When I was working for the National Grid I decided that I wanted to be self-employed. I’ve always loved sailing and fancied running a yacht marina. I was flicking through the Saturday Times when I noticed an advert for a canal boat business in Llanfoist, South Wales. I asked for the details and when I visited the site (with a house and 10 very old boats), I knew this was the project for me.
I had to raise the finance, and I remember the bank asking what my nautical experience was. I told them my parents had a yacht on the River Orwell, which I’d sailed from Harwich to St Katherine Dock on the Thames, and they said,
