If I wanted to use it, I had to get on

with it. Mooring it, driving it, navigating

and looking after it was all down to me

W

hen a Regal 2250 called Dilligaf

blasts past at 30 knots with a

woman at the helm, don’t make

the mistake of applying the lazy

stereotype that her husband

must be letting her have a little

drive. “This is Sue’s boat and Sue

is very much the skipper,” laughs

Sue’s husband Matt Weston. “I am allowed to drive occasionally,

but usually that just means that Sue wants to use the loo.”

In fact, Matt is a very recent convert to Sue’s passion for boating,

which began back in 2007. “Our local sailing club at Durleigh

Reservoir in Bridgwater had an open day, so Matt and I wandered

up and had a go just for something to do on a Sunday afternoon

with the kids. We were given a trial sail around the lake for ten

minutes. Matt wasn’t that impressed, but I was absolutely hooked.”

On the strength of that experience, Sue bought an old wooden

Enterprise dinghy for £200, which she sailed with her eldest son

who had also taken to the sport. Within three months, the

Enterprise gave way to a new Comet Versa which Sue could

launch and sail on her own.

It was while bringing the dinghy to Torquay for a weekend

in 2013 that Sue bumped into a couple of old friends who

owned a 18ft Crownline bow rider and gave her a fi rst taste of

fast motorboating. Sue loved it, and with a bit of encouragement

from her future son-in-law Ed, she bought an 18ft RIB on a trailer.

Like the Enterprise, the RIB lasted about three months before

being upgraded to a Crownline 180 bow rider with a MerCruiser

petrol engine similar to her friends’ boat. “It was mainly Ed and I

using the boat – following a very wet ride on the RIB and a couple

of uncomfortable trips on the Crownline, Matt had pretty much

bowed out of boating.”

LEARNING THE ROPES

The second year, Sue sourced a mooring on Brixham Marina for

the Crownline, and it was the desire for some accommodation

together with the refuelling convenience of a diesel engine that saw

a swap to her current Volvo Penta D3-160-powered Regal 2250,

Dilligaf, early in 2015. Now she could stay aboard if she wished

and refuel in Brixham rather than having to deal with fuel cans.

“By 2016, Ed had got married to my daughter and developed

other interests, so I spent a year as Billy No Mates, which in a way

was brilliant because it meant I had to learn. Previously, although

TRAVEL

Having a trailer allows Sue to

explore waterways that larger

sea boats can’t access

Sue’s boat on
the Kennet and
Avon Canal