Paul Heys

In the sometimes faceless world of yacht brokerage, Paul Heys brought a mixture of panache and dash – plus bags of sailing talent. He sadly died this year and is a worthy posthumous winner of our Lifetime Achievement Award

Mention Paul Heys to anyone within the tight-knit community of Hamble and its environs, and his name will generally engender a wry smile followed by a tale of one of his exploits. So, perhaps it’s fitting to start this piece with a yarn that has become part of legend in the bars of Hamble, as told by his widow, Marie Claude Heys. Shortly after setting up Key Yachting with Marie Claude, the company received its first order for a J/110, which needed to be delivered, with a cradle, to Cowes. The boat arrived in Hamble by truck, but the last part of the trip promised to be tricky; obviously moving the yacht wasn’t a problem, but getting the cradle there promised to be expensive. Paul, therefore, took the logical step of motoring the boat across with the cradle still attached. This worked fine until the boat was off the Bramble Bank, when the tide, combined with the added friction and loss of manoeuvrability, meant the inevitable happened and the yacht had to be towed off before being safely delivered into Cowes replete with cradle.

It’s a tale that is typical of Paul – a mixture of chutzpah, indefatigability, dash, while at the same time being on the verge of just a little bit crazy. It was this cocktail that helped him and his second wife, Marie Claude, make Key Yachting one of the most successful brokers in the country. It is also testament to his larger-than-life personality that, in a business not known for charisma and personality, Paul stuck out like a sore thumb, with the distinctive mop of white hair, cheeky smile and inevitable wisecrack. The outpouring of emotion following his early death at the age of 62 was testament to this; the streets of Hamble decked with bunting and lined with wellwishers on the day of his funeral and the crematorium packed to overflowing with those wishing to pay tribute.