William McInnes is an actor and writer. He has won two Logies, and an AFI Award for best actor for his role in the film Unfinished Sky. His book Worse Things Happen at Sea (Hachette Australia, 2011), co-authored with his wife Sarah Watt, was named the best non-fiction title in the ABIA and Indie Awards in 2012. This essay is an excerpt from Full Bore, to be published by Hachette Australia in November 2016.