CAPTAIN/CHEF
LARRY ROPER-TYLER
Captain Larry Tyler takes pleasure in welcoming you aboard THE DOVE. Anglo/Italian, born in Italy, he speaks fluent Italian and French. Larry studied Hotel Management for four years, a trainee chef at the Dorchester Hotel in London, Silver service at the Connaught Hotel and London Hilton, before creating his own very successful international fashion house.
Inspired by the book and film "Dove", he studied Off shore and Astro navigation, bought a boat at the London Boat Show and set off in his 35' sailing boat "Selamat Tinggal" to explore the South China Seas and the Indian Ocean using a sextant and chronometer as the only means of navigation. Along the way, he traded in native jewelry, crossing the Indian Ocean six times and eluding the infamous pirates of the Malacca Straits and the Sulu Sea. There was no escaping the typhoons, however, and Larry experienced many. Logging all these sea miles gave him ample time to design the boat of his dreams, and so, together with the naval architect W. I. Crealock, "THE DOVE" was born.
Larry has sailed and chartered "The Dove" from the South China Sea to Thailand, across the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope, across to Brazil, over to the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, above the Arctic Circle in Greenland, South to Patagonia, Cape Horn and twice to Antarctica. A keen underwater photographer and filmmaker, he has worked for National Geographic, NHK Japanese TV and other producers of documentaries. Larry's other pastimes are windsurfing, snow skiing and cooking Mediterranean and Oriental cuisine.
FIRST MATE
ASSISTANT CHEF
JUSTYNA KRAMER
Justyna joined THE DOVE in 2010, crossing the Atlantic from the Azores to the Caribbean via the Cape Verde Islands. For the past 14 years she has worked as first mate and assistant chef, sailing up and down the Caribbean islands chain from Tobago to the BVI, enjoying every minute and every mile logged at sea. In the summer of 2013, she worked on Coral, a 111-year-old 36 meter classic sailing boat, sailing from the U.K. to the Mediterranean as the cook, stewardess and deckhand.
Cooking, sailing and visiting new places are Justyna’s passions. She is very interested in nutrition and living a healthy lifestyle. She creates many fabulous salads for which she is well known for and her scrambled eggs are to die for.
A lively and energetic person, Justyna enjoys running, skiing, swimming and cycling. She is a keen photographer; loves jazz, blues and classical music and reads many books, from biographies and history to Narnia and Harry Potter.
Before discovering sailing and charter yachts, Justyna worked in Switzerland as a nanny and as a tour guide in a Swiss museum. Whilst working as a nanny in London, she studied Reflexology and Massage at Regents College and qualified with the highest diploma.
Justyna is fluent in Polish, German and English and is learning French.
Justyna has been interested in photography for the last 14 years. Check her website www.camerowna.com