David Pyle, Director, Princess Motor Yachts
	Born 1943, first sailed with my parents at 3 years old in 1946 (after the second World War) in an 18 foot wooden hull sailing boat in Portsmouth Harbour, UK. Given first sailing dinghy on my seventh birthday which I sailed and cruised extensively during school holidays with friends, camping, fishing and exploring creaks in an area on the South Coast of the UK called Chichester Harbour. After finishing college at 21, I took a one year break and worked as an Outward Bound Instructor in North Wales, teaching sailing, mountaineering and rock climbing to a variety of young men, 16 to 18 year olds, from young offenders to Police cadets. I moved on to a teaching position at a large sailing centre and while working there I designed and built myself a small ketch (27 feet) which I sailed in the 1968 Single Handed Transatlantic Race. On my return to the UK I sold this craft and purchased an 18 foot open cruising dinghy called a Drascombe Lugger and sailed this in 1969 to 1970 from England to Australia, which on the way I visited Mumbai (then Bombay) in about October 1969 then sailed down the west coast of India and across the Bay of Bengal onwards to Australia, a total journey lasting 342 days (the longest open boat passage on record, filmed for a TV company and the book published “Australia the hard way”. My first association with our present company was in 1973 when I set up a company, delivering by sea, many of the craft we built then both motor yachts and sailing.  Between 1973 and 1983 I delivered both Princess and Moody sailing yachts we manufactured, by sea, for a total of over 350,000 miles. In 1976 I sailed again in the Single Handed Transatlantic Race in a Moody 30 sailing boat, built by our company and later the two handed Round Britain Race in 1978.  I then eventually joined Princess Yachts full time in 1983/84 and became the Sales Manger in 1988 and the Sales Director in 1995. I have personally appointed 42 of the 48 distributors we have worldwide. We, Princess Yachts International plc in 2007 built 400 of our Princess range of Motor Yachts from 42 feet to 95 feet overall length, we have an overall turnover close to £200 million  and a workforce of 2000 with production facilities on 4 sites in and around Plymouth totalling 85,000 sq m.
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