I am no sailor, but we were very impressed with your yacht – it has every comfort and facility.  Your crew matched the craft in every way.  Apart from being able sailors, Ben and Kate were very attentive to our every need and good company.  Kate regularly demonstrated cordon bleu cooking skills, making our trip complete.
I thought that I was going to sail the Aegean Islands, however, the Turkish coast line was magnificent, the people extremely friendly and we enjoyed on shore eating which proved to be reasonably priced and superb food.
Thank you for the experience.
Anita and Ray

Thank you so very much for a fantastic family holiday. It was wonderful for Jane and I to be free to really enjoy the magnificent facilities of K8 whilst Adrian kept all four children amused with the endless array of watersports. Special thanks also to Adrian for coping with their differing tastes and ability levels.

Having chartered many yachts it is only fair to say that K8 is the best by far in many respects, especially in terms of entertainment. The “kids” loved all the “toys” for watersports, especially the waterskiing, wakeboarding and “doughnuts”. It was lovely to also have the ability to just chill out whenever we wished with all the multimedia systems on board. Thank you Jen for all the delicious meals , which were much enjoyed by all.

All in all it was a truly memorable family holiday and we will definitely be back – the “kids” are already asking when!

Thank you again

Daniel Hearsum

By Elaine Taylor

It’s normally the Irish who have great wakes (the ‘after funeral party’), but this time it was Les Holliday’s wake where we re-kindled old sailing friendships. My husband David (DT) is a long time sailing friend of the family and we flew across to Berkhamstead for Les’s funeral.  Late into the afternoon and after a few ‘jars’, David Holliday (David H) invited us to crew on his new Oyster 72 Kealoha 8 for the ARC 2006. Obviously we didn’t take long to accept the invitation and so began the voyage of a lifetime.

Now this is where these jottings start to get confusing – you will be reading about David H, David T and David C. David H decided to bring together the old Kealoha crew of the 70s and unfortunately they were all called David. He succeeded in persuading Dave Cobden (Cobby) to bring his driving skills and DT to go back to his old job of mast man. Now remember that the last time these guys sailed together was over 30 years ago and the talent remains the same but the bodies don’t resemble the slim, fit men of the 70s. Despite all these drawbacks, the team was starting to get together. David enlisted his nephew Chas Holliday, Sigma 38 sailor Neil Aitchison and brother-in-law Alan Marshall. Read full post here

Kealoha 8 is named on 26th April 2006.

Kealoha 8 of Southampton was officially named in a ceremony which took place in the docks adjacent to Canary Wharf, London’s new financial area. Family and friends gathered, with Guest of Honour being Joan Holliday, who named the very first Kealoha.

Diana Holliday performed the traditional ceremony by breaking a bottle of champagne across the bows, with the traditional blessing
“I name this yacht Kealoha 8 of Southampton, God bless all who sail on her” Read full post here

Take a fabulous 72 foot Oyster, season with a great crew
Baste in a warm Caribbean sea for a couple of weeks, stirring gently at intervals
Whisk in a few great sails and rest mixture in idyllic surroundings
Throw in a couple of cricket matches, a few little adventures, the odd misadventure, a lot of laughs and copious amounts of rum punches (though this one should probably be omitted)
What do you get? An absolutely amazing holiday.

At least, that’s how John and I see it – just hope David and Di, Ian and Nia enjoyed it as much as we did. I’m Gill and, together with my husband John, we’ve been friends with Di and David for 30 odd years, meeting when Di and I both arrived in Bristol and worked together.

Now, Ground Rules for my account are thus: I know precious little about sailing, though I loved every minute of it and I’ve never been to the Caribbean before which probably accounts for what some would see as over-enthusiasm. (Ian, I can’t help it.) Read full post here

This was the first regatta for K8, thirty Oysters in all were competing with great winds andfun sailing. K8 managed a good series of results with 2, 1, 5, 2 to finish 2nd overall, not bad for our first try.

Roger, the resident oyster journalist, who sailed with us for the last race wrote:

Having finished in light air the previous day, it was with some surprise the Oyster fleet awoke on Sunday to a fresh breeze. The sou’wester was back, not with the same vengeance that had blown the fleet to Cabrera on Friday, but with a steady 15 plus knots at the start. At the morning roll call, many skippers opted for spinnakers and MPS with obvious relish. Thus far, it had been a white sails regatta.

Alan Brook set up the start under the vertical, 200-foot rise of Cap des Llamp, just east of the entrance to Andraitx. The seas were large enough to wash completely over the saloon windows of the new Oyster 72 I was on – KEALOHA, owned by David Holliday – as we motored around the corner. But this day the sun was bright, the sky clear, and the tossing Mediterranean that eerie electric blue that bears its name. Read full post here