Retired Army Major Mick Stanley has completed his final charity row in his homemade boat Tintanic II.
Eighty-five year-old Major Mick, as he is known, built his boat around five years ago at his home in West Wittering and has since raised thousands of pounds for charities including St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Chichester.
He set off from The Hard at Itchenor in West Sussex at 12:00 BST on Friday and rowed to the Chichester Yacht Club at Birdham for the boat’s final voyage.
“This is the final outing for me, I think it’s time to end it, it’s given me great satisfaction, very rewarding,” he said.
Major Mick has completed a distance of 500 miles (804km) and raised over £90,000 for three charities: Alzheimer’s Research UK, Children on the Edge and St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Chichester.
He has rowed all over Scotland, Wales and England in canals, lakes, rivers and the open sea, as well as a day on the Seine in Paris.
This winter Mick will be building Tintanic III. “This will be a sailing boat which will be two feet longer than Tintanic II,” he said.
It will again be made from corrugated iron and Mick hopes to have it ready for launch by spring.
“My daughter says I’m a bit eccentric, I don’t mind that,” he added.
