Dave Froud, 50, is leading a team of four in memory of Mr Froud's son Charlie who died aged 14 when a light aircraft crashed in the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland in October, 2008.
Charlie's friend Ayman Booz, also 14, and Ayman's parents Margaret and Sharif also died in the crash.
After the tragedy Mr Froud and his wife Heather set up the Charlie Froud Foundation which raises funds for Irish rescue services and Marlwood School in Alveston, where Charlie and Ayman were pupils. Recently the foundation also decided to support Children's Hospice South West.
As part of raising funds Mr Froud hopes to take a team of water-skiers from St David's in Wales across to Rosslare. The team will take turns of between 15 and 40 minutes travelling at 22mph to make the 67-mile crossing.
Last Sunday the team – Mr Froud, Tony Edwards, 49, Phil Sullivan, 43, all of Almondsbury, and Lucy Bristow, 48, of Frampton Cotterell – made their way to Teignmouth in South Devon for one of many training runs.
But Mr Edwards injured his leg during the training and on the way back to the shore their boat beached on a sandbank and the team were battered by 15ft waves.
When the harbour master's efforts at saving the team went awry the RNLI raced to the scene and rescued the shaken team and got them to shore.
Mr Froud said: "We went down to Teignmouth for a training session last weekend and we ended up having to be rescued by the RNLI.
"It is somewhere we have been hundreds of times so it all a bit embarrassing. Tony was water-skiing but came off and badly injured his leg so we decided we had to head back to Teignmouth.
"The tides were very low and raging. There is a sand 'bar' that extends from the coast line but there are marker buoys.
"I have been around it hundreds of times but I think I must have lost concentration for a split second because of worrying about getting Tony ashore and the rough sea so managed to hit it.
"We were stuck and there were 12-15ft waves crashing over us. It was actually very frightening because the power of the waves was unbelievable.
"First the harbour master came out and threw us a line but he was washed into our boat and the rope caught around his propeller so he was stuck too.
"The RNLI came out and absolutely took control of the situation. They came alongside and got us all aboard and took us back to the shore so Tony could be assessed by a waiting paramedic and then went back to rescue our boat – Charlie's Dream.
"They were absolutely fantastic. I was feeling a little bit silly but they didn't apportion any blame and said we had all the right safety equipment on board and just said we had been really unlucky.
"It just underlined what an amazing job they do. We must have only been there 10 minutes but it felt a lot longer. We made a mayday call and they were with us in minutes.
"To give you an idea how rough it was it would normally take us 20 minutes to get the boat out of the water and onto the trailer but it had taken so much water on board it took closer to two hours.
"Luckily it has not put any of us off. Tony has a nasty sprain but we hope to still go ahead with the attempt at some point in June."
The team had initially hoped to complete the challenge last year but a combination of poor weather and medical concerns put paid to any attempts.
The team hope to complete the challenge in between five and seven hours. All money raised will go to The Charlie Froud Foundation – which has already raised more than �20,000.
Send cheques or postal orders for 'The Charlie Froud Foundation', to David or Heather Froud at 37 Tockington Lane, Lower Almondsbury, Bristol, BS32 4DZ. For more, visit www.thecharliefroudfoundation.org.
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