An 85-year-old Army veteran known as "Major Mick" has completed his final charity row in a homemade boat.
Michael Stanley, from Chichester, clocked up 500 miles in his corrugated iron craft, raising more than £90,000 for good causes over five years.
His first journey began along the Chichester Canal, but since then, Mr Stanley has rowed on rivers and lakes across the UK, crossed the Solent, met the King, and even rowed on the Seine in Paris.
Mr Stanley said: "I am very satisfied, I have had a really good time in the last five years and it seemed a good point to stop now I have reached 500 miles in the boat.
"There have been so many highlights, I think crossing the Solent, going to Paris, meeting the King, the Prime Minister, it’s been fun and exciting."
(Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)
A small crowd of supporters gathered to watch him set off in the second version of his "Tintanic" from The Hard at Itchenor for the hour-long row to Chichester Yacht Club.
Yet the man affectionately known as "Captain of the Tintanic" isn’t quite ready to retire from the water.
He plans to build Tintanic III—a sailing boat.
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Mr Stanley said: "Over the winter I’m going to build another boat, this time it will be 24 inches longer than my present boat and will have a sail I hope, my ambition is to sail from Calais to Dover.
"But that’s a pipedream, first of all I will have to see if the boat floats. The motivation is enjoying being out in the water and definitely meeting people is the fun part.
"I still feel fit and while I feel fit I want to continue doing active things. My daughter calls me eccentric but that’s alright with me, I could be called worse things than that."
After completing his final row, he was welcomed at the yacht club with a salute from fellow rowers and applause from supporters.
(Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)
Mr Stanley joked: "Now you’re all hoping I fall in. I am relieved that I didn’t fall in and it was nice to see so many people to welcome me home.
"I am a little bit sad but looking forward to next year when I build a sailing boat."
His son, Robin Stanley, 51, said: "I am really proud of everything he has accomplished.
"He’s a builder of things and he likes meeting new people and having new adventures – but this is the first of his eccentric projects that have caught national media attention.
"He’s a bit of a Wallace (and Gromit) character, but he shows you can do great things at any age, he’s a lesson for us all."
Mr Stanley dedicated his final rowing journey to raise funds for St Wilfrid’s Hospice.
He has previously supported charities including Alzheimers Research UK, and Children on the Edge – a charity that helped children in Ukraine.
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