oats have always been in my blood. I grew up in Dartmouth where the river was my playground. I started sailing dinghies aged 10 but my fascination with motor boats started when my dad bought the former Admiral’s launch from the Dartmouth Naval College. This handsome 22ft clinker-built wooden launch had clearly seen better days, so my dad set about restoring it to its former glory. It was a great lesson in what you could achieve by refitting an older boat, but my head was already being turned by the shiny new gin palaces that were starting to appear on the river. I loved the sleek styling and performance of these modern sportscruisers. For me it was all about power and speed, an addiction that has stayed with me for life, so it’s no surprise that as a teenager I also got heavily into racing motocross bikes. To help fund my new hobby, as soon as I left school I started working for Peter Kidd, building bespoke power boats for the military. When Charlie Chivers asked Peter to help set up Ribeye Boats in 1998, I became their first employee. It was still a young company back then and I was involved in every aspect of the process, from laying up the hulls to fitting the engines and rigging the wiring. I even had the chance to test and deliver the boats. It was a great place to work and the perfect way to learn many of the skills I still use today. However, when I was offered the opportunity to move to Menorca and work for the Sealine charter school, training customers and looking after the boats, I couldn’t resist the lure of a life overseas. It was a fabulous and the instant I saw it, I was smitten. Ever since then, it has always been a dream of mine to own one, but at the time it was well beyond my means.
