watching Howard’s Way on a Sunday evening as a teenager, I always saw boating as a pastime of the super wealthy, but I loved the sea and wanted in. My route to the water was meant to be the Royal Navy when I was 16 but after narrowly failing my final exam to become an engineer and being too impatient to wait the full year before being able to resit it, I ended up with a career in IT. My access to the sea was limited to occasional sailing or fishing trips with friends and family. Owning my own boat didn’t seem like something I would ever be able to afford.
Fast forward to June 2017 and I was with my girlfriend (now wife) in Malta in a hotel overlooking the marina. Tina shared a mutual love of the sea and talked me into renting a small RIB for the day. It was glorious, especially when a local boat came into the bay selling fresh Italian ice creams! A birthday trip to Monaco only stoked our boating desires as we gazed longingly at the superyachts in the harbour. Perhaps if we started small?
I always saw boating as a pastime of the super wealthy, but I loved the sea and wanted in
STEP 1: THE TRAINING COURSE
As a first tentative step, Tina booked us onto an RYA Day Skipper course in Plymouth. After passing the theory and practical, we headed to the London boat show determined to find a way
