Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2017 | Page 42

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Interview
Sailing - not just for
the rich and famous!
An Island-based charity that has launched thousands of
people into maritime careers, and given life-changing
experiences of the sea to several generations of youngsters,
is celebrating a milestone 30 year anniversary this year.
We talked to Ben Willows, CEO of the pioneering Cowes -
based organisation UKSA, about its illustrious past - and
its big plans for the future.
The late entrepreneur
businessman Noel Lister was
best-known for his commercial
nous and vision – but he was
actually well ahead of his time in
more ways than one.
On a business level, Noel progressed
from second-hand furniture seller to
establishing the hugely successful retailing
phenomenon that was MFI – the company
that in its 1980s heyday was one of the
largest suppliers of kitchens and bedroom
furniture in the UK. Indeed, at one stage it
was said that one in three Sunday lunches
in the UK were cooked in an MFI kitchen
and 60% of British children were conceived
in an MFI bedroom!
However, when he wasn’t empire-building,
Noel and his wife Sylvia were passionate
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sailors, and became well-known for their
succession of Whirlwind yachts which
cruised extensively and competed at the
highest levels.
In fact, after the sale of the MFI furniture
group, the Listers went off to explore the
world in their 105ft custom sloop Whirlwind
XII, completing a 200,000 mile, 10-year
double circumnavigation, and visiting some
of the remotest places on the planet.
But it was when they came across the then
run-down sailing facility at Cowes that Noel
and Sylvia decided they wanted to offer
young people the chance to experience
some of the joy and challenge that sailing
had given to them.
In 1987, with that vision in mind, they
bought the former National Sailing Centre,
and committed £4million to creating the
charity UKSA, helping over a period of
years to develop it into the world-leading
organisation that it is today.