Fresh from sailing around the south coast of England for ITV1’s recent All At Sea three-part series, Dawn Porter and Nick Hancock will be sailing in to officially mark the opening of the PSP Southampton Boat Show in Mayflower Park on Friday 10 September.

Taking advantage of their new-found sea legs, Dawn and Nick will arrive separately into the Show’s marina by an original World War Two Royal Navy gun boat and a World War Two RAF high speed rescue launch to kick off the celebrations.

The historic RAF boat, a 64 foot High Speed Launch was originally used to recover pilots during the Battle of Britain, which sees its 70th anniversary this year.  The Royal Navy gun boat is a 71½ foot last motor launch capable of reaching 40 knots which was involved in countering the German E boat raids on allied shipping and attacking German convoys in the North Sea and the Channel.  More recently a similar boat to these historic vessels took a starring role alongside Dawn, Nick and their cast members in All At Sea.

Joining the Battle of Britain commemorations, an original Grace Spitfire ML 407 will fly above the gun boat as it approaches the Show marina, performing a spectacular demonstration over the Solent.

After posing for photographs on the marina, Dawn and Nick will join the Show compère to declare the Show officially open.  Both Dawn and Nick will then take part in a Q&A session with the compère, discussing their experiences of sailing around the UK in the different sailing vessels.