A former Welsh Guardsman is planning to sail from North Wales to the Isle of Man — in a giant pumpkin!

Alwyn Williams, 43, has seen action in Iraq and Northern Ireland but his planned voyage in a hollowed out pumpkin from Anglesey to the Isle of Man sounds an altogether more frightening prospect.

The giant pumpkin, weighing at least 700lbs and measuring 14 feet in circumference, will be powered by an outboard motor for its 45-mile trip across the Irish Sea.

It all sounds like a wind-up, especially when you hear that the seeds for the giant pumpkin will be sown on April 1.

But Alwyn, who helps run the family horticulture business in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (Llanfair PG for short) in Anglesey, says he's not lost the plot and that pumpkin sailing events have been taking place in the United States for a number of years now.

'It's no April Fool's joke!' he insists.

He's certainly got all the help he needs to grow the giant pumpkin, as his father Medwyn Williams MBE is a 10-times gold medal winner at the Chelsea Flower Show and chairman of the National Vegetable Society.

Alwyn explained that a traditional Welsh nursery rhyme provided the idea for the stunt. 'It goes: "Have you ever been sailing? Yes in a frying pan. The wind blew and blew and blew me to the Isle of Man",' he explained.

If a pumpkin of sufficient size can be grown in time, he intends to set sail for the Isle of Man in September.

But the first test will be to see if he can sail across the Menai Strait, the narrow but turbulent channel which divides Anglesey from the Welsh mainland. He said: 'I've done a bit of canoeing before but nothing quite like this. I'm hoping for an Indian summer so it won't be too choppy!'

Asked how long he expected the trip to take, he admitted: 'I don't know.'

There will be support crew alongside to rescue him if he needs to bail out. The first task, however, is to grow the giant vegetable. He said: 'We've managed to get some seeds from America that could grow one up to 1,560lbs. The world record is 1,600lbs.

'We will sow the seed between April 1 and April 5, which is the key time to get optimum growing conditions. We need to be achieving growth of 35lbs a day in July and August.'

Alwyn, who served with the Welsh Guards for 22 years, rising to the rank of colour sergeant before returning home to help run the family vegetable seeds business in Llanfair PG with his dad Medwyn, intends to use his daring pumpkin voyage to raise funds for Help for Heroes, a charity that helps those wounded in Britain's current conflicts.

Medwyn insisted: 'We're deadly serious about this. We've done a dummy run to get a pumpkin up to 400lbs but we've got to get it to a minimum of 600lbs before it will take the weight of a human. We've studied this quite extensively.'

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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YOUR COMMENTS

My thoughts are rather difficult to sum up in words… I suppose I'll just leave them at a simple question: Why?
STEVE

Good luck to him fingers crossed he manages it! still the welsh have agreed to not rescind the reciprocal health agreement with us so he will be covered if he has any mishap!!! and if he does manage it-well is this a viable alternative to the steam racket?well they have stated passenger fairs could increase cos they dont want their monopoly threatened by competition!
GARY

I recommend sending Tony Brown out to sea in a giant pumpkin, to meet him half way. If there is a surfeit of pumpkins, I have a short list of other Members of Tynwald, available on request, who might usefully be sent on a one way trip to Wales as well.
ANGRY MANXMAN

Heaven help us. I sincerely hope that he has enough money to stump up for the coastguard rescue that inevitably be required.
PEEJAY

I hope the trip goes well and if the PEEJAY read the post properly he would see that this gent is going to have a support vessel with him. I can also think of a few MHK along with Tony Brown who should be put to sea.
RUKA

Why is this gentleman bringing an over-inflated vegetable to the Isle of Man ? Doesn't he know we have enough of them in Tynwald !? LoL
MR

I wonder if he taking the owl and the pussy cat with him?
EDDIE, (London)

I spoke to this guy to ask him why he would want to do this , his reply to me was 'Well I'm not paying them Steam Packet fares , I'll take my chances in my pumpkin'
SCOTTYDOGG