Andy
I'm a Yachtmaster Instructor, which means I'm qualified to teach all of the RYA's practical sail cruising courses and most navigation shore based courses.
I started out sailing in dinghys, with a Laser at Grafham Water, then a friend invited me along on a trip to the Channel Islands and I got hooked on sail cruising. I've sailed in various parts of the UK, Europe and the Caribbean, as well as helping out on a trans-Atlantic delivery. When we're not sailing I work as an engineer in the telecommunications industry.
Helen
As a teenager I used to go
to the
Norfolk Broads for a week every summer with my school. I started
sailing in Wayfarers and Coypus (A Barton Broad speciality). We didn't
have wetsuits in those days so we were pretty tough. I sailed once or
twice at University but never thought to take it up seriously until I
met Andy. He showed me that there was a different type of sailing,
where you take a bed and food with you, and you don't have to get too
wet.
When I met Andy in 2004 going sailing with him was clearly going to
be part of the deal. My first experience in a yacht was a weekend
sailing out of Shotley with Andy and a few friends. This ensured that I
did like sailing enough to join Andy, Anita, Gerry, Dave and Gary on a
boat they were chartering out of Cos the following month. The next year
I did my Dayskipper Practical with Britannia Sailing and
it was very cold. Doing the theory was slightly warmer. As I
decided I did like sailing we eventually married. Now that we are
intending to build up to longer periods sailing, I have started to work
as a bank nurse. This allows me to take whole summers off to travel
with Andy and Speedwell.