Keep Turning Left filmmaker and sailor Dylan Winter sells Lily-M

Dylan Winter describes the move as "just one blip along the way" and stresses it is not the "last throw of the dice" for the Keep Turning Left film project

Lily-M. Credit: Keep Turning Left/YouTube

16 February 2017

Keep Turning Left’s Dylan Winter has now sold his Westerly Centaur, Lily-M.

The sailor and filmmaker was forced to sell the yacht, after “temporarily” running out of budget for his popular sailing film series.

He original bought Lily-M in Mylor, Falmouth and was intending on sailing the Centaur to the Outer Hebrides, the Scottish Islands and around the outside of Ireland.

Winter sold the boat less than a fortnight after posting details of the sale on You Tube.

He is now hoping that those who enjoy watching his films will now contribute towards the project to keep it going.

“The game is not yet up. I have 12 chances to persuade the long pocketed YouTubers to support this unique project,” said Winter, who has enough material for 12 more Keep Turning Left films.

“At the moment there are several series of YouTube videos featuring beautiful girls sailing on expensive boats in warm places where all they ever need to wear is a bikini. Some of them are earning $7,000 a week and do not need to spend the money on keeping warm that I do,” he reflected.

Winter added that he is well aware “that a witty old jowly faced hack sailing a series of unexceptional boats around an amazing island with a 20,000 mile long coast will never have the draw of a yellow bikini”, but said the news that the boat was up for sale did produce “a sudden spike in Paypal taps to the project”.

10 February 2017

For nearly 10 years, Dylan Winter has been extolling the virtues of cruising in the UK with his Keep Turning Left films.

The series is loved by many sailors on both side of the Atlantic.

But now Winter has “temporarily run out of budget” for the project, and is selling his 26-foot Westerly Centaur, Lily-M.

“It is just one blip along the way – no worse than the outboards being nicked, the wheel falling off the trailer or the bow of the boat getting mangled against a Scottish marina pontoon,” said Winter, who is asking a starting price of £8,250 for the yacht.

The boat is being sold using the Dutch auction method meaning the price will drop by £250 a week until it is sold.

Winter’s Keep Turning Left journey began in 2008 when his son went off on his gap year and he “decided to have my own adventure.”

Paying £2,000 for an 18-foot Mirror offshore with a single cylinder diesel inboard, the former professional cameraman and journalist set off up the North Sea coast.

“I made a few little films, put them on YouTube and they were watched by lots of middle aged sailors from both sides of the Atlantic. This was in the days before good bandwidth so, in response to many requests, I turned the YouTube films into DVDs. They started selling amazingly well and for five years that financed the sailing,” explained Winter.

“Then we all got good bandwidth so there was no need for DVDs. The YouTube hits have been rising but YouTube only pays $1 per thousand views so 12,000 views per film just does not cut the mustard. Hence the cash flow problem,” he added.

Video & Pictures: The joys of winter cruising

So far, Winter has published films covering almost everywhere between the Solent, North Sea, the East Coast of Scotland, Orkney and now half way around Shetland.

He originally bought Lily-M in Mylor, Cornwall with the aim of using the Centaur to film the Outer Hebrides, the Scottish Islands and around the outside of Ireland.

Describing the Lily-M as an “amazing sea boat”, Winter says the twin keel yacht is “uber safe, handles seas brilliantly and motors like a dream”.

The yacht comes with a three-year-old three cylinder Beta engine and in mast roller reefing.

Dylan Winter. Credit: Keep Turning Left/YouTube

Winter has many fond memories of the boat, including sailing Lily-M from Cornwall to Skye with “two old blokes I recruited from the web.

“One was a hospital consultant with a wicked sense of humour and the other was a retired copper called Barry from Chicago who flew over here just to do the delivery trip with me,” recalled Winter.

He admits that he has no idea how the sale of Lily-M will impact on Keep Turning Left, but stresses that he has enough material for 12 more films covering the West Coast of Shetland to Glasgow, where the Centaur is for sale at Kip Marina.

“The game is not yet up. I have 12 chances to persuade the long pocketed YouTubers to support this unique project,” he said.

“I know that a witty old jowly faced hack sailing a series of unexceptional boats around an amazing island with a 20,000 mile long coast will never have the draw of a yellow bikini, but the news that the boat is up for sale has produced a sudden spike in Paypal taps to the project,” Winter added.

Dylan Winter is trying to persuade more boaters to try winter cruising

On board. Credit: Dylan Winter

He said he always ask those who contribute to Keep Turning Left why they do so and has had “some wonderful answers”.

“One bloke said that he had assumed that I am a rich Englishman who likes making films for fun. He suddenly realised that you have to put diesel in a car and that cameras cost money,” said Winter, who is hoping the last 12 films will make £2,000 each.

If so, the 61-year-old plans to buy a Fisher 25 to continue filming in Scotland in the winter as he “needs inside steering”.

“I have not yet made the last throw of the dice on Keep Turning Left,” said Winter.

“If I can persuade enough of those avid YouTube freeloading followers of the project to tap in towards the costs then I can continue. If not, the films will stop and I will spend more time schlepping up and down my lovely east coast rivers in my small trailer sailer while drinking coffee and watching the birds” he added.