Still going strong after all these years

In 1963 we knew nothing about motorboating but Mi-Amor was to teach us a great deal more than her £900 cost. She was a single BMC Commander-powered cabin motor launch of 21ft.

The first year’s cruising gave us great pleasure and a steep learning curve. I confess to being a devout coward while my wife had been known to jump at every wave, so the first job was to rebuild the engine to ensure we’d never be left adrift without power.

Next on the list was the fresh water supply: the water that came out of the galvanised iron tank was like oxtail soup.

Mi-Amor taught us that a wheelhouse shelter is vital if the skipper does not wish to helm in pouring rain from Falmouth to Brixham. Moreover our beagle, Wellington, taught us that hounds require a dry bunk to sleep on and clean drinking water.

But most importantly, Mi-Amor taught us that no matter what second-hand boat you buy there will need to be modifications to suit the new owner. So we realised we wanted to build our own bespoke vessel.

Now, finance is always a problem so the only way out was to build my dream boat myself on a quality Tyler GRP hull. The superstructure of Tyler’s displacement Hardy did not fit my ideas but John Tyler agreed to allow me to design