Layla - Meet the Crew for ARC+ 2019

Malcolm our Skipper

Malcolm met his wife Anne at Southampton University and one of the first things they brought together was an old leaky plywood sailing dinghy-an Osprey. That was the start of more than 20 years of cruising along the English South Coast and Northern France. Having relocated to the warmer climate of the Mediterranean for the last 14 years they still believe the rugged Normandy and Brittany coastline is one of the finest places in the world for cruising. But now they are looking forward to "chilling "in the even warmer waters of the Caribbean.

Paul - chief communications engineer - writer of this Blog

Paul has been sailing with our ARC+ skipper Malcolm for about 15 years - starting as a passive tourist and slowly learning more and more every time.

Some of the highlights include the Solent, Italy and the Cote D’azure, Croatia in their 54 and more recently in Layla - France, crossing Biscay, Northern Spain, Portugal to the Canaries and some of the islands there. 3 years ago the boating bug took a permanent hold and he bought a 28 ft power boat which resides on the Spanish coast. The Atlantic crossing has always been a dream of our skipper and bit by bit that dream and ambition also took hold which lead him to ARC+ 2019. He is looking forward to learning how to sail for long periods downwind and brings some engineering and electronics skills on board - well someone has to know how to Bluetooth to the Fusion !!

Steve - chief sanity engineer

Ten years ago Steve had never been on a yacht except at the boat show (on dry land). Now eight years later Steve is both experienced as a skipper and crew and sailed yachts regularly to and from and also around the Mediterranean. Tackling the Atlantic will be a new experience. In a previous life Steve worked in a bank within the Financial Services Industry for 40 years. He is a great organiser and is in control of Layla’s watch rota and provisioning. So when we arrive at St Lucia and we have all lost weight then Steve has clearly not done his job properly! For the crew to remain in his good books they need to report on time for their watch. However if their feeling poorly he is fully understanding and prepared to do solo watches.

Martin B - chief banter engineer

Martin (B) could be considered as the mature member of the team. He has had many different chapters that have been opened and closed during his career. Over the last 20 years he has been working with and on yachts and has sailed in excess of 10,000 nautical miles on deliveries and social sailing. Martin has a great way to tell tales of past experiences and also is very willing to assist and train less experienced crew members in the correct way to carry out procedures. What fellow crew members will find out is never "bullshit a bullshitter"! He loves all types of sailing and carries his watches out to the full. However he will prefer to sail than cook. Martin has done the Arc before and is really looking forward to renewing the experience.

Martin H - new recruit - chief whatever is left engineer

In 2014, Martin (H) was asked by a neighbour if he would like to learn to sail and help crew on his newly purchased yacht (a Mystery 35). Having recently retired from full time work Martin jumped at the opportunity which started his introduction to the sea. Over the next 4 years Martin clocked up over a 1,000 nautical miles sailing mainly around the south coast Solent area, including a Round the Island Yacht Race, and a trip across the channel. Given the chance to join Malcolm and crew on Layla for the ARC + crossing this year, he thought he had better demonstrate some capability so undertook some intense studying and formal training, completing the RYA day skipper exam in August this year. He now enthusiastically joins the Layla crew to take her across the Atlantic. Spurred on by this phenomenal challenge to crew across the Atlantic, he wants to develop his sailing skills still further and has already committed to skipper a chartered yacht with his wife Rosemary around the Greek islands in 2020.

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