A Falkirk Bairn, I started sailing at the age of ten on a converted lifeboat called the Calypso owned by a friend of my father. As a boy I would help her make her annual passage through the Forth and Clyde canal from Grangemouth to the Clyde before the canal closed in the 1960’s. I was in my mid twenties before I could afford a boat and managed to acquire a 26’ Robert Tucker designed Ayriel and sailed her extensively on the West coast . Over the next 58 years I have had many yachts and in 1980 with the help of friends we bought Seol na mara, a 10m Fastnet 34 fibreglass yacht, on which we sail 2000nm annually. We have sailed to North Brittany, the Channel Islands, around Ireland several times, a couple of passages to Norway, several trips to the Faeroe Islands and a trip to Iceland.
Over the years I have taken various RYA courses and have become an Offshore Yacht Master. I have also taken the RYA Ocean master course in anticipation of making a trans- Atlantic crossing before I get too old. My dinghy sailing experience has almost all been at Plockton on local boats although I have sailed Wayfarers on Strathclyde Loch for a couple of seasons. I am a semi retired Architect and live on a converted steel fishing boat that I picked up as a wreck in Plockton.
I met my ex wife in Plockton in 1973 and our family has many local friends in the area.
I met my ex wife in Plockton in 1973 and our family has many local friends in the area.
