Dan Houston

I’ve sailed, on and off, since I was an infant, first with my folks’ teak on oak sloop, Nereis, and then with my brother in Mirrors and other dinghies. I had some great training with Scouts and then Sea Cadets and I’ve enjoyed sailing all sorts of boats, up to square rigged Tall Ships ever since. I gained my Yachtmaster ticket in 1993 and taught night school navigation in Hove until 2006 plus the odd practical sailing course when time permits.

I kept a 30ft (9m) wooden sloop for 12 years, sailing with family and friends in the Thames estuary and the English Channel, before finding Nereis again and buying her as a hulk in 2002. I have just about finished restoring her back to sailing condition!

For my day job I edit Classic Boat Magazine and I hope I can do justice to this project in an article planned for Lively Lady’s return in our July issue. Writing in March, as the boat arrives in Thailand, it has already been an incredible achievement and is testament to the quality of Lively Lady’s design and build as well as Alan and the other skippers’ seamanship.

I have always admired Sir Alex Rose’s voyages with this seaworthy vessel which were achieved with such quiet professionalism and understatement. It’s quite mind-blowing that his legacy with the boat, to be used for taking young people sailing, has been brought about with another circumnavigation. And as a father of four sons, I don’t think you can put too great a value on that.

I’ve always loved sailing with other people – you always learn something even if it’s you that’s doing the teaching. And while you can have as much fun on the water paddling a canoe as at the masthead truck of a schooner in a gale, sailing a boat like Lively Lady, in compact living conditions, is a very special experience… all the more so if it’s in Sir Alec’s wake.