John Caulcutt: RIB Pioneer to CBE Fundraiser

John Caulcutt was 22 years old when he and 21-year-old Graeme Dillon, both from Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, entered the inaugural Round Britain powerboat race in a boat built from scratch in three weeks.

Fifty-seven years later, Caulcutt is a CBE, a music industry fixture, and a fundraiser who has raised millions of pounds for cancer research, disaster relief and, more recently, Parkinson’s disease, with which he was himself diagnosed.

A Teenager’s Gamble That Changed Offshore Racing

In 1969, Caulcutt and Dillon built Psychedelic Surfer, a 20ft 9in inflatable powered by twin 50hp Mercury outboards, at Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan. It was designed by the college’s principal, Admiral Desmond Hoare, and put together by Dutch students long before the rigid inflatable boat had a name.

It became known as the “people’s favourite” of that first Daily Telegraph and BP Round Britain race, one of the earliest RIBs ever raced, and one of a handful of boats to complete the full course that year.

Caulcutt is the only competitor to have finished every leg of all three Round Britain powerboat races ever held, and he did it in a RIB every time.

Thirst Aid and the Heineken Years

Caulcutt returned to Round Britain racing in 1984, this time assembling a team backed by Heineken. The boat, a Fatercraft named Thirst Aid, ran twin hand-start 50hp Mercury outboards, the minimum power permitted, against a Carlsberg-backed rival with a far larger budget.

Thirst Aid completed the course. It never finished last.

Seven Trips Round the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes Course

Caulcutt competed in seven editions of the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes offshore classic, crewing at various points with former Harmsworth Trophy winner David Allenby, and is a member of the BPRC.

At the race’s 60th anniversary in 2021, his last CTC start, Caulcutt became that year’s lowest-powered finisher, a feat he had last managed in 1969, 52 years earlier. In September 2025 he appeared on stage at the Southampton International Boat Show, introduced as the first man to circumnavigate Britain in a RIB.

He remains MD of Atlantic RIBs, a brand that traces its roots directly back to the boat he helped design and race at Atlantic College in the late 1960s.

Stockbroker, Producer, Businessman

Before any of that, Caulcutt sold t-shirts on Petticoat Lane in London’s East End. He moved into finance shortly after, becoming the youngest-ever partner on the London Stock Exchange at around 20.

He later served as CEO of the Watermark Group before co-founding Plane Talking Products in 2008, an aviation and onboard hospitality supplier he remains involved with as Co-Director.

Music, Comic Relief and a Concert That Raised Millions

Caulcutt has spent decades in and around the music industry, and lists designing Comic Relief’s red nose among his proudest achievements, according to the Movers and Shakers podcast.

In March 2020, he helped bring the Music for the Marsden concert to London’s O2 Arena, in aid of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity’s Oak Cancer Centre. The bill of 14 musicians included Eric Clapton and Sir Tom Jones, musically directed by his friend Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, in what turned out to be Brooker’s final performance before his death in 2022.

The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity reported the concert had raised close to £1 million within days. Local reports later put the final total at £1.3 million. His music-related fundraising alone brought in a further £45,000 in 2022.

A CBE for a Lifetime of Giving

Caulcutt has hosted The Towers, his charity party at his Grade II-listed Yarmouth home, annually for close to 60 years. His charity work has taken him further afield too, including delivering ShelterBox temporary housing to India after the 2004 tsunami and flying aid into Haiti and wartime Iraq.

He was appointed CBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to charity and philanthropy. More recently, he organised three van loads of donations for Ukrainian refugees.

John Caulcutt, on his CBE:

I am absolutely humbled by the nomination because it is not all just about me. There are so many people in the world who probably do much more than I have done and who never get noticed. I am always part of a bigger team and would always want to remember all those people who worked with me on all the different projects around the world to make it possible.

John Caulcutt, speaking to the Isle of Wight Observer, November 2023:

My stepfather owned Bloodhound, an ocean-racing yacht which was later bought by King Charles’s father, Prince Philip. It is currently on display alongside the Royal Yacht Britannia in Scotland.

John Caulcutt, on the ShelterBox relief effort in India, 2004:

We got there and there were 12,000 dead on the beach, which is quite something to contend with. We have always tried to take the long-term view as to how we can overcome the immediate situation and how to make life better in general.

Now Racing the Tide for Cure Parkinson’s

Caulcutt was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and treats it, in his own words, as an opponent to be conquered.

John Caulcutt, speaking to the Movers and Shakers podcast, July 2025:

I swim a mile every day, I work out in the gym every day, and every time I push those weights up to get out of breath, I go “F*** Parkinson’s.”

He believes a breakthrough could arrive within three years to “stop Parkinson’s in its tracks.”

The waters around the Isle of Wight shift tidal direction every six hours. Fall out of sync and the swimmers lose hours of effort in minutes, with no margin for error.