Press couple make headlines as they 
scoop £6m jackpot during sailing trip

Former journalists Richard and Cathy Brown, aged 66 and 64, from Ipswich, had reached Newcastle after sailing 250 miles of their 2,500-mile journey when they realised their numbers had come up on last Wednesday’s Lotto draw.

After checking their numbers the following day, they quickly turned their 40ft yacht, named Brave, around and sailed home.

Speaking at a press conference at the Haven Marina, Ipswich, the couple, who have been together for 39 years, said they celebrated by using their pensioners’ bus passes to travel into Newcastle for a gin and tonic.

Mr Brown said: “We stashed the ticket in the locker under the chart table on board and figured it would be safe there for the journey back – there aren’t many pirates in the North Sea.

“We certainly won’t be going crazy but we will look to do something good with the money.”

Mr Brown is a former deputy editor of the Suffolk-based East Anglian Daily Times where Mrs Brown also worked as a feature writer before moving to a post as editor of Let’s Talk magazine in Norfolk.

Top of their shopping list is a £350,000 replacement for their existing Grand Soleil yacht and they are considering a top-of-the-range German Dehler.

Mr Brown hopes to buy himself a Porsche but Mrs Brown said she is happy to keep her three-year-old Volkswagen Passat Estate.

They downsized their home in 2005 to buy their yacht and may now look to move back to the countryside to a new property.

They have no children but plan to share some of their good fortune with their family.

Mrs Brown said: “This is more money than we could spend in a lifetime and we will have fun sharing our good luck with family and good causes.”

The couple have been playing the same numbers – 3, 5, 25, 33, 34 and 35 – since 1994.

They will now abandon their planned 10-week voyage but may consider more exotic locations.