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About Me My name is Tony McDougall and I have always had a love for the sea and boats, and for the last thirty years I've made a hobby out of collecting and restoring nautical antiques. I'll always remember the primary school fete where I won a copy of Captain Hornblower, by C.S. Forester, for the best bike decoration. My father had turned my Cyclops chain driven tricycle into a fine looking ship! The movie adaption of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was released the year before I was born, but it stands out in my mind as being one of the best movies I've ever seen. And I never missed an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea on TV. As a 12 year old I remember being taken to see the movie Goldfinger. I'll never forget the scene where James Bond emerges from the water in a wetsuit, knocks out a sentry and plants explosives before unzipping his suit to reveal a pristine dinner suit underneath. As a teenager I thought Jacques Cousteau was a legend and during school camps at Point Turton I loved to go spear fishing on the Magazine Bay reef. In my late twenties I learnt how to scuba dive in the waters off Kangaroo Island, and with my PADI certificate in hand I joined a scuba diving club and dived the Mt Gambier sinkholes and the Great Barrier Reef. In my thirties I got a bee in my bonnet about joining the Navy Reserve as an officer, but they told me I wasn't officer material. So I changed tack and spent a few years crewing on racing yachts at the RSAYS and CYCSA, and completed TAFE courses for the Inshore and Offshore Skipper's Certificates. All the while I kept my hobby going and managed to built up a modest collection of nautical antiques. About Nautical Style The name Nautical Style was inspired by a book of the same name by Eric de Maré. The idea of developing my own website through which I could sell genuine nautical antiques, collectables and custom designed nautical themed furniture has been a dream of mine for at least five years. But there was never enough time to fulfil that dream while I had a full time day job. Then a couple of years ago I came to a fork in the road in the journey of life and had to make a decision about whether to fulfill my dream, and turn my hobby into a business, or to try and get back into the workforce. I chose the former. So here it is, arguably Australia's finest nautical antiques and collectables website. You be the judge. Nautical Style is a trading name of A R MCDOUGALL (ABN 62 646 528 134). |