Hi everyone! Did you know that we have some seriously good sailors, some who travel the world racing or crewing in their respective class under the MYC burgee? I was so impressed by all of them that I decided to write an article about each and every one. So, I make no apologies for the rather large article but when you have finished reading it, I hope like me, you will be proud to be part of our great club. I intend to provide an update in August.
Philip Clarabut
Vice Commodore
Charlotte White (29er Class)
Charlotte who is a recent member of MYC started sailing when she was 5, initially in the Optimist but it wasn’t until she got into the Tera, aged 8/9, that she started racing; she was a member of the Eastern and National Squads and travelled all over the country for Tera events; she won several events including the RYA Regional Championships and the Eric Twiname Championships. She spent one season in the Feva (crew) before transitioning, at 14, to the 29er as a helm and is halfway through her first full season. Charlotte has also competed in the 420 Nationals, Youth Match Racing, the Wayfarer Nationals, and the Kestrel Nationals. She has her PB2 and has done some coaching; once she turns 16, she is looking to obtain her Dinghy Instructor certificate and Day Skipper qualification.
Last September she was selected for the 29er Class National squad and has had regular podium finishes at GPs and achieved top 20 in the rankings. With her new boat and new crew, the first proper outing is in Denmark at the 29er World Championships to be held in August. The selector events for class and BYS squads starts again in September. Most of the training and events are on the South Coast although some are held in Wales, the Midlands and North-East. The commitment required and sacrifices that must be made to campaign are substantial, but the reward is unquantifiable. Additionally, she must manage schoolwork and she is about to finish her GCSE’s! Charlotte’s aim is to be recognised as a serious athlete and her ambition is to compete in the 49er FX class at the Olympics.
Chris Grosscurth (Dragon Class)
Chris, crewing in Fit Chick, recently won the Corinthian trophy at the Dragon South Coast championships held in Cowes. In a class that is now swamped with professionals this was a great result and it is good to see that the pro’s are occasionally beaten during an event!
Fit Chick will be competing for the Edinburgh Cup in July (Abersoch), the Gold Cup in September (Kinsale) and the East Coast championships hosted by Medway Yacht Club also in September.
Millie Lewis (ILCA 6 class)
Millie, a past MYC Cadet, is currently training for the U21 ILCA 6 (Laser) Worlds in Viana De Castello, Portugal to be held in late June.
Viana is on the Portuguese coast and facing due West, it has a long straight shoreline and gets pretty deep, pretty quickly. The prevailing wind is straight from the Atlantic with nothing to stop it blowing straight into the shore. The course is expected to be even but with possibly large waves, what this means is that the racing will be about fitness and a hike-off to the lay-line. Those who can keep their boats flatter the longest will get to the front, the gains will come from speed as opposed to sniffing out the shifts.
The U21s end on July 9th and Millie will then go straight back to Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) for a week of residential training with her coach. On 21st June she will be heading to Ballyholme for the ILCA 6 Youth Europeans as part of the GBR Youth Squad. Millie is expecting this to be a super shifty snakes-and-ladders type venue where anything could happen!
The 2nd week in August Millie heads back to WPNSA for the ILCA UK Nationals, this year has added pressure as they also serve as the indicator event to be invited back into Team GB for the 2024/25 team. After the Nationals Millie will remain at WPNSA for a further week of training before heading to Pwllhelli for the first of the UKLA Qualifiers. Good luck Millie (and Dad!)
Richard Smith, Steve Robson, Graeme Oliver (Musto Skiff Class)
As I write this article Richard and Steve are on their way to Filey SC to compete in the Musto Nationals. The plan is for them to then head up to Ullswater SC to compete in the Lord Birkett where approximately 200 boats will start off on a single line! They then, together with Graeme, compete at the Musto Worlds at Weymouth to be held in July. Graeme finished third at the recent Sunderland Open and has previously been runner up at the World’s.
James Skulczuk (Americas Cup – INEOS Britannia AC37)James is a member of the INEOS Britannia America’s Cup sailing team, led by Sir Ben Ainslie. His primary role is as a Cyclor. A Cyclor is the powerhouse for these new generation of 75-foot foiling monohulls. Cyclors have replaced the traditional hand grinders, as you can produce more power with your legs. This has the advantage of reducing the number of powerhouses onboard from 6 to 4; it also has the added benefit of leaving their hands free to do other tasks.
Hydraulic cylinders are used to control the sails – not a winch in sight! The hydraulic pressure is derived from a pump driven by the cyclors.
INEOS Britannia is the Challenger of record for the 37th America’s Cup. Backed by INEOS founder and chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The whole team consists of approximately 220, including 15 sailors. Under the protocols no boat-on-boat racing is permitted until the preliminary regatta starts, in late August. New Zealand are the current Cup holders, with 5 teams, including Britannia, challenging, in a series of knock-out round robins, for the rights to race against New Zealand. All racing is on a “match racing” basis.
James became a fulltime member of the team in February 23, following a couple of training camp trials and interviews. Once he joined the team, the training regime was very much focused and structure around cycling, together with strength conditioning in the gym. For those of you who know him, you’ll know he’s always been a keen cyclist. So, with his raw power and sailing skill he became a good fit. His sailing started at an early age at MYC in Oppies, run by helpful parents! He then worked his way through the RYA squads starting at Toppers moving onto Lasers; then into the Finn, after the Finn was dropped from the Olympic programme. He moved into yacht sailing for a couple of years, doing both onshore and offshore events.
Part of the INEOS sports stable includes F1 Mercedes, at Brackley, where the design, testing and fitting out was done. It must be remembered that the America’s cup is as much a technology race as a sailing completion. James travelled up to Brackley regularly, for testing and meetings. Also, the Cyclors spent a lot of time at training camps with the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team, mainly in Majorca.
He moved out to Barcelona in January this year. Once at Barcelona he, along with the other Cyclors, continued with physical training. Together with simulator work, first aid and safety training (I believe he found the underwater escape training somewhat challenging). The race boat was launched in April, which Dad was very proud to witness. Since then they’ve been getting as much sailing in as possible.
Richard Smith, Andy Peake, Nick Lett (RS 600 Class)
The RS 600 Nationals take place in September at Stone SC. Andy won this event in 2019 and Richard won it in 2018 and came second in 2019. Nick has returned to the fleet having had a few years off. Good luck but be aware that a little bird tells me that an ex-member of MYC will be taking part who is rather good!
Lucian Stone, Jonny Hewitt (Cape 31 Class)
Lucian and Johnny together with their home grown MYC crew (all ex MYC cadets) continue to make great progress. Here is their story so far.
Cape 31 Team Narwhal have been flying the flag for MYC in the Solent! New to the boat and fleet this year. In a fleet full of ex Olympians and professional sailors, we knew it was going to be a steep learning curve and had a challenging year ahead.
Our first main event was the RORC Easter Challenge Training event with on the water coaching and daily debriefs hosted at the Royal Yacht Squadron. We didn’t feel too far off the pace of the others in the fleet, certainly upwind, and we should note they had all started their season weeks before and had already had significantly more on the water training time than us. It was only April! 
Since then, we have had 2 big weekends racing in fleets of 18 boats where one bad lay line call and you’ve lost at least 6 places! Our results have ranged from 18th to 6th. We have made huge improvements in boat handling skills, manoeuvers, tactics and sail trim and still have a lot to learn.
At the end of the month, we will be taking the trip to Lymington where the Nationals are being in hosted with Poole Bay as the sailing area.
We have made some friends in the fleet and Jonny even got interviewed at the last event!