Jonathan Lewis
Around Britain in motor boat Gralian
Jonathan Lewis made films for thirty five years. His awards include International Emmy for Best Documentary, Silver Hugo for film drama at the Chicago Film Festival and the Japan Prize. He has had two crime novels published by a division of Random House: Into Darkness [2010] and Into Dust [2011]. More importantly, for over thirty years he and his wife Helen have owned classic motorboats in which they have been to the Baltic, spent two years in the Med and completed a UK circumnavigation, accompanied by the ship’s dog and ship’s cat. This beats making films and writing books any day, although the fur in the engine room has to be seen to be believed.
Jonathan will talk partly about Gralian’s restoration but wants to convey the experience of cruising her. There may be more similarities between a modern and a prewar sailing yacht than there are between Gralian and a Sunseeker. He says, “There is some kind of balance between Gralian’s atmosphere – for want of a better word – and her limitations which determines what it is like cruising her”.