MULDER HEALEY

You might not know the cider – or cyder, as they say in Cornwall – but you probably know the name. David Healey, founder of Healeys Cornish Cyder Farm and the man behind the Mulder Healey motor yacht, is the grandson of Donald Healey, the man behind the numerous iconic British sports cars that bore his name.

According to David, as well as being a fine engineer and world-renowned motor sports star – he won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1931 – Donald was a classic example of what used to be known as a tinkerer. He has a childhood memory of his grandfather fixing a troublesome door by designing, making and installing a pressure switch under the mat to open it automatically. On another occasion, David remembers, he found that his grandmother’s best teaspoons had been modified with a hacksaw into the ideal shape for eating grapefruit.

David, 65, is happy to see himself as a chip off the old block, as he explains to me when we meet on board the boat in Falmouth. Like his grandfather, he seems to be a man