A CAREER as a top yachtsman has taken Andrew Hindley all around the world. And as second-in command of the Team Philips, Andy will be sailing the high seas in one of the biggest, most technologically advanced catamarans ever built.

He told reporter JAMIE DIFFLEY that his seafaring exploits started right here in East Lancashire -- he was born and brought up in Accrington...

GROWING up in a terrace house with a view of stone buildings and blue slate roofs stretching out for miles does not sound an obvious starting point for a world-class yachtsman.

But for Andrew Hindley it was where it all started. At 33 years old, Andy is second-in-command on the Team Philips yacht, one of the most advanced vessels ever to take to the sea.

With designs and techniques borrowed from both aerospace and formula one race cars, Team Philips is a revolutionary marvel of the high seas and Andy is proud to be part of the adventure.

It is a far cry from Accrington.

Andrew was brought up in Manchester Road, Accrington, along with younger sister Rebecca, by parents Tony and Dorothy. He attended St Anne's Junior School, which has since been demolished, before moving on to Mount Carmel RC High School, in Wordsworth Road.

There he excelled in his GCSEs and his A Levels but it wasn't his obvious academic prowess that was getting noticed. Instead he was already making waves as an adventurous type.

"At Mount Carmel we did outdoor pursuits with a teacher called John Stancliffe. We did things like climbing, orienteering, canoeing and of course sailing," said Andy. "We would go to Knott End and the Lake District to do our sailing and I really enjoyed it."

Andy, whose parents now live in Hollins Lane Accrington, took to the sport like... well, like a duck to water. At 17, he took his instructor's certificate a year early. Soon afterwards Andy, who by that time was studying for a physics degree at Manchester University, had enrolled at night school at Blackburn College to do an off-shore yacht masters so that he could teach others how to handle boats as well as he could.

Once he had finished his degree, Andy took a job at the Ministry of Defence, in London, but always knew where his real love was and he was determined.

"The job at the MOD was filling in time basically while I was training for my first round the world race," said Andy. "I took to yachting straight away but it was is still a big step turning your hobby into a career. My parents supported me. I have always been a bit adventurous so they weren't particularly shocked and were fully behind me."

His first adventure as part of the crew in a British Steel Challenge race in 92/93 saw the team come third. Four years later he skippered the Save the Children boat in the 96/97 BT Global Challenge, again coming third.

But his biggest thrill was when Pete Goss asked him to join the Team Philips, the biggest racing catamaran ever built. Now living in Twickenham with wife Julie, Andy was present when the Queen launched the £4million catamaran in London amid a fanfare of trumpets. He was there when the port bow broke off only weeks later during its maiden voyage.

Andy said: "We were carrying out a deck inspection at 7.30 in the morning during first light to see if anything had happened in the night and there was this almighty bang. Everybody woke up instantly and we found a large split on the port bow. The crack quickly got worse before it fell off completely. It was not a life threatening situation but to see four years of hard work fall apart in front of your eyes was quite hard to take. Everybody was devastated"

After limping back to the Scilly isles -- the nearest islands to them at the time -- the boat was towed back to Totnes in Devon for extensive repairs. The hull had not been strong enough but with the addition of a further 1.8 tonnes of carbon the team is confident the yacht will stand up to the waves when it rides again in a couple of weeks in preparation for the Race at the end of December.

"There are no design rules for the boats involved in the Race but only the best boats are invited," said Andy. "If it was a car race it could be Minis racing against Porsches although there are race rules. I think we are definitely up there with a chance and it will be close. Team Philips is revolutionary but it's not as if it's twice as fast as every other boat. It is a little bit quicker but we will still have to prove ourselves on the race track."

Andy is due to return from his latest epic voyage in March 2001. And after circumnavigating the globe a couple of times, once in the most exciting boats to capture the imagination in recent times what else is there to do.

"I have no idea what happens next," said Andy. "That will be something I think about when I get back in March."