My dream boat is the Isle of Wight car ferry: OPINION

After the Bournemouth Airshow last weekend, I’m off to the Southampton Boat Show next and am looking forward to seeing what I can’t afford.
The St Faith ferry is Rick's dream boat. Picture: ShutterstockThe St Faith ferry is Rick's dream boat. Picture: Shutterstock
The St Faith ferry is Rick's dream boat. Picture: Shutterstock

I do like to daydream though and a day snooping around Sunseeker yachts that set you back seven figures is all part of the fun.

The last time I went I couldn’t even afford the cheapest sail boats they had on display and had to realise the only thing in my price range was an oar.

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If you won the jackpot on the Euromillions, would you buy one of those huge gin palaces and spend the summer on the Mediterranean?

I wouldn’t.

I heard that one multi-millionaire bought such a gin palace and paid a small fortune for it to be taken down to St Tropez.

He then spent two nights on it, anchored off the coast feeling seasick.

Unfortunately, he then spent the next three weeks in a hotel recovering.

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Being of light fibreglass build, they sit on the water bobbing up and down all day, which is fine I’d imagine if you are an old sea dog and are used to the waves.

But maybe not if you just want to pose in your Speedos sipping champagne all day.

With this in mind, I have now decided I will buy an Isle of Wight car ferry and the one I have in mind is the St Faith which has sailed out of Portsmouth Harbour since 1990.

She’s the last of four such purpose-built ships which have proved themselves to be reliable and very robust, being of fine East Yorkshire construction.

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Her three other sisters made their own way to Sardinia for continued service under their own steam.

At a leisurely 12 knots, it would take six days to reach St Tropez and I’d probably stop off at Bordeaux for some wine on the way.

She’d be perfect with plenty of space for luxury accommodation to be built in her lounges, a swimming pool on her bow and plenty of car deck space for my fleet of super cars...

But enough of this daydreaming, I need to think of my lucky lottery numbers and trust me, when they come up I’m off!

Serious incidents can happen on planes, like menu mix-ups

I sat next to an airline pilot at a function this week.

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He was fascinated by what I did for a living and I was fascinated by his profession.

In the past I’ve not been the most confident of flyers but listening to him talk about his job the way he did sounded as straight forward as crossing the road, which he pointed out is far more dangerous than flying.

I asked what’s the worst thing that’s happened in his career so far. He was reluctant to tell me, fearing it would put me off for life, but he said there was one flight where something serious did happen.

A panicking stewardess entered the cockpit informing him he had to have the salmon as they’d run out of chicken…

Some dates can be so awful they become book-worthy

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We are off to London this weekend to go to our friend’s launch of her first book.

Her book is called The Man Detox and is all about her experiences in the dating game over the past 15 years.

We’ve always said she could write a book about her love life so she did. She’s certainly kissed a lot of frogs in her time but now she seems to have found her prince.

Her stories of how men have treated her over the years range from baffling to hilarious to very bizarre.

She has changed the names of the people in the book, including a few well-known celebrities.

But I know for certain there will be a few guests at the launch party squirming just a little.