BAYSNEWS: This month we’re talking to Paddy Broughton.
Paddy, for those who don’t know you, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
PADDY: l sailed to Sydney from England with my brother in 1996 to have fun on the way and to take part in the 1996 Sydney Hobart. Fully intending to sail back to England and go back to work, I loved Sydney so much I decided to stay. I met Mel a year later, and that, as they say, was that.
BAYSNEWS: What made you choose the offshore life?
PADDY: I love the water, boats and outdoors. Where else in the world can you have all of that and still be 45 minutes from the centre of such a vibrant city?
BAYSNEWS: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
PADDY: No such thing. Mind you living on the western shore of Pittwater gets close.
BAYSNEWS: What is your greatest fear?
PADDY: Don’t know about “greatest” but losing someone over the side at sea, at night, in a howling gale.
BAYSNEWS: What is the trait you most dislike in yourself?
PADDY: Frustration.
BAYSNEWS: What is the trait you most dislike in others?
PADDY: One eyed bigotry
BAYSNEWS: Which person (living or deceased) do you most admire, and why?
PADDY: So many. I’ll pick 2. Nelson Mandela. A true human being. He suffered so much yet he was able to forgive. Bobby Charlton. A true sportsman, and gifted footballer. He carried a terrible burden through his life – having survived the Munich aircraft crash that killed so many of his friends and teammates, he suffered from survivors guilt. Yet he was still such a decent person.
BAYSNEWS: Which person (living or deceased) to you most despise, and why?
PADDY: There are three. Scott “I don’t hold a hose mate” Morrison, I cannot forgive him for that comment made during the 19/20 fires. Boris Johnson, the idiot who, at least partially, is responsible for the economic demise of the UK, and Donald Trump. Of the three, Morrison the oxygen thief, takes the biscuit.
BAYSNEWS: What is your greatest achievement?
PADDY: Making it to 61
BAYSNEWS: What is your greatest regret?
PADDY: Not sailing around Cape Horn
BAYSNEWS: Which talent would you most like to have?
PADDY: Play the saxophone.
BAYSNEWS: What is your motto?
PADDY: Don’t have one. At Cambridge, the college motto was “Garde ta foy ” which as students we bastardised as as “look after your liver”. Seems sensible.
BAYSNEWS: Sailing is one of your passions. What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you while sailing and what’s the best?
PADDY: I thought we’d lost a crew mate over the side when our forestay failed on our way to Cape Horn. We got the sail and rig under control and then “numbered off”. One person was missing. I thought “that’s it, the weather is foul, we’ll be lucky to find him. Bastard was asleep. How he slept through that I will never know.
Best moment? Finding out he was asleep and hadn’t gone over the side.
Note: This Q&A was adapted from Antionette Faure’s 1886 questionnaire. It was made famous by its first contributor, Marcel Proust, and is now known as the Proust Questionnaire. Of course.