My father was in the Merchant Navy before and during the war where he learned to be a boat builder. The war over he returned to his home on the Essex coast where he was able to apply his carpentry craft in a factory that made wooden dash boards for the car industry. But his true love was sailing and sailing boats.  So my father and a friend began salvaging and renovating boats not just for sailing but for homes or work sheds,   in particular LCAs (landing craft assault vessels) used for transporting troops to the beaches of the Normandy coast on ‘D’ day.  There was a thriving boating and sailing community around the Blackwater River in Essex, but the Solent and the Hamble as the home of the Royal Yacht Club,  was the place to be for experienced boat builders in the new and upcoming boat yards.

So, having…