SUPER STICK MAN

“It’s fair to say I was fairly unprepared for the whole journey”

Neil Peters is 53 years old and has raced a Laser pretty much all his adult life. However in the summer of 2019 the Eastbourne sailor finally faced up to a challenge that he’d been contemplating and dreaming about for years, to sail a Laser around Britain. Having done a few practice runs, on 17 July he finally set out from Eastbourne Pier on an anti-clockwise passage around the coast of England, Scotland and Wales. He set out not as Neil Peters, but as ‘Stick Daring’. ‘Stick’ is a nickname that has stuck from his youth, when he was rake thin. ‘Daring’ was his online name when he used to play video games. “When you’re taking on a challenge like this, you don’t want to be called ‘Clark Kent’, you want to be Superman!” Neil laughs. Or should we say, Stick?

“It’s fair to say I was fairly unprepared for the whole journey,” he admits, although he did get in touch with a couple of veterans who had done something similar. “Jeremy Warren is one of the guys who did it in a Wayfarer a few years ago, and I also went to see Ron Pattenden who did it in a Laser in 2004, sailing in the other direction. Ron was a real pioneer and he shared his experiences with me, which really