Are we really a maritime nation?

Many years ago, I was on a family motoring holiday driving towards Brittany when, in a small town, we passed under a banner proclaiming a regatta. I was baffled: we were still 40 kilometres from the coast. Such hinterland support for sailing was new to me: back home a candy-floss stick's length from the coast, folks knew nothing and cared less about the maritime world.

- DICK DURHAM

On more than one occasion I've been asked by day-trippers, whether the dark lump of Kent on the other side of the Thames Estuary is France. I once even overheard a young mum say: 'Look, you can see Calais,' as she pointed to Sheerness nine miles away.

I recently mentioned this to six-times solo circumnavigator Jean-Luc Van Den Heede who was publicising his autobiography (The Last Sea Dog, Fernhurst Books, 2024). The 74-year-old winner of the 2019 Golden Globe Race told me he believes his countrymen's love of the sea comes from the accounts of great sailors such as Alain Gerbault, Bernard Moitessier, Eric Tabarly and Isabelle Autissier to name but four. 'They provide a dream,' he said, 'for most people the thought of a human being sailing alone across an ocean is compelling. They fear they can never do that.'