Colin Jackson CBE
Director · Red Shoes Productions
Co-founder of Red Shoes in 2007. World champion athlete, broadcaster and one of Wales' most recognised figures, leading the project's vision and partnerships.
The story (c)
Eddie the Eagle meets Cool Runnings.
Lynn Roach is a 40-year-old outsider living a Groundhog Day existence on the grey shores of Barry, Wales: a skilled toolmaker with undiagnosed dyslexia, a dream of adventure and the sea in his soul. He finds a wrecked yacht, borrows two thousand pounds and lives inside her for four years while fixing her in a shed at Barry Docks. She launches, and sinks. Months later she is back: relaunched, floating, beautiful: a rare pre-war German Windfall once owned by a Luftwaffe ace.
Lynn loads her with curry, beans, rice and rum, quits his job and sails off to see the world, having never sailed solo before. His mate Bowmer bets him twenty quid he won't make Lundy Island. Four thousand miles later, Seefalke reaches Antigua, and Lynn enters the 1998 Antigua Classic Regatta, the most prestigious classic yacht race in the world, against the America's Cup legends Endeavour and Velsheda: 140 feet, fifteen million dollars and thirty professional crew each.
Four Barry boys fly out in flip-flops. In 35-degree heat, with the help of Lynn's new Antiguan friends, they patch a hurricane-battered boat in four days, make the start line, and win the whole regatta.
"I have to live my life in small circles. Do you know what I mean? Do you really?"
— Lynn Roach
"His dyslexia isn't a flaw. It's his gift. And those who take the time to understand it come away transformed. I know I did."
— Bowmer, crew
