-
With Pudsey Bear on the floating pontoon -
Pudsey at the helm of Big Bear -
Route of the Big Bear Voyage -
Big Bear alongside the pontoon -
Pudsey all at sea -
With the Watermen and Master Nurse
Big Bear Yacht Reception with Pudsey Bear for Children in Need
4th August 2026St Katharine's Docks
Big Bear drops anchor at St Katharine's Docks
General excitement over an invitation from Past Master Needlemaker Martyn Chase for Simon and I to join fellow Livery guests and supporters at a reception celebrating the return of the sailing yacht Big Bear following her epic three-month voyage around the UK. Visiting 35 ports along the way, the crew have been raising funds for BBC Children in Need, with the unmistakable Pudsey Bear proving a popular shipmate wherever they called.
We arrived at St Katharine's Docks as a fleeting rain shower swept across Tower Bridge: insignificant, but in our current drought conditions a welcome surprise.
Big Bear was moored alongside a floating pontoon, dressed overall with her flags flying proudly. A contingent of Sea Scouts was on hand as guests filled the beautiful marquee, and were then filled with fizz and pizza.
Skipper Jonathan Brewin and his wife Jackie were on hand to welcome everyone, and Jackie kindly invited me on board Big Bear and showed me around. The yacht's beautifully crafted interior is compact but practical, with accommodation for four in reasonable comfort—or six if everyone is very good friends.
I'm a gulet sailing kind of a gal, when you lie around on a handsome wooden boat, eat a lot, drink a lot, and occasionally flop into the warm blue waters off the coast of Turkey. This was a very different voyage altogether—less gentle cruise, more full-blooded offshore adventure.
Pudsey made a suitably dramatic entrance, arriving by rowing boat expertly crewed by two members of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen in their splendid scarlet Doggett's Coat and Badge outfits, complete with the gleaming silver badges on their arms that commemorate the accession of George I to the throne.
The Master Architect joined us together with the Master Nurse and her Consort, and we chatted throughout the evening to the accompaniment of a fabulous jazz band.
It was great to meet up once again with yachting journalist and Americas Cup expert Tim Jeffery and his partner Jenny. I knew Tim from my Rothmans days when we sponsored an eighty foot maxi-yacht in the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, skippered by Lawrie Smith, which finished fourth in one of the toughest ocean races on earth. The yacht won the Sydney/Hobart leg of the race but was famously disqualified for flying a spinnaker which carried advertising for Rothmans cigarettes (despite being out of sight of land or any other yachts).
I was lucky enough to hold a couple of corporate hospitality days aboard the yacht during Cowes Week in August 1990, taking various MPs out on the Solent. It was a thrill to lean out backwards over the sea from the top of a steeply sloping deck as the yacht heeled and turned dramatically under sail. Less exciting was discovering that there were no doors on its lavatories (or heads as I suppose they should properly be called).
By the end of the evening, the Big Bear team had raised more than £55,000 towards their £70,000 target. I was delighted to be able to make our Company's contribution from the Master's Fund. This is created out of the annual income from Past Master Robert Freeman's Fund, set up many years ago, from which each Master can make donations to the charities of their choice during their year in office.
Our donation may be only a small drop in a very large ocean, but every contribution will go towards improving the lives of children across the UK.