I was born and raised in the North East of England and spent my childhood years living by the North Sea coast – an oft-times inhospitable part of the world where recreational boating was little or non-existent. Nevertheless, I felt an inexplicable affinity for the sea and would often wonder what lay beyond those shores….
I originally trained as an auto and motorcycle mechanic before spending some eight years in the British Fire Service. I saw my very first yacht while on vacation in Greece and the seed was sown. After returning to the UK, I found myself constantly wondering what the future could possibly hold and, a couple of years later, packed up everything to “give it a go”.
I joined my first yacht in the spring of 1991 as a Deckhand. Just a few weeks later, the Captain realized I had a mechanical background and I found myself being assistant Engineer. Thus began a nine-year period of Engineering, during which I attained the MCA Y2 (Yacht) license although, very early on in my career, I had set my sights firmly upon one day becoming a Captain and was fortunate enough to be always involved in boat handling, deck, and navigation work.
I attained the old MCA “Class IV” Master’s license in 1999 and secured my first Captain’s role a year later. In late 2016 I took time out to “go back to school” and undertook an intense period of studies which led to me being one of the very first candidates to attain the Marshall Islands unlimited tonnage Master (Yachts) license.
Since that time I have had the great pleasure of relieving on numerous 90m+ high-profile yachts, culminating in spending almost two years as Senior Captain on the 95m Lurssen, “Madsummer”.
Throughout my career I have seen many changes and witnessed the evolution of yachting from the cottage industry of the early nineties to the highly regulated and professional operations we see today and I have embraced those changes, for I believe that “change is the only constant”.
I have strived to always maintain a consistent, firm, yet fair and friendly approach to command and – thanks in no small part to my time spent in the Fire Service – safety has always been of paramount importance to me.
Although still passionately committed to a life at sea, in the longer term I see myself moving into the Training sector and hope to continue to help nurture the talents of seafarers of the future for many years to come.
