I didn't know lifejackets could be this interesting!!

Last Friday proved a really interesting day! Producer and Presenter for Yachting TV, Steve Adams decided I should find out what it's like behind the camera. I was happy to oblige, and besides which he was filming at the new RNLI Training College and I wanted to take a peek behind the impressive facade in Poole.

We met up with the lovely Peter Chennell and the incredibly knowledgeable Tony Wafer. The piece was all about maintaining lifejackets and, if I am truly honest, I thought it might be just a little - well to put it politely "dull". Not a bit of it!

Peter is a great teacher and talks really well on the subject. He also knows masses! I learnt all about how the jackets are actually set off automatically and how to check that your lifejacket will actually go off when you want (or more importantly NEED) it.

Peter was chatting about the new campaign the RNLI are running and I promised we would feature the logo right here. So here it is...

... and I agree! It is all about finding the one that suits you so you will wear it all the time of course. Now where is that natty like Kapok number I love so much!!

I still marvel that TV takes so much longer to "do" than radio but in the end I think it will make a really interesting piece for everyone.

This week I am very much behind the computer, writing an article for the Sail for Gold magazine which charts the progress of our sailors as they head towards the 2008 and then 2012 Olympics. I am taking a look behind the scenes at the support team who make it happen. Should be interesting, finding out what makes it all come together to produce those Gold medals.

RYA Publications in the US

Well I thought my travels might be over for this year but I am delighted to say they have brought me to the lovely sunshine of Florida.


It's the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show and I am visiting to help the RYA, Royal Yachting Association, launch their range of nautical books in the US.

The Boat Show is huge, apparently the largest in the world, and my feet can testify to that! Sunseeker were kind enough to allow us to host the launch party on the stand and a big thank you to them for their help.


Since the launch I have been enjoying the sights and sounds of Florida and particularly Palm Beach. It's pretty exclusive, with only window shopping on Worth Ave, the equivalent of Rodeo Drive here.


It's not all sunshine though. It has rained, and rained and rained. In fact on one of the Boat Show days one of the exhibitors we were visting, Bluewater Books and Charts, were making paper boats to float down the aisles - and they were in a marquee!!


Soon be back to the UK and the dark nights, not much fun but I am looking forward filming the next episode of Yachting TV. Hope you are enjoying this one.

Phew, a fantastic season on the water

Well, since I last chatted on this blog there has been much activity on my patch of water, or rather the patches of water I observe around the country when I am broadcasting or commentating.

I think the last time I posted a blog I had just seen Geoff Holt come back from his epic round Britain trip. Well, I caught up with Geoff at the Southampton Boat Show when I was asked by those very nice people at Raymarine to host the announcements of the nominations for the Raymarine YJA Yachtsman of the Year and the Raymarine Young Sailor of the Year. The awards always mean a great deal to their recipients and it was particularly good to catch up with Young Sailor of the Year, Katie Miller and Dee Caffari. Katie is lovely and a great ambassador for the sport of sailing. Dee is Dee and great fun to be with.

In fact I enjoyed her little party on a boat on Southampton Water to celebrate the launch of her book. Her mum was there too and it was a lovely, friendly evening - shame we didn't get a copy of the book at the end! Publishers take note!!

After a busy, busy Southampton Boat Show, including a great time filming for the next month's Yachting TV it was off to Weymouth to catch the end of the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta. This saw lots of our Olympic sailors pitting their sailing skills against each other at what will be the venue of the sailing events for London 2012. It's a great event and I love meeting the new guys who will be doing great things in the sport in years to come. Not sure about the hotel though - Portland Lodge you need to up your act before the Games!!

And so to the end of the season and a trip to Liverpool for the Honda Formula 4Stroke series. It's been great fun commentating on this vibrant and oh so competitive series. The last races were no different to the first of the season with every boat battling until the end. There were a few swimming lessons for some of the crews but thankfully no serious injuries. It was a bit of an end of an era for all girl team, Shelley Jory and Libby Keir. After four years racing in the series Team Raymarine is having some time out. But I have a feeling they will stay in the limelight but maybe not in boats for a while!!

Now there's some chilly airs around which means Autumn and plotting next season on and off the water. There's plenty afoot. More soon...

A really nice guy and a great achievement

Today has been a very good day!

It was a real privilege to be on the water to see quadriplegic sailor, Geoff Holt come back to the Solent after an epic voyage around Great Britain.

Geoff left the Royal Southern Yacht Club on 20 May this year and expected to be back in around 70 days. Instead bad weather meant he has returned in 109 days. It's still no mean feat and a record has been set.

Geoff is one of life's really nice people and he so deserves to achieve what he has called his personal everest. His first simple words as he crossed the finishing line were "Well, we did it didn't we!"

Certainly enough to bring tears to my eyes, even without Geoff then putting his head in his hands with wonder at what he and his team had done. And he immediately praised his support team too, thanking them all and especially his wife Elaine and son, Timmy who had followed him every step of the way in a camper van.

And typically Geoff, when I asked him what he would do next, said he wanted to go fishing with a friend!

A lovely day on the water and a great end to an inspirational project.

