after some MASSIVE googling, i have stumbled accross this

B1 = Search box (txt field)

A6 (which will be a hidden column) contains =MATCH($B$1,Data!
A2:A255,0). this formula provides the first instance of the result and
provides the row number

A7 contains =MATCH($B$1,OFFSET(Data!$A$1,A6+1,0,8-(A6+1),1),0)+A6.
this is supposed to look for the next row number which contains a
match and provide that row number

and througout my other columns, i have
B6=OFFSET(Data!$A$1,A6,1)
B7=OFFSET(Data!$A$1,A6,2)
B8=OFFSET(Data!$A$1,A6,3)
and so on

2 things i cannot recitify..

1, the match has to be EXACT ... unfortunately i cannot use exact ..
needs to be LIKE .. eg, i cant use the search word "boat" as the range
of data has "boats"
2, it comes up with multile .. irrelevent results..

is there any resolution to the above

cheers