Barry Pickthall trained as a boatbuilder first at W Bates & Son at Chertsey, then at Chippendale Boats Havant before embarking on a career in naval architecture, working at the National Physical Laboratories at Feltham and Teddington, tank testing model ships and model sea keeping trials of fishing boats.

That technical background gave Barry an introduction to journalism, starting at Yachts & Yachting magazine before moving on to become the yachting correspondent first for the Sunday Times and then The Times for 25 years.

He spent two years restoring his circa 1965 Rhodes 6 tonner Sea Jay, has sailed extensively in all corners of the globe and owns PPL Photo Agency, perhaps the largest specialist sailing library in the world with close to 5 million images.