One summer morning back in 1986 a BBC Wales television news team rolled into the sleepy village of Llangynog at the foot of the Berwyn Mountains to cover a unique, and unlikely, "lifting-out" ceremony at one of the local pubs.

Alex Williamson, landlord of 'The New Inn', had spent most of his adult life dreaming about building his own yacht and every spare minute of the previous 13 years building one.

Now the dream was about to become reality.

This was the day when his pride and joy was to be craned out of the barn behind the inn and swung high over the rooftops to be placed on her keel in the yard.

It was a nail-biting time for Alex but he needn't have worried. His measurements were spot on, the yacht fitted her keel perfectly and Alex and his watching family and friends let out a collective sigh of relief.

A few finishing touches and the yacht 'Cevamp' was all set for her journey over the hills to Porthmadog harbour, her home for the next few years.

Sadly for Alex, by the time he'd finished building his yacht, a 26-foot Eventide, he wasn't really fit enough to sail her, and his long-held plans for sailing down to the Mediterranean for a well-earned retirement had to be abandoned.

Instead, his police inspector son, Mike and I became Cevamp's regular crew and spent the next three or four years sailing the sturdy wooden craft in the often turbulent waters of Cardigan Bay and the Irish Sea.

It seemed that every time we went off in the boat we had an adventure and soon I was filled with a dream of my Fown - to write Cevamp's story and have the book published.

I got off to a flying start but work and family commitments got in the way of writing plans and although, like Alex, I never gave up on the dream, another 13 years passed before the book was finished - the same length of time to write Cevamp's story as it took to build her.

The book opens with Cevamp sailing off the gale-lashed Welsh coast and the chapter closes with Mike's life in the balance as enormous waves sweep over the sides of the boat and the mast tips perilously towards the sea.

Sailing isn't all about disaster, though, and we also enjoyed such diverse delights as a Jacuzzi bath in the home of an eccentric fisherman, a magical day's sailing in the company of dolphins, and dazzling evenings under the stars.

But it's one thing to write a book and quite another to find a publisher for it.

You polish your manuscript, make it as close to perfect as you can possibly get it, identify appropriate publishers and send off your carefully considered proposal.

You wait in breath-holding anticipation for their replies. When they come they are always the same: 'Well written and an entertaining read but sorry, our lists are full' or 'We enjoyed your manuscript but we don't feel we can take the financial risk with a first-time author.'

I believed it was worth the financial risk and in September last year decided to self-publish.

By the time I came to this decision, two or three other members of my writers' group 'The Fishguard Acorns', also had manuscripts ready - or nearly ready - for publication.

The Acorns decided to take matters into their own hands and form their own publishing company.

We spent just under £100 of group funds on a block of ten ISBNs - the numbers that identify a book to booksellers and libraries - and set up the Acorns Publishing imprint.

Cevamp, Mike and Me, the first Acorns book to be published, was launched at the Royal Oak in Fishguard in December 2007.

It has received good reviews and excerpts will appear in the anthology In Her Element, to be published by Honno, the Welsh Women's Press in June.

Jackie Williamson