Man raises over £17k for charity in home-made tin boat
A former British Army major is set to row 100 miles along the Chichester canal in a homemade boat, the ‘Tintantic’.
Mick Stanley has spent the last three months building the ‘vessel’ with the plan of rowing 100 miles up and down Chichester canal.
His plan is to row from Hunston to the Chichester Canal basin and back again every Wednesday and Saturday until the 100 miles are complete as he raises money for St Wilfrid’s Hospice and to celebrate his 80th birthday this month.
“I really must do something to make some money for charity,” Stanley told the Chichester Observer. “It’s a local hospice and I think they are an organisation that is worthy and short of money and needs to be helped in any way that people can.
“I think it will take me up to Christmas,” he says, “I’m feeling very good about it and I have already done it there and back — it takes me about three quarters of an hour.”
The ‘Tintanic’ is made from two sheets of corrugated iron.
Stanley told the Guardian he had been inspired to make the boat during lockdown after a recent visit to India, where he saw the tin boats used there.
“I got two sheets of corrugated iron, put them together and tried to make them float,” he says.
“The initial attempts were not good because it wasn’t stable, and I was tipped into the sea twice and had total immersion. Then I developed the buoyancy fenders on both sides and it’s now reasonably stable. The only slight problem is when I get in and out, but I think I have mastered it now.
“I have been called all sorts of things: merry major, legend, awesome, mad major; some woman said ‘I love you sir’, which is a bit over the top. The most telling comment is the teenagers who said ‘that’s really cool’. For an 80-year-old to be called cool by a teenager is something special.
“It’s fun and I really enjoy it and the generosity of the general public is wonderful. We have such nasty news but at its core it’s a fantastic country.”
Donations are still being taken to support this epic endeavour.
