About Me

Hi, my name's Matt and I'm a boat builder and sailer, and I've decided to build a Class Globe 5.80 ocean-going bleuwater racer/cruiser. This blog will document the build process.

My First exposure to sailing was at the age of 6 in my Grandad's GP14 on the sea in north Wales.

After a bit of a break I was fortunate enough to join Newbold Sea Scouts - one of the countries most inland Sea Scout Troops and founded by boat designer and builder, and accomplished author Percy W. Blandford. Although we couldn't sail at the scout hut itself the troop had a summer camp every year where I learnt to sail in, primarily, Bosuns and Mirrors. At various camps we also had access to some other boats including Laser, Laser 2, Laser Stratos, Topper, Topaz, Wayfarer, Hobie and probably others. I also had the privilege of using two Percy Blandford-designed dingies - a Curlew and a Wensum. I remember sailing the Curlew but I don't recall whether or not we had a rig for the Wensum, we certainly rowed it though.

I now have two dinghies - a Laser that's older than I am and a Foxer. The Laser will probably get sold soon, and the Foxer doesn't get as much use as it should at the moment due to me having ear surgery recently. As well as dinghy sailing I hold RYA Coastal Skipper.