TOP TIPS TO GET INTO SAILING

1 JUST GO SAILING

It’s the most wonderful pastime, where you can get at one with nature. Give youngsters a simple job like holding a fender as you come alongside and they develop a sense of responsibility. When you see their little faces it gives you such a lift.

2 SAFETY

Make sure your boat is ready to go – check everything. Silly things happen in boats. The Coastguard and RNLI have to deal with so many unnecessary problems. They’ll assist, of course, but then you hear the reason sometimes and think ‘Why is that idiot allowed out?’

3 RYA GOLD STANDARD

Seek training. Britain leads the world with the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) qualifications, they’re looked upon as the gold standard. We’ve got them here, they’re not hugely expensive but what you learn from it is vital.

4 JOIN A SAILING CLUB

Start off with a sailing club if you’ve got a good one locally. People often think the strength of British sailing is in the big, national clubs. No. The strength of British sailing is in the local clubs, that’s where so much of the training goes on. And it’s all willing volunteers, spending their time teaching people how to sail, making them safe and supervising them.

5 A SOCIAL SPORT

Sailing is a very friendly sport, a community of people who share the same passion. Show willing and those of us who love our sport love sharing it.

6 FIND INSPIRATION

Gerry Hughes – the first deaf person to sail single-handed around the world past all five capes – has been very complimentary about my support. If you look at the rules for avoiding collision, deafness would be a hindrance, but actually with all the equipment we can put on a boat these days it is no longer the hindrance it was. I felt very able to say we should get behind this bloke. And Gerry, bless him, went and did it.

7 BOATBUILDING

The great era of home-boat-building was the 1950s, when the use of glues developed in the war for wooden aircraft, like the Mosquito, suddenly spread out and we had this great ‘do it yourself’ thing. That’s really when sailing went from being a wealthy person’s sport to an ‘any person sport’.