Andy Mulholland was smitten during early holidays on the Norfolk Broads and the love of boats has since been a strong lifetime influence. Moonlighting as an engineer in his 20s on Thames hire boats led to building his first boat, using a cheaply-acquired GRP hull. Ever bigger boats ensued, till by the 90s a Broom cruiser and enthusiastic wife enabled widespread cruising of Channel coasts from his Solent base. A special Millennium trip from Le Havre to Paris planted an interest in inland cruising. Now equipped with a new Dutch-built cruiser designed and fitted out for extended inland cruising, he has over 12,000 kms under his belt in the Netherlands alone, plus 4,000 kms in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. He is also author of another, major 246-page guide to '50 Great Cruising Routes in the Netherlands'. James Littlewood sailed Fireballs, Finns and Lasers in the 70s, before purchasing an Achilles 24 sailing boat in 1979. Getting his Yachtmaster ticket in 1983, he progressed through a Feeling 720, Jeanneau Attalia 32, Southerly 115 and a Moody Eclipse 38. On retiring as senior partner in his business, he cruised as far as the Norwegian Arctic Circle, most of the Baltic and down the French coast to La Rochelle.that time he used the Staande Mast Route many times heading to and from Norway and the Baltic and clocked up over 60,000nm. In 2013 he switched to a 13m Dutch steel motor boat, exploring the Netherlands away from the Staande Mast route and most of Belgium and France and visiting Berlin and the Mecklenburg lakes.
