Nick Skeates

Nick has been described as a ‘fantastic character full of soul, wisdom and experience’. Nick has been an almost permanent liveaboard since leaving the UK in 1975 aboard his first Wylo, a Morgan Giles-designed 28-footer, at the age of 28. Two years later, having sailed to New Zealand and back into the Pacific, he lost her on a reef near Fiji in poor visibility.

Since 1980 Nick has made four circumnavigations aboard Wylo II, covering more than a quarter of a million miles, and he has crossed the Atlantic more times than he can count. Wylo II is very simple but extremely strong – at least one sistership has sailed around Cape Horn– with an interior built mainly from recycled timber and a primus stove in the galley. Nick still prefers to navigate by sextant, though he admits to carrying a GPS in reserve. In these days of ever-larger cruising yachts with all the bells and whistles, Nick remains true to the philosophy which has served him well for nearly 50 years.