Laurie II is a Trident 24 built in 1968, so this year is her 40th birthday. She’s not a sleek white racing yacht but she is the best looking boat I’ve ever seen and I love her to bits, which does cause a degree of resentment from Zoe, my very understanding if not frequently exasperated wife.
I always dreamt of buying a sailing boat, so one-day in September 2006, on my daily cycle commute from Dawlish to Exeter, I spotted this forlorn looking boat in the drying out harbour of Cockwood, near Dawlish. Impulse took over and I started making plans of how to persuade Zoe to part with the necessary finance. Discussions were hard going and prolonged, but eventually I laid the law down told Zoe I was the man of the house, and agreed to sell my car and do all the house work for the next six months, by the next week she was mine for £2300, what a bargain.
Now at this stage I have to admit toll being a complete novice at sailing. A local boat yard took loads of money off me to re rig, wire install roller reefing, service the engine and hand her back in slightly worse condition than they took it in, but undaunted I continued with the refit myself and now she’s almost sea worthy!
During the last 18 months I’ve completed my Day Skipper and Yacht Master theory and had numerous one to one sail training days with a fabulous instructor, Malcolm Rogers from Torquay. In August last year I crewed for Malcolm delivering a J105 from Fort William to Southampton.
So that’s my experience a lot less than recommended but you do say you’re resurrecting the Corinthian spirit!
So the plan is to join the flotilla sail down to the Azores pick up a couple of sailing friends and return to Teignmouth in one piece, can’t wait!

MARK HAS RETIRED FROM THE JAC 2008 DUE TO DAMAGED SELF STEERING.