GOING LARGE
I was brought up by the sea in Eastbourne and remember falling in love with boats when I first saw an Optimist sailing dinghy at Bewl Valley reservoir. As well as sailing and windsurfing in Eastbourne, my family kept a 27ft yacht in Brighton Marina and I used to drive my parents crazy asking to take out the tender with its 2hp engine. One day, after the yacht was knocked flat rounding Beachy Head, my Mum put her foot down and the Jaguar 27 was traded in for a 60ft canal boat! No chance of being blown over in that.
As well as living on the south coast, all our summer holidays were spent in Salcombe, South Devon, sailing Lasers from South Sands beach and trying to get my grandpa’s Seagull engine started. It was these early years in Salcombe that really put the salt water in my veins.
In 1993 I moved to South Devon and helped my Dad open a restaurant, nightclub and houseboat business – that was my Dad’s idea of retirement. Sadly he died in 1995 of cancer, aged 51, but his legacy of watersports lives on in me and my kids.
Determined to make the most of my time on this earth (I’m now
