Martin Alabaster Martin Alabaster Rear Admiral Martin Brian Alabaster CBE (born 10 August 1958) is a retired senior officer in the British Royal Navy. Alabaster spent his early years in Devon, Pembrokeshire and Hampshire but for the majority of his upbringing lived in south London. There, he attended Dulwich College. He later joined the Royal Navy and entered Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, at the rank of Midshipman in January 1977. Martin completed his Naval General Training, and then went up to Queens’ College, Cambridge to read Engineering. Alabaster took up his first sea appointment as the Weapons Section Officer in
HMY Britannia (Royal Cutter Yacht) cost was £8,300 and like "Valkyrie II", "Britannia" was built at the D&W Henderson shipyard in Patrick on the River Clyde. With two such highly important commissions underway in the same yard, Watson delegated his protégé James Rennie Barnett to oversee both yachts. "Britannia" was launched on 20 April 1893, a week ahead of "Valkyrie II" and joined a fleet of first class cutters that was growing fast as others followed the royal lead. In a highly competitive fleet, "Britannia" soon set about achieving the race results which would eventually establish her as the most successful racing yacht of all