Larry Pimentel, the former president of Southampton-based Cunard shipping line, has returned to the industry to head up another cruising operation.

Not so long ago Mr Pimentel was well known in and around Southampton and a regular visitor to the port in his position as boss of Cunard.

It was a role he took over after the giant American cruising empire Carnival Corporation acquired Cunard, including the flagship of the British merchant marine, Southampton-based Queen Elizabeth 2.

Mr Pimentel really made an impact locally when he announced Cunard's intention of building the first true ocean-going passenger liner for more than three decades, the huge 150,000-ton vessel Queen Mary 2, due to arrive in Southampton in December.

It was Mr Pimentel, together with Cunard's present president Pam Conover, who helped drive through the highly complex deals and design processes which eventually led to QM2 being under construction in France today.

Then in February 2001, due to family circumstances, he left the industry but many, at the time, thought he would eventually return to shipping and now he is back, this time at the helm of the ultra-luxury SeaDream Yacht Club operation.

Mr Pimentel returned to the UK from his American home to promote the company and to tempt potential British passengers on board the two vessels, SeaDream I and SeaDream II, which ironically once belonged to Cunard when they were known as Sea Goddess I and II.

Next month he expects to return to the port of Southampton once again but this time he will be looking at smaller craft.

"I really want to go to the Southampton Boat Show to have a look round and I must say it will be good to be back in the city," said Larry, a co-owner of SeaDream.

For a tiny start-up operation, compared to today's giants of the cruising industry, that went into business at just the wrong time in September, 2001, days before the tragic events at New York's World Trade Center, SeaDream Yacht Club is not doing too badly.

After completely redesigning the two mega-yachts in record time they began undertaking seven-day deployments in the Caribbean and in the Mediterranean and immediately became a sell-out.