Young sailor forced to sell his beloved boat Selkie

Aug 10 2008 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

SHE has been the love of his life for three years, supporting him through many good times and some bad.

But now Alasdair Boden and his yacht Selkie are going their separate ways as the cash-strapped Cumbrian sailor must sell his beloved boat to make ends meet.

Alasdair, 21, of Kendal, sailed into the record books last weekend when he became the youngest man to complete a solo voyage around Britain, having taken just two months to cover almost 2000 miles in Selkie, his 5.8m (19ft) Hunter Europa yacht.

But the skint sailor, a second-year student at Solent University in Southampton, has mooring costs and university bills to meet, so he has put his vessel up for sale.

He said: “It’s a sad end to a brilliant chapter and I’m devastated to sell Selkie, but I’m already £1500 in debt so I have to say goodbye to her. I bought her three years ago for my 18th birthday with all the money I inherited when my gran died, and we’ve had some adventures together.”

The biggest was his record sail anti-clockwise around Britain, which started on June 1 and ended last weekend, raising £5000 for several charities including Leukaemia Research.

Along the way he battled 9m (30ft) waves and gale-force winds in treacherous conditions.

He said: “I remember looking up at the top of one wave thinking ‘wow, that would be great to surf, it’s beautiful and amazing’ but I had to get my boat over it.

“My auto-pilot, which does the steering for you, broke about two to three weeks out so I had to do all the steering myself, which wasn’t fun when I was taking on water and having to steer and bail out at the same time.

“The worst moment came about 30 miles off Milford Haven during a night passage, when most of the floorboards went under water and I started to sink.

“The sun was just coming up and I had been celebrating because I was almost at the finish. I had got through a storm and horrendous winds and I thought ‘this is it, I’m going to sink and die in calm weather’.

“I didn’t tell my parents or my girlfriend Hannah about my near-death experience until I got back”

Alasdair’s proud parents Robert and Joyce travelled from their home in Kendal, Cumbria, to Southampton to welcome their son back from his epic voyage . . . but he won’t stay on terra firma for long.

He said: “For my next challenge I want to take part in next year’s OSTAR single-handed transatlantic race and be the youngest person to win.”

For that he’ll face another challenge . . . to find sponsorship for a new boat.