Topsail Adventures Ltd

Amelie Rose and The Hungry Sailors - The Whole Story...

Here it is! 60 days of filming with The Hungry Sailors compressed into 21 action filled chapters. We've been on fire and nearly ship-wrecked, we broke a bowsprit, we've visited 29 ports and through it all we sailed and munched our way ever Eastward. We think that the most interesting stories are those of the folks we met though - many who have left "normal" jobs to pursue their dreams - just like us. Those stories still need telling and we're hoping to have news about that soon, but until then, read on!

We hope you enjoy reading this blog, and watching the series as much as we enjoyed filming and writing about it, and don't forget - you too can sample the Amelie Rose experience!

Lots of love, Skipper Nick & the Marvelous Miss M xxx

Episode 0: A Prologue to Episode 20:

Click Read more... to read the rest of the blogs >>>

From City Streets to the Open Seas

At the beginning of last year we had this piece written about us for an Australian Classic Sailing magazine who were kind enough to let us include it in our own features section.

"On Thursday 23rd April 2009 Nick Beck and Melisa Collett, IT specialists working in banking jobs in the City of London left their respective workplaces and departed the capital to start a new life in the South coast county of Dorset in the UK. Less than 24 hours later, having driven 300 miles to Gweek in Cornwall, they watched the manifestation of their dream, a 44 foot gaff cutter called Amelie Rose, take to the water for the very first time.

We were fascinated to discover what inspires a couple to undertake a project like this and to hear a little about the burgeoning Pilot Cutter scene in the UK, so we spoke to Nick and Melisa at their base in Poole Harbour to find out more..."

Amelie Rose's Dorset Apple Cake

We love Dorset and never want to live anywhere else. Part of the reason is that any county that chooses this stunning cake as it's county dish has got to be a winner.

Dorset also has the cheeriest County Flag of any we know - but that's a different tale so let's get back to the cake.

Actually cake is a bit of a misnomer, this is more a pudding that you can hold. We mostly make it in the Autumn when there's always tons of windfall apples lying around in our village. It should end up moist and just a tad crumbly with an almost scone texture but as long as it's nice and appley who cares!

Amelie Rose brings London to a standstill, twice!

At precisely 1400 on Monday 29th August there was a traffic jam in the vicinity of the Mayors office on the South Bank and the Tower of London to the North. This was caused, as it is on a moderately regular basis, by Tower Bridge opening to let a boat into London Pool.

But this wasn't some over-sized gin palace or cruise liner coming to moor alongside HMS Belfast, nor even a Thames Barge carrying guests on a cruise up the Thames, nope, not that.

This was to let Amelie Rose through into the heart of London as we shot the finishing sequences to the first series of ITV's new series Hungry Sailors.

Amelie Rose Eaten by TV Stars! 

Not a headline that you'll see every day eh?! On the final leg of our Hungry Sailors odyssey we were lucky enough to meet up with Annabelle and Rob of the fabulous Confection Perfection.

Our Hungry Sailing chums Dick and James Strawbridge had been filming with them (making some little models of themselves).

This gave the cake-obssessed duo the idea of building an Amelie Rose cake for them to sit on (the models, not the actual Strawbridges).