60 seconds with Julian van Aalst

How old were you when you first stepped on a boat?I can’t remember, but doing the best I can I recall in June 1953 at the docks in Tilbury ( shortly after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953) I stepped aboard SS Orion a former troop carrier to migrate with my family (as ten pound poms) from Dublin Ireland to Australia (my father was the pom in the family) . I have an earlier recollection of going sailing with my father (Jack) and my older brother Desmond on a small open sailing boat without an engine or a buoyancy vest off Dun Laoghai (now known as Dunleary), it was windy a rough sea and bloody cold, best forgotten.If money (and sailing ability) were no limit, what boat would you buy?What a question!! Possibly a submarine with a gaff rig and only if it was going cheap. What is your

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