People

Commander John Watkinson, an experienced and accomplished Naval Officer, left the Royal Navy in 1958 and bought a boatyard, Kelly and Hall, to try his hand at a new venture. In 1964 he sold the yard and moved to Drascombe Barton in Devon, where he set about designing a family-friendly sailing boat. In his own…

On 4-5 June 1976, Derek Hutchinson (leader), Tom Caskey and Dave Hellawell paddled their kayaks from Felixstowe Ferry, Suffolk to Ostend, Belgium, over 100 miles of open sea in 31 hours. This was to be the first recorded unsupported West-East crossing of the North Sea by kayak. In August 1975, Hutchinson, a school teacher by…

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious or Superdocious for short, was sailed by Rodney Pattisson and Iain Macdonald-Smith to Gold Medal victory in the 1968 Olympic Games. They won a record–breaking 6 out of 7 races, and used the trapeze, a device which had in earlier years been banned as unsporting. The Flying Dutchman Class was designed through a collaboration…

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.…