DONATION - for the months of December and January, I'll be donating $1 from each book sale to the NZ Coastguard. Help support this worthy cause by buying Sea Gypsies.
I've been involved with boating most of my life and got the sailing bug the hard way, like most Kiwi kids, by crewing for the local Gisborne Yacht Club on the east coast of the North Island.
Back in the 1960s sailing dinghies were hard to come by so I built my own, from then onwards I've progressed and learnt the art of sailing and all that it involves.
After my college years in Gisborne I gained boat building experience in the old school of boat construction in the traditional style of building wooden vessels. Since then I've worked for professionals in New Zealand and overseas as boat building and design work has led to greater things, such as 'Peterborough canoes', the North American Indian-style craft named after the city where it was designed, also repairs to Dragon boats and Laser sailing dinghies for a firm called 'Patagonia Yachts' in River Street, Toronto, Ontario.
After returning to New Zealand, my work involved larger vessels such as the 'Spirit of New Zealand' and my last commission was 'Mari Cha III for 'Sensation Yachts' near Henderson in West Auckland.
