Mark Brackenbury started sailing in a proper boat 'with beds' in 1961 and bought his first boat in 1966 and joined the Cruising Association the same year. At that time he was a stockbroker, although he returned to his original profession of actor in 1976, working on stage and television. By 1972 he was on the CA Council, remaining there till 1979 and was on the Finance & General Purposes Committee from 1974 to 1983 and editor of the Handbook from 1977-80. But at the same time, sailing his ketch Kuri Moana from West Mersea,, he managed to write a Frisian Pilot, Norwegian Cruising Guide, Normandy and Channel Islands Pilot, Scottish West Coast Pilot and Baltic Southwest Pilot.

He had launched his new boat Kiwa in 1983, and soon afterwards went off via Gibraltar to sail round the world with his wife Virginia and children Claire and David. They went westward via Panama to New Zealand, Virginia’s homeland, and spent the 1984-5 southern hemisphere hurricane season in Auckland. They returned via Australia, where they reported starting a race between some swimmers and a sea snake (which they had expelled from Kiwa at a badly chosen moment) and the Red Sea, arriving back in 1986.

Back in UK, he acted as chair of Finance and F&GP between 1987 and 1994, steering the CA through the difficult process of acquiring their new premises at Limehouse. Sadly, the results of a motor accident in 1990 left Virginia unable to cope with life at sea, and their cruising days ended at that time. “At least” Virginia says, “we went out at the top.”

During all of this time he lived near Dunmow in Essex, and still lives there in his retirement.

CM&LH