BREAKING your neck and being unable to work for the rest of your life could easily make you succumb to inactivity.

Not so for one Hampshire man, who used his misfortune to focus on a lifelong hobby of making boats to achieve happiness.

Alexander John Dick, 71, who lives in Shirley Warren, Southampton, was injured in 1987 after trying to break up a fight.

The incident left him with a broken neck and in a sitting position for three months, forcing him to permanently retire from his job as an engineer.

Determined to stay busy and keep his mind sharp, Alexander decided to use his hobby of making galleon boats to fill his days.

Alexander designs the boats himself, acquires the wood needed for them and builds them into galleons that sometimes reach lengths of up to four feet long.

Building galleon boats, which first began in 1979 with the use of cocktail straws, engaged the Aberdeen native so much that he even gave up smoking, a habit that started in 1957 and finished in 1994, as well as heavy drinking.

Alexander said: “After I broke my neck, I was in a sitting position for three months. So I decided to take building boats seriously, to occupy my mind.

“I use any type of wood that I can get, usually from B&Q and second-hand shops.

Then I sit down and I scribble a design, and then make it with my own hands, I love it.

“I grew up around boats in Scotland and I’ve always loved them. I really feel that old boats have character. I’ve made around 30 boats in my life, and they usually take me up to a year to make.

“A group of fisherman once asked me to make a boat and design it to be based on their boat at the port. I said no because I only like building boats that come from my own design.

“Now I have two in America for my nephew and another one in Scotland for my daughter to move into her new house with.

“Each boat gets better and better each time you build one, because of the experience.

“All of the boats I have made are really special to me, my wife always says: ‘Not more boats Alexander!’. It’s helped me come through it all and now I’m really happy.”

Alexander has no plans to give up his passion any time soon and will continue to design his own boats.