It honestly makes me smile when we hear about events like this. Love seeing people of color in our sport. – ed.
Kai Hockley, Christopher Joel-Fredrick, Jaydon Owusu, Jessye Opoke-Ware, and Tyler Harriott are the young crew of the Greig City Academy Intro22 mini-tonner Riot, who have just had their circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight ratified and are the first crew to set an IRCRecord™ for the course.
They made their initial attempt on Saturday 15th May but retired when the wind shut off just past the Needles, resulting in a tow back to Cowes. This young crew skippered by 15-year-old Kai Hockley are all under the age of 16 put in some extra schooling enabling them to take Wednesday 19th May out of the classroom and onto the water for their second attempt.
IRCRecords™ commented that “the essence of record breaking is perseverance in waiting for the conditions you are happy with then arranging everything else around them.”
Resilience, confidence and developing a new level of aspiration are traits the Greig City Academy Sailing Programme look to develop. With that in mind, Riot set off just after 0625 heading west, getting to the Needles after 2hrs of sailing. Around the back of the island, the crew were blessed with sunshine, wind and a strong flooding tide carrying them east past St. Catherine’s, onto Ventnor and across Sandown Bay around to Bembridge. After Bembridge Ledge the conditions were challenging