Mark Jardine is unapologetically romantic about the Hebridean coastal environment. He has spent half his life visiting, exploring, drawing and dreaming about the West coast, and the other half living there.
Boat crazy was the boy - boat passionate is the man.
From his childhood days in borrowed craft, through to sailing 'Freya', he will still rebuild hundred year old wooden dinghies in his spare time and go rowing just for the sake of it.

Holding certification under Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Royal
Yachting Association Schemes Mark has over 15 years commercial experience
and has been kayaking off the West coast of Scotland since coming to live there.

Freya - the boat

Freya is an open wooden boat, clinker built of larch planking on oak 'timbers' (frames) and keel. She was constructed in 1969 in the Orkney Island of Burray by Duncans Boatyard for the Moray Seaschool as a training boat.
Originally she carried a dipping lug mainsail and standing lug mizzen. The crew in those days was there to learn teamwork and sea skills - so there was no engine.
If there was no wind they had to row.
Nowadays she sports a gaff ketch rig, which is easier to manage without a large crew.
She also has a 2-cylinder Lister Diesel Inboard Engine.
At 26' Freya is certificated for up to 11 passengers (children are welcome!) plus skipper and is big enough to cope with local conditions, but small enough to get into tight and shallow bays.
The boat has carried passengers from ages under 1 to over 80 years old.
Freya is licenced commercially for most of the West and South area of Mull, Iona and the surrounding islands.
She has undertaken trips from a spot of gentle mackerel fishing to multi-day-expeditions in her spare time as far as Ireland and Ullapool.

Sailing Trips & Boat Hire - Mark Jardine, Isle of Iona, PA76 6SJ, Tel.: 01681 700537