My Boating Background

The first photo of me sailing was on the Norfolk Broads at under 18 months old with my grandfather at the helm of the lugsail dinghy we had as a tender to our hired motor cruiser.  It was family boating holidays on the Norfolk Broads coupled with reading Enid Blyton's "Adventurous Four" and Arthur Ransome's  "Swallows and Amazons" and Norfolk Broads based "Coot Club" books that gave me the lifetime boating bug.

My first recorded sail

My own first boat was a 10ft Percy Blandford designed, Gunter rigged, Curlew dingy that my father meticulously built in our garage when I was 9 years old. When we moved to Norfolk when I was 12 years old I practically lived on the river in that dinghy.  We didn't have the sails for it originally so I used to sail up and down the narrow river with a simple plastic sheet attached to an oar fitted into the mast step, it certainly teaches you how to get the best out of the wind!

Since then I have cruised, explored and raced both inland, much of it on the Norfolk Broads, and coastal in a large variety of vessels from windsurfers, kayaks and canoes, racing sailing dinghies and catamarans, motor cruisers, RIBs and launches (including qualifying to carry out solo patrols as an Auxiliary Navigation Ranger with the Broads Authority) to one of  Sir Chay Blyth's 67ft Ocean Challenge Round The World Racing Yachts.

At the helm of a 67ft, 40 ton, Ocean Challenge Round The World Racing Yacht off Plymouth

In 2014 I skippered Callisto, my friend's 1970's 30ft yacht, on a two handed 1,500 mile voyage from Arisaig on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands around the Inner and Outer Hebrides and then to Lowestoft via Northern Ireland, Eire, Wales, The Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, The Isle of Wight and the South Coast.

Callisto at anchor with the Isle of Eigg in the background

In 2020 and 2021 I revisited the West Coast of Scotland clocking up the best part of another thousand miles of sailing (two handed again), and over 60 days on board, this time in a beautiful Oyster 485 yacht.

If anyone wants an occasional crew/sailing companion then I am always open to offers/opportunities whether it be cruising my local Norfolk Broads, the East Coast of the UK or potentially further afield!  Large or small craft, power or sail, as long as it floats I am interested!

 I am a member of the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) and British Canoeing (BCU) and currently hold the following marine related qualifications:

RYA/DTp Yachtmaster Offshore (Shorebased) Certificate

RYA Powerboat level 2 Certificate (Inland & Coastal, Planing & Displacement Craft)

VHF DSC Radio Operators Certificate

CEVNI (European Inland Navigation) Certificate

RYA International Certificate of Competence (ICC)