I
was brought up in Kendal, the Lake District.
Despite what I'm about to do I was never brought up in a sailing
environment.
But in April 2000 my life was turned upside down when I was involved in
an
accident at school, which left me with a back broken in 3 places. While
in
hospital I made a list of activities I did and sailing was one of the
only things
the doctors said I could do.
I won't bore you by going into huge details of my past boats but here's
a
summary. I have always followed a traditional 1950s style way
of learning
to sail. My dad couldn't sail but it never stopped him trying to teach
me! We
had a family dinghy which we sailed all of 3 or 4 times. After that I
bought a
small 8 foot
sailing tender/dinghy with my brother, then moved up to a Mirror
sailing dinghy
and finally up to a small 16
foot
trailer sailor that had a very small cabin.
My parents started to understand sailing was never going to be just a
hobby,
they decided I needed proper lessons, so sent me off to White Cross Bay
Water
Sports Centre, a couple of years later I ended up working with them for
3 seasons.
When I was just 16 I went off on a 5 day competent crew course through
Lochaber Water Sports Centre in Scotland.
In the following winter I went to night classes and passed my Yacht
master
theory exam, one of the hardest theory exams in yachting. At only 16 I
was one
of the youngest people in Britain
to ever achieve this.
Despite having my competent crew and yacht master theory course I had
very
little sea sailing experience so I decided I needed to head away from
my
heartland of the north and Scotland
to the perils of the south. Southampton,
the Hamble and Cowes
are the capital of sailing in the world so I headed south. I decided my
best
bet would be to do a University course and abuse all the benefits of
being a
student, so I did! I joined Solent
University
(ex Southampton Institute) In my first year I did Yacht Manufacturing
and
surveying (basically yacht engineering).
I did a little bit of yacht racing but not a huge amount, so when in
March 2006
I was offered a delivery job on a Farr 45 sailing from Lanzerotte to Cowes;
I grabbed my bags and left for an amazing 20 days sail! After that I
started
doing a lot more racing, both inshore and offshore. I carried on doing
deliveries throughout the summer and built up enough mileage and
confidence to
go for the big one, my Yacht master. In September 2006 I headed back to
a place
that had always held a very special part in my heart, Lochaber Water
sports
Centre between Fort William and Oban where I did my Competent crew
course years
before hand. After 10 days cruising round the Islands
in
the outer Hebrides I did my Yacht master exam and despite having a
panic
attack, not sleeping for 24 hours and eating nothing I passed with
flying
colours. The proudest part was when the Examiner gave me a summing up:
"You are one of the most mature 19 year olds I've ever had the
privilege
of meeting"
"I foresee a bright and
colourful career in sailing ahead of you and it was an honour to sail
with
you"
The following year I changed course at University to Water sports
Studies and
Management, it was easier and enabled me to do a lot of other things.
The
biggest thing of 2007 started in April when after a rigorous selection
process
I was accepted onto the
UKSAs
Yacht Racing
Academy.
I spent 2 weeks being beasted by an ex Royal Marine and
learnt how to
race a 2 formula one racing yachts Bear of Britain and Cherneikeef 2, 2
Farr
52s. Following the 2 weeks I spent a lot of weekends training and
racing with
the Academy. The biggest race in the sailing calendar was the Rolex
Fastnet
Race, sadly we had to retire from it due to 80% of the crew being sick
(I was
fine), it was a horrendous year for the Fastnet.
That's pretty much my sailing life to date. I went from bobbing around
on a little lake with no idea of what I was doing to competing in the
fastnet on a pedegree Raing yacht with my yachtmaster ticket in my back
pocket!
