Andy Butler on Storms

On the morning of December 1989, the Bay got destroyed so we lost everything in four hours (laughs). The cliff came down, everything, we lost the ramp, everything. I remember standing at the top and looking at this devastation.

We saved the boat ‘cos I’d nipped along to Steephill and got Dave Wheelan and Jim Blake and Jim Wheeler, saved the boat, managed to get it up onto the public footpath and I said to my wife, “That’s it, I think that’s finished us. We’re never going to come back from this”, and she burst into tears.

I remember it as clear as a bell ‘cos she loved it. It was tough but it did us a favour ‘cos we were struggling.