People

Peter Milne, who died in 2008 aged 73, was one of Britain’s most versatile designers of small boats. Milne was born in Stockport, Cheshire, on September 20 1934, the son of an engineer. It was near Chichester that he learned to sail and was influenced his father Cecil’s interest in making things. His first boat,…

Jack Holt was one of the boating world’s most prolific and influential designers. In a career spanning more than 60 years his designs fostered an explosion of home and professionally built craft, making it possible for people who previously found sailing unaffordable to get on the water. John Lapworth Holt was born the son of…

Sailing this Finn dinghy in Weymouth, local hero Ben Ainslie won his fourth successive Olympic Gold Medal at the 2012 London Games. Ben owns several Finns, but has now used the same boat in the Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, and London 2012 games. Following his win in 2008 he commented “I suppose most people like…

“There is a tremendous satisfaction to be had from boating, and many possible ways of going afloat, …(there is) something special in adventure and romance and particularly the satisfaction of being skipper of your own craft. That often misquoted bit by Water Rat about there being nothing half as much fun as simply messing about…

In 2003 British Explorer Pen Hadow became the first person in history to walk solo and unsupported to the North Pole. He dragged his entire supplies including all his food, clothing and shelter with him 480 miles across the floating, disintegrating sea ice of the Arctic Ocean from the Canadian coast. His sledge weighed 19…

During the 1950s and 60s the British population was discovering new leisure activities: people had more time and a bit of money to spare, package holidays and outdoor pursuits were becoming popular. Boat designers found a ready market in the thousands of people who wanted to get on the water in a well-built, cheap boat.…

The story of Donald Campbell’s death on Coniston Water, whilst attempting the world water speed record in Bluebird, is well documented. Less well known is that, up to the time of his death in 1967, Campbell was commercially developing a 13ft (4m) fast runabout, using the latest water jet technology. The prototype craft Jetstar was…

The tradition of boat building in Cornwall goes back many centuries. Generations of boat builders and shipwrights have used their skills and imagination to create boats that have become works of art as well as functional vessels. Born in 1927 Vic Angove, master shipwright and traditional boat builder of Falmouth, started his apprenticeship at the…

Offshore cruising in an open boat can be hard, cold, wet, lonely and occasionally miserable, but it is exhilarating too. To take an open dinghy across a hundred miles of sea, taking weather as it comes; to know that you have only yourself and your mate to rely on in an emergency; to see the…