Nick Lightbody's Blog

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The power of the Web

When I first discovered the internet in about 1996 I decided to create a website focused on my main area of the interest at the time, Contaminated Land in the UK. This was having an increasing effect on UK home owners. As a lawyer dealing with buying an selling property it was potentially a big issue but at that time not many people were interested in it or regarded it as relevant. I started collecting reports of problems with Contaminated Land and legal documents and published them on my site, initially just one big page, initially written in a text editor.

Quick Route to being Known

What I found amazing was how easy it was to become an acknowledged expert in such a short space of time. The web had bridged the gap between people and publishing. To have become an expert previously I would have had to have published a series of articles or a book. This way, having admittedly put in quite a lot of time, and used my wide experience, I was an expert in less than a year. This lead to journalists contacting me for quotes, my site being noted on university reading lists, my being invited to join a Law Society Committee dealing with environmental matters, my being asked to edit the environmental law chapter of the Conveyancing Handbook and my being asked to contribute to the main UK Legal Precedents Encyclopaedia on the same subject.

The House Buyer Liability Issue

I was very concerned about a big black hole of liability awaiting unsuspecting home buyers as the contaminated land issue grew and believed that solicitors had a responsibility to think about this issue and advise home buyers rather than either pretending it didn't exist or being ignorant of the issue. After several years of intermittent discussion the idea eventually found a powerful champion in Brian Greenwood then the Chair of the Law Society Committee on which I sat. I assume that his firm had had a liability problem which brought this issue to his attention.

A change in how Solicitors deal with buying land

The result was that in 2001 the Law Society issued guidance to the solicitor's profession that effectively required some form of historical land use search to be carried out on each purchase. The effect was create, or make viable, a small industry involved in creating such searches at a cost effective price.

The Public Benefit

The benefit is that generally house buyers in this country now know much more about the previous history of their proposed new home and whether there is a risk of an environmental cleanup claim against them if they buy it. In consequence, they are no longer buying with their eyes closed to potentially devastating liability in the future. ------ends-------

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Graham Neilsen

A couple of years ago we were introduced to Commander Graham Neilsen and his TS Pelican Project in Dorset.

TS Astrid

A retired Royal Navy Officer Graham had previously created the TS (Tall Ship) Astrid, a square rigged sailing ship designed to enable young people to learn about life comradeship and teamwork. The fundamental idea behind all sail training is that you bring the best out of alienated disaffected young people by having them work together at sea, up masts etc, in generally exciting and potentially hazardous circumstances. The great thing about the sea is that you can wake up each day to a new place - which is pretty stimulating for most people.

That project failed, eventually, when it proved to financially unviable in the long term and Astrid was sold to the Dutch.

Failed Commonwealth Project

Graham started on Pelican after he was asked to find a ship to act as the basis of a charity Commonwealth project, but having started the project the money failed to arrive.

Don't Settle

However, having developed the idea of a business model which would combine commercial charter work with training young people, which he believed would work financially he soldiered on, very slowly and without much money for a decade bringing this project to fruition.

And what a Result! We spent a day on her before Easter sailing in light airs in Weymouth Bay.

An amazing sailing ship

Pelican is a amazing sailing ship. She is still undergoing trials at Weymouth as I write, but her innovative rig means that she can sail to windward, fast, virtually unheard of in a ship with square sails. She will complete her fitting out in a few months and will then start a planned Europe and the Caribbean annual cycle, avoiding hurricanes and cold weather on each side of the Atlantic.

In one of my former careers I was a sailmaker with Phil Morrison, we designed and made sails for racing dinghies and small yachts - so looking at Pelican's rig and trying to work out how it works was a fascinating puzzle.

The secret

The secret was logical thought, an investigative mind and a lot of hard work by Philip Goode a naval architect based in Majorca. He developed his rig by researching and working out the secrets of the fast sailing ships of the Arab Barber Coast Pirates.

This created some real technical challenges, so that, for instance, Pelican has had to have single piece masts, rather than masts constricted from several overlapping sections. Her web site and Philip Goode's site will bring enlightenment if rigs are your thing. The Telegraph reported the unusual rig.

A Metaphor for Life?

I have often thought that yachting is a useful metaphor for real life. So in this case Graham followed, probably unknowingly, Steve Job's pithy "don't settle" maxim. He never gave up despite enormous obstacles and has shown what can be acheived if you pursue an idea that you know is right even where those around you don't necessarily realise that until later. Not a bad example to the rest of us, provided you have the staying power to succeed in the end.

I wish Graham and Philip every success with Pelican, they deserve it.

------ends------