The student of physical geography bought his 23-foot Falmouth Gypsy class yacht for just £800 online and then lived in a boatyard while he studied at Aberystwyth University.
He says the yacht, called Golden Cloud, has seen better days but the purchase price was equivalent to just two months’ rent.
Joe, 23, pointed out that he believed living on the boat would be better than the average standard of student accommodation he would otherwise have to live in and he would save a small fortune in renting a student house.
Once Joe completed his master’s degree, he decided to set sail for home on the Isle of Wight – a 450 mile journey and turned it into a money-raiser by calling into eight ports to raise funds for the Isle of Wight’s Society for the Blind and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Previous to living on his ‘houseboat’, Joe’s experience of sailing was confined to small dinghies and gaining a powerboat qualification.
He undertook the 120 hours of sailing home from Wales mostly on his own, except for a spell with a more experienced sailor who knew how to use a jib at the beginning of the adventure.
On the way, his engine in the 42-year-old yacht failed and he had to be towed into port by a lifeboat.
This isn’t Joe’s first taste of adventure – he also explored the ice sheet of Greenland with a group of scientists while studying at university.
Joe adds that the 450-mile journey home used 70 litres of diesel in what were unfavourable conditions, making for a ‘gruelling journey’.
He said: “Indeed, it was cheaper to get home fuel-wise on the boat than it would have been for me to buy train and ferry tickets!”
Golden Cloud made the journey home at an average of four knots and is now moored up on the River Medina after a strong turn-out of family friends welcomed them both home.
