FROM ANGLER TO SKIPPER

OUT OF THE BLUE IN APRIL 2015, Graham Hannaford phoned me to say he was thinking about retiring and would love to sell me his charter boat Size Matters. I was over the moon but didn’t have the money. I needed to come up with a plan…and fast.

It was agreed that Graham would finish off his summer season in Plymouth, wouldn’t use the boat in the winter and would maintain it until March 2016. This gave me 11 months to save every penny I could and allowed plenty of time to sell my first charter boat, Brigand, based at Liverpool.

Luckily, the second person who come to view her bought it and let me keep it until I purchased Size Matters.

During the intervening period I never thought I would save enough money. Graham told me to stick with the plan and see where we were in February. Thankfully I listened, saved as much as possible, sold my boat and got a large bank loan to pay for Size Matters. However, I still worried that it would be a massive failure.

Graham suggested I did not tell anyone I had purchased Size Matters, but instead