A NOVICE yachtsman who is believed to have cost rescue services more than £50,000 following a series of disasters at sea has defended his decision to sail alone.

Eric Abbott, 56, has been towed to safety by lifeboat services more than half a dozen times from the Irish Sea over the past year.

The latest mishap happened last Thursday when he called on the coastguards after his home-made yacht Plus VAT ran aground off the North Wales coast in Rhyl's Foryd Harbour.

But speaking from his home in Darwin Street, Castle, Mr Abbott said: "I am no different from anyone else who goes on a boat and I haven't done anyone any harm, not even to myself.

"I have had boats for the last 30 years so I am not a mere novice. The only reason I started sailing is because there are so many things wrong with this country that I had just had enough."

The unemployed painter's latest adventure started in April last year when his wife set him a challenge to sail around the Irish Sea.

"She said if I could manage to get there and back she would come on the boat, so I decided to take her up on her offer," he said.

"But I haven't been able to get a job for 18 years so in the end things became so desperate that I went to Ireland anyway to try and find work."

The father-of-three denied reports in the national press that he only uses an AA roadmap to navigate and insists he keeps a GPS radio 'phone with him in his yacht to measure the distance and speed he is travelling.

But although he was willing to admit he owed a great debt to the lifeboatmen who rescued him, Mr Abbott said he would not be giving up sailing just yet.

He added: "I have had one or two offers to take up sailing courses, but I would be lying if I said I wouldn't go out on a boat again -I'm just waiting until the tide has turned."

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