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CLASSIC BOAT MUSEUM
Our People
Board of Trustees
Mark McNeill -
Chair
Dr Victoria Preston - Deputy Chair
Gywnne Lawrence - Company Secretary
Dr Dominic Fontana.
Steve Symons
RA Hennessy FCIM
Management Committee
Steve Symons
Dr Victoria Preston
Dr Dominic Fontana.
Jill Bredon
I started sailing at the age of 9 in dinghies.
After a stint of campaigning an olympic 470 dinghy in early 1970's and getting married to Nick in 1976, went into offshore racing - mostly RORC.
Eventually sailing out of Shepherds wharf marina, I met up with Maurice Wilmot, founder of the Classic Boat Museum.
The inevitable happened. We moved from the midlands to the island. I became a trustee (now retired) and got hooked into museum life.
Since retirement as an Inspector of HMRC (34 years) I wanted something to do.The main thing I missed about work was the people. The museum easily filled that void.
As manager of the Boat Shed I now have lots of thing to do, and have great fun together with other volunteers.
After a stint of campaigning an olympic 470 dinghy in early 1970's and getting married to Nick in 1976, went into offshore racing - mostly RORC.
Eventually sailing out of Shepherds wharf marina, I met up with Maurice Wilmot, founder of the Classic Boat Museum.
The inevitable happened. We moved from the midlands to the island. I became a trustee (now retired) and got hooked into museum life.
Since retirement as an Inspector of HMRC (34 years) I wanted something to do.The main thing I missed about work was the people. The museum easily filled that void.
As manager of the Boat Shed I now have lots of thing to do, and have great fun together with other volunteers.
Rosemary Joy - Museum Historian
I came to the Museum via the bar at the Island Sailing Club - urged by friends who rightly said it would be fun for me, a ‘Jill-of-all-trades’, with years in Cowes, decades of race officering, lecturing on J-Class racing in the 1930s, a canal boat in France and later Hon. Sec. of the newly formed Association of Yachting Historians. This rather varied background was ideally suited in the early days of the museum's growth, welcoming as we did loans and donations of all sorts and sizes, the rare and the mundane, the valuable and the junk, and vast stacks of books, magazines and film. Now we are a serious grown-up museum, and it’s still fun.
Museum Mentor
Corina Westwood
Isle of Wight Heritage Services
Judy Poyner
When the opportunity arose to join the Classic Boat Museum as a volunteer it seemed like a good fit for me. I was bought up on the Thames. My father built two wooden boats, and my husband John and I owned Blue Dolphin for 10 years, a lovely classic yacht with strong associations to Cowes. I have worked in Marketing, and Real Estate and before retirement for Island Training, the adult education sector of the IOW College. I have lived on America's East Coast and in France, but have always loved coming back to the Island. As a Gallery volunteer I have the chance to engage with visitors. I meet so many enthusiastic, interesting people and as a bonus I am learning more about the maritime heritage of my Island home.
Keith Evans
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