By the way big thanks to SeaSafe -it was the second time I had worn my lovely pink Gillet life jacket in anger and I felt very safe, warm and a little chic too!!

An interesting few weeks

Well here I am at the Rolex Fasnet Race media centre in Queen Anne's Battery in Plymouth.

I landed here on Wednesday at the end of a really busy few weeks. First stop was Skandia Cowes Week. A great event with superb weather other than a lack of wind on the last few days.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing up all the news from the regatta for the official web site, skandiacowesweek.co.uk. I also had the great pleasure of MC'ing the proceedings for the presentation of the Champagne Mumm Ladies Day Trophy. There were some great nominations including Hilary Lister, the inspirational quadraplegic sailor. Hilary is great company and always has a very dry humourous comment to add to the event.

Sadly this is the year of clashing events so before the first of the wonderful Kimbolton fireworks had shot into the sky on the last Friday I had to depart Skandia Cowes Week and head for the Discovery Channel Bristol International Balloon Fiesta in, guess where, Bristol.

This event is a real favourite of mine. Some absolutely amazing sights. It was definitely worth the dash down to Bristol as I was able to witness the evening balloon lift as I made my way into Ashton Court. A really still, sunny evening meant the balloons looked their very best.

The new two days are a blur of balloons and events in the main arena as I took to the microphone as one of the commentators. The Saturday night "Night Glow" was truly spectacular and made even more exciting for me as I listened to the Director shouting the instructions to the balloonists over their radios. 24 balloons tethered in the middle of a huge arena lightening up in time to some rock music made for great entertainment.

Back to the South coast on Sunday with the texted news that the Rolex Fastnet race was to be postponed by 25 hours.

The boats finally get away into some pretty tough conditions on Monday and I travelled down here on Wednesday in time to see the winning boat overall come over the line. An Irish boat, Chieftain, has won overall. This is the first time an Irish boat has taken a Fasnet Race trophy and I can tell you the owner and skipper, Ger O'Rourke is one happy man. He has been talking non-stop to the media here and I am currently dealing with the many requests from the Irish press for a piece of the action.

Finally the weather has produced some fluffy clouds and sunshine - well at least for a few days!

It was just as well for the hundreds of sailors who had flown in from around the world for the Swan European Regatta and the Swan 45 Gold Cup. The regatta was sailed in and around the Solent and was run by the Royal Yacht Squadron. My part in these events was being the professional Master (should that be mistress I wonder, hmm different connotation I believe!) of Ceremonies for three of the social events.

Two of the events were in the Pavilion at the Royal Yacht Squadron and very lovely it looked too. For those of you who cruise in the Solent the building sits to the right of the Squadron as you look from the sea. It really is a nice area, they have kept it simple with stone floors and lots of light wood and just a few sailing pictures. I really like its atmosphere.

Both the Owner's Dinner and the Closing Ceremony were held here and I think enjoyed by all. Last night P&O and Cunard were also kind enough to provide a cruise liner display just as drinks were being had on the terrace, perfect!

Thanks to Helena and the team at Fast Track Sailing for their expert briefings!

What a weekend!

Photo credits: w-w-i.com

Phew what a weekend!

It was one of the busiest of the season for me - well that's before Skandia Cowes Week clashed with the Bristol Balloon Festival, but more of that soon!

This weekend was the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race AND the Gunwharf Quays Waterfront Festival which incorporated their annual Food Festival. As a long time presenter of the Food Festival it was a hard choice as to where to be on Saturday. In the end I had a fantastic team working on the radio syndication on the Isle of Wight and I got up close and personal with the chefs!

The Round the Island race turned out to be a very good one this year, if a little soggy! I arrived on the Island on Saturday night to find Lea Bennett a very happy lady. Lea is Race Secretary at the organisers, the Island Sailing Club.

My team's job was to get some great interviews with interesting people and send them to radio stations right around the country. I am delighted to say that the team caught up with Alan Titchmarsh who started the race, Dame Ellen MacArthur who took line honours, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Dee Caffari as well as a host of competitors and organisers.

One of the interviews we did with double Gold Olympic medallist Shirley Robertson really struck a chord with me. She talked about the race being so special because everyone is up so early and all of competitors experience the same euphoria when they eventually get round the 55 mile course.

That's the one thing I love about events - you all come together as a team, usually pretty early in the day before anyone arrives, you work really hard together and produce, you hope, a great result.

It's the same with filming for Yachting TV. We get together with cameraman, sound man or lady and a producer, guests, the location and a great idea - and hours, sometimes lots of hours, later we have some great footage. Then our clever editors get to work and after more hours we have a feature for the programme. It's fascinating and incredibly rewarding especially as so many people are now telling us what they think of the programmes and what else they would like to see.

I understand Sir Robin Knox-Johnston injured his elbow in the race so my best wishes for a speedy recovery! I am looking foward to sitting down with Robin soon to chat about the race and the Velux 5 Oceans and what next. Hopefully our camera will be there too.

Well it's catching up day today. With the wind howling around and the rain deluging I am pretty glad I am not on the water!