Telling stories that shape the marine industry.
I’m a yachting journalist and former professional skipper. I now also work with marine businesses to shape their own narrative, telling the world who they are, and why they matter.
My writing appears in BOAT International, Yachting World and Yachting Monthly, where I spent a year as Sailing Editor. I continue to report across the industry and write a regular column for Yachting World.
I also own the English Logbook Company, a logbook brand built around craft, quality and a strong sense of story.
“all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea - whether it is to sail or to watch it - we are going back from whence we came”
President Kennedy’s Remarks at the Dinner for the America's Cup Crews, September 14th 1962
Back to the sea.
Back from whence we came.
President Kennedy captured something essential about the marine world.
People who love being on the water rarely stop thinking about it.
The marine industry exists because of that instinct. Products and services are, in one way or another, a way back to the water.
The strongest brands recognise this.They articulate what it means and where they sit within that relationship.
A grounded understanding of this sits at the centre of how I think about narrative.
Background
Westminster. An unconventional beginning.
My career began a little unusually in Westminster at the House of Commons. Here I wrote speeches, developed campaigns and learned the craft of delivering a compelling message from a blank page.
English Logbooks — craft, story, and a brand that carries itself
In 2018 I founded English Logbooks as a deliberate experiment to a burning question: what happens when you make an uncompromising product, pair it with a clear story, and let it find its people without advertising?
Bringing it all together
I now work with marine businesses to put story at the centre of their work — shaping a narrative that brings a business together that’s compelling to share with others.
I love diving deep into what makes a marine business tick and helping organisations use the story they usually already have just underneath the surface.
To sea -big adventures, a lot of travel and first bylines
I went to sea in search of adventure and travel, building experience through offshore deliveries and becoming a professional skipper. I quickly found that writing and life afloat go hand in hand — my first published piece came from a yacht delivery to Sweden where ice covered the deck.
Bigger boats, bigger adventures
I got my first full time skipper job sailing a wonderful Oyster 575 in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. This dream fulfilled, sailing a wonderfully built British yacht, formed the basis of a career sailing many more Oysters. Managing these complex boats was a wonderful, if steep learning curve.
An unusual sabbatical - Sailing Editor at Yachting Monthly
I stepped ashore for an unusual sabbatical when I was offered an amazing opportunity to immerse myself in magazine writing as Sailing Editor at Yachting Monthly magazine. This gave me the inside track on magazine writing, editing and a much deeper understanding of the craft of storytelling.
Story first. Always.
As a journalist, I’ve always been drawn to the question beneath the surface: what is the story here, really?
In the marine industry, the strongest businesses have a clear sense of why they exist and can articulate it.
That instinct underpins everything I do.
Real world case study
English Logbooks is my small business within the marine industry. It began when the owner of a yacht I was running wanted a logbook that was properly made for their circumnavigaton— something they’d actually want to keep and read back later.
I started the business as an experiment in combining craft and narrative — and in what happens when the product has a compelling story.
It helps sustain three traditional crafts in the UK — bookbinding, paper marbling and printing — these combine to make a product that stands apart, defining its own small corner of the market.
The business has grown quietly, through word of mouth rather than advertising. I’m not a bookbinder, never will be, but a business with a story is far more likely to succeed.
Today we supply major custom yacht brands and superyachts, as well as private clients worldwide — people who come to us because we do one thing exceptionally well.
