WHAT do you do when you win a yacht?

Well, first thing’s first, you learn how to sail it.

On a whim Anna Millington, 29, decided to enter the competition to win the 23ft vessel when she visited the Southampton Boat Show last year.

She was over the moon when she won the Hantu Biru, a restored Snapdragon 23’, but was then faced with the dilemma of what to do with it.

Anna said she could not believe it when she won the yacht and had been wanting to take up sailing since she tried it as a child and so she was presented with the opportunity to do so.

She said: “I had never been on a yacht before, only dinghies where I was told what to do. But we were both keen to try sailing. So winning Hantu Biru was serendipitous.”

Anna, and electronic engineer, and her partner Andrew Ellison set about reading sailing books and signed up to a sailing course. Before long they were taking lessons on the RYA Competent Crew practical course with Southampton-based Universal Yachting, on the River Hamble.

The five-day intensive course on a larger boat would teach them to sail and focus on the key skills they would need to get started.

Anna, from Ferndown, said: “Andrew is the sort of person who will just have a go. For me it was good to go on the course and put the theory in practice.

“Doing the course has also confirmed that we were right about wanting to get into sailing – it’s been a great confidence builder and we are far less inhibited about trying new things.

“We were really impressed with Universal Yachting and our instructor, Clive Vaughan.

"His experience and knowledge was incredible. He was so flexible and approachable, made us feel comfortable and gave us a really good understanding of what we need to know.”

Anna has now certainly got the sailing bug and is now planning on doing a skipper course: “I’m planning to do my Day Skipper theory over the summer and then we will definitely use Universal Yachting again to take the practical course.

“Plus, we’ll be spending every last hour we have available on the boat – whether we are sailing or just sitting and enjoying her in Town Quay marina. We are bitten by the bug and want to do as much as we can!”

The couple plan to spend the spring and summer getting to know their new boat by cruising around the Solent, with one of their first voyages being to Newtown Creek from Town Quay Marina in Southampton, where they are berthing Hantu Biru.