I first went afloat on holiday in a hired rowing boat when I was a child. My parents were not sailors but my mother was keen to get afloat - a small clinker built dinghy was acquired which had oars and a gaff rigged sail and enabled me to learn to sail in a tidal harbour.

A school friend had a Cadet (10 foot double-handed dinghy for young people with a mainsail, jib and spinnaker) and invited me to crew when I was 11 years old. We raced each weekend on a tidal estuary in the Solent and during the summer holidays.

My first boat was purchased a few years later - my sister sold her rocking horse and I grew strawberries which I sold to raise some money. We jointly bought a Cadet. This started my life long interest and commitment to sailing. My sisters crewed for me - one mutinied frequently!  The other subsequently sailed with me in a 470 in Weymouth Olympic Week.

At senior school I quickly became the team sailing captain and introduced many friends to sailing. We travelled to other schools to race courtesy of a young school master who enjoyed driving a land rover.

During this time my hero was Paul Elvstrom and, using his book as a reference, built a 1/5th scale model of an OK dinghy.

Later in 1966 I set about building an OK dinghy - in fact two in the hope that selling one would help pay for the other - this proved not to be the case and although it was very satisfying building and sailing my own boat, I decided that boat building was probably not for me!

At university the sailing club provided opportunities which I seized to organise sailing events, take other students sailing (including a soon to be well known tv news reader) and travel to many other universities to race on a wide range of waters - tidal and non tidal. Sailing continued during the holidays including some teaching at the then National Sailing Centre at Cowes - no qualifications needed in those days other than to be keen and a good sailor. 

My main memories of the National Sailing Centre are the amazing facilities and the enthusiastic and friendly people and the fantastic sailing. Other memories include a video “Don’t let him die!” a video of four FDs tuning and the principal who repeatedly said “if you can sail in Cowes you can sail anywhere in the world” a reference to the tides & many commercial craft that use the River Medina. The truth of his statement became apparent in later years.

After leaving university the task of finding a career became a priority. A couple I was teaching on a sailing course at Cowes were influential - one a lawyer and the other accountant each trying to persuade me that their’s was the best profession to follow. In the end I chose accountancy as a friend had started articles as a Chartered Accountant and was enthusiastic about the training and opportunities it provided - my father arranged a meeting with a local accountant. I wrote to over 100 firms and was taken on by Price Waterhouse in Leicester to train as a Chartered Accountant. This involved three years of study in the evenings and weekends whilst working during the day - so little time or money for anything else. However, winter sailing continued on a reservoir in the Midlands and I purchased a Lark which I trailed to open meetings in an old Hillman Imp.

Whilst on an accountancy course on the Isle of Wight in 1974, I met a person who was interested in racing with me. I changed the Lark for an old 470 and this started a long involvement with Olympic sailing activities - initially benefitting from the RYA coaching programme for Olympic hopefuls and as result of volunteering to be the FD Class Treasurer and then Chairman became Chairman of the RYA Classes Association, member of RYA Council. This was followed by a great deal of involvement with the Olympic Classes and the IYRU as the meetings were then held in London each year. I was asked by Conrad Gulcher the founder of the FD Class who had been the International Class Secretary since the start in 1951 to be his successor and so from 1 January 1989 I became International Secretary of the FD Class.

This was a very difficult period with the FD under threat to be taken out of the Olympics, a very steep learning curve and substantial amount of voluntary time was needed to try and understand the threat which was on two fronts - one from a new concept dinghy the Laser 5000 which was being heavily promoted by the IYRU and the other from the Asian countries and those who wanted wider participation in sailing and wanted lower priced less technical boats.

As a relative novice to international sailing politics and with the death of Conrad in my first year in office there were many challenges to be overcome - the greatest was to try and persuade the FD sailors that the Class was under threat as the idea that the Laser might replace the FD in the Olympics was so bizarre that they dismissed the possibility out of hand. The threat from other high performance Classes was easier to meet.

