© 2009 Rainmaker Sailing   Contact  dave@rainmakersailing.com

In my twenties I was in Sardinia racing on a Maxi. I was pretty set on a professional sailing career until I bumped into one of the older guys who was crewing on the owner’s cruising yacht rather than the racing Maxi. It turned out that this guy had done all the major events that I aspired to but was now, at forty serving drinks to the owner’s family and friends and pretty much didn’t have a pot....  It was then that I resolved that I didn’t really want to end up like this but rather aspired to own the boat.

I guess this was the seed that lay dormant in the back of my head for many years.  I had done quite a bit of sailing at a reasonable level and had been lucky enough and immensely proud to represent Ireland occasionally, but I also got the business bug and got stuck into a “real job” and the commercial world. I still kept in contact with the sea by way of the occasional corporate event, Greek charter, and trips on friend’s yachts. I also took up diving and became fascinated by the world of rebreathers, helium and deep wrecks.

I had met Gráinne at university and she had suffered through the many trials and tribulations of going out with a sailor with countless missed social events and freezing weekends in dismal dingy parks and marinas, but she consented to marry me and we are still happily together with our beautiful son Finn.

The yacht magazines kept coming however and we kept going to boat shows and then one of my good friends bought a beautiful Spirit yacht and invited me to come sailing again.  That was it ... the spark was relit and after littering the house with various magazines and boat spec’s Gráinne said something like – “look,  I always knew you would buy a yacht at some stage so get on and do it!”