All aboard for the ‘Good Life’ as owners of popular lake embark on a new era

The vessel, compete with whistle and funnel, will be plying the waters of Hornsea Mere, after it was taken over by a relative of the Hood family, who have run the Mere since 1939.

Sara and Mark Blake, a London-trained chef, aim to run the attraction all-year round and expand the business to include evening food, a drinks licence and pleasure cruises aboard the Good Life.

Sara, whose great aunt is Joyce Hood, mother of Michael Hood, who has just retired, worked at the Mere as a teenager.

She has moved up from Sussex with her husband and three young children.

She said: “We’d been thinking for a while about moving up north. Mark wanted to get out of the restaurant trade. We heard Michael was retiring and we went for it. We thought it was an amazing opportunity. We still can’t believe we are here. It is so beautiful.”

But she says they will try not to alter the old-fashioned feel of the Mere: “We have decorated already and are prettifying the site up and putting seating outside and picnic tables and hoping to do a fenced off area that’s safe for children. But we are not going to turn it into a coffee shop.

“We get a lot of bird watchers and we want to do events, obviously the boat will attract steam enthusiasts.”