Round the Baltic in a Mini Transat

Laura Hodgetts
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A retired soldier is gearing up to sail a 21ft Mini Transat around the Baltic Sea to raise money for charities.

Richard Keeling is due to set sail on Thursday 5 May.

The 42-year-old commercial yachtmaster and instructor lives in a small village called Maxton in the Scottish borders and has ‘sailed for a very long time.’

Richard Keeling

Richard Keeling

Richard will be sailing to Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the rest of the Baltic in the 21ft boat. His chosen soldiers’ charities are Help for Heroes and Sail for Life.

Richard said: ‘Help for Heroes needs no introduction, Sail for Life has an interesting history. It’s run by Andy Christie who like me is an old soldier, so was his brother who tragically took his own life after leaving the army.

‘This obviously hit Andy pretty hard and so he sold everything he had to buy a couple of small boats which he uses to take troubled ex-servicemen sailing to help keep them busy and take their mind off more negative thoughts.

‘You wont hear anything about his charity – it has no fancy offices or websites or PR staff, just Andy doing his bit where he can.

‘So soon Ill be setting off for Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the rest of the Baltic in a 21ft boat, for the worthy causes.’

Richard added: ‘Here is the donation link for Andy’s charity, its not as slick as Help for Heroes but he’s a good guy with a big heart and I can assure you not a penny will be wasted: www.gofundme.com/sailforlife.’

Follow Richard’s progress via his Facebook page Meteor 363.

Make a Help for Heroes donation at http://www.justgiving.com/Sailbaltic

 

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