Love life not plain sailing for flamboyant skipper

DRAMATICS on an operatic scale are commonplace in the life of George David, multi-millionaire skipper of Rambler 100.

Indeed Monday night’s theatrics off the West Cork coast were possibly enacted in less stormy waters than the divorce courts, the arena in which details of David’s personal life were revealed in 2008 when his second wife went after a greater share of his estimated €228m personal fortune.

Swedish socialite Marie Douglas-David, a distant relation of the Swedish financier Gustaf Douglas, who carries the title of count, married David in 2002 and was entitled to €30m should they divorce thanks to a pre-nuptial agreement. In 2006, David filed for divorce but his wife, 30 years his junior, was dissatisfied with her entitlement and, claiming it would not fund her extravagant lifestyle, pursued him for more.