in 1974. The origins of the idea are somewhat lost in time, but somehow Eric developed the idea of a little fleet of identical boats shepherded by a lead boat with a skipper, engineer and hostess on board,