The IYRU changed the designation of the event from “High Performance Dinghy” to “Open Dinghy”

This left the IFDCO Executive with what in the end proved to be an insurmountable task despite a substantial amount of work from a dedicated few. A key part of the strategy was not to attack any of the existing Olympic Classes in particular the 470 Class and the Finn Class. The final vote was the Finn easily beat the Laser, the Laser very narrowly beat the FD and the vote on FD and 470 unsurprisingly went to the 470 but by a much narrower margin than was expected. So 1992 saw the last Olympics at which the FDs raced.

The immensity of the work during this campaign combined with holding down a full time and very demanding job at PW has taken me many years to absorb and come to terms with - indeed it is only during the last few years that I have been able to “let go” the anguish and am now able for the first time to write about it and start making use of the experiences to develop sailing at a local level.

During the period from 1992 to 1995 there was not much time for sailing - work was becoming difficult due to battles between US and UK firms over appropriate technology to use and my role in the World Firm was short lived as a result of a change of Chairman. Back in the UK the information systems that I had developed making use of advanced text retrieval software developed in Sweden were under threat due to apparent better interface of newer systems which lacked the database power and sophistication. There was reluctance within PW to make use of the newly emerging web technologies which was frustrating and in 1995 it was agreed that I would part company with PW.

As part of the agreement I was seconded to the IYRU to assist the President in his goal of making use of the World Wide Web to counter the demands by the IOC that Olympic Sports  needed to gain more TV coverage. The use of the World Wide Web in the 1994 Americas Cup showed the potential of the web and this perfectly matched my goals and expertise. It was a fascinating time, we had a small working party with one interested in email; one in photography and news; a member of the IYRU staff and me who was interested in using technology to share information.

Just prior to the launch of www.sailing.org an American offered to run the website at no charge. As the President’s vision of the power and advantage of using the World Wide Web was not as enthusiastically shared by members of the IYRU Council there was no funding to follow the database approach that I had recommended.

However, I was honoured by a presentation from the IYRU/ISAF President at the IYRU Conference for services to yachting for my part in the design, development, launch and promotion of www.sailing.org

In1996, at the invitation of the Secretary General of the IYRU, I visited the Olympic Sailing Regatta in Savannah and watched Ben Ainslie, Shirley Robertson and many other world renowned sailors - an amazing experience! I saw this as a fabulous reward for 30 years of volunteering activities involved with sailing. It often surprises me that many who do not volunteer are unaware of the amazing benefits and opportunities that are only available to volunteers.

Since 1996, my interests in photography and the world wide web have developed with a focus on promoting sailing. During this time I have studied photography, been Editor of the International 470 Times, taken courses to teach IT, been a lecturer at a College of Further Education, taught sailing, become a Race Officer, participated in many cross channel races on JFever and sailed in many FD races in various countries.

Attending sailing events has provided a reason to travel to many wonderful parts of the world including in 2009 the 400th Anniversary of the Dutch arrival in New York. This saw a fleet of Dutch Barges and warships on parade and an international fleet of FDs racing between the Statute of Liberty and Manhattan. I was very honoured to be an assistant race officer at this event which provided many spectacular photo opportunities.

2010 saw the first major international sailing event in Romania - an FD world championship which took place at Constanta in brilliant sun and great heat. The drive through Romania and the event itself allowed many photo opportunities as did a visit to Lake Como on the return journey.

2011 was a great year for travel, sailing and photography with two visits to USA, the first in May to Noroton YC to sail with Lin and win the USA FD National Championship and the second in August/September to visit friends, win the FD regattas at CORK and Newport, Rhode Island and attend the 9/11 memorial concert at the Lincoln Centre in New York. The FD World Championships 2011 were hosted by Fraglia Vela Malcesine, Lake Garda in July and it was a great pleasure to be able to race with Lin and come 27th out of 130 FDs from 22 nations.