A pirate has sailed the seven seas but has decided he wants to drop anchor in Faversham.

Finbarr O’Brien, 55, said he has fallen head over heels in love with our town and its people.

Initially on his way to Ibiza, self-proclaimed pirate Finbarr hit the headlines two weeks ago when his ship Revenge became stuck on the mud in Oare and he is now moored in Standard Quay.

He said: “We were on our way to Ibiza but we needed to make a few repairs to the boat so arranged to come down here in Standard Quay to use the dry dock.

“We are stuck here now until we get a tide high enough to take us out which we think won’t be until at least October 17, but we are rather happy about that at the moment.

“Faversham seems like an absolutely beautiful place and I have met a lot of the people who are living down here and I am not exaggerating when I say they are the loveliest bunch I have ever met and we love the authenticity of the place, one of the last remaining real traditional English towns.

“They are different from the marina yacht people we have come across, where their biggest concern is usually who has the biggest boat, and that’s usually me so they often don’t like me!

“We were going to try to spend the winter in the Med, but coming here was like ‘wow’.”

Finbarr is from London but has travelled the world on his ship, which even comes with a cannon and Jolly Roger flag.

He set up the Pirate Club in 1990, which promoted the underground acid house movement and he organised warehouse parties across the country.

He bought the boat in Bristol a few years later and despite having a flat in Edgware, he says that Revenge the pirate ship is his true home.

Along with dogs Willow and Chaos and Captain Jack the cat, he has six fellow sailors on board, and he says that the horror stories about pirates are far from the truth with his crew.

He added: “We are pirates, but we are not the robbing, thieving, horrible pirates you may hear about. We actually hope to do as much as possible for the community.

“We want to help out the people of Faversham where we can too, especially as the boat people down here have already helped us so much.

“We have had queues of people lining up outside taking photographs of the ship while we have been in Standard Quay and lots of people wanting to come aboard. We have welcomed them on and we think we could have something great here for Faversham.

“The kids love it and we play up to the part with a bit of roleplay to entertain them.

“We love Faversham and we would love to stick around.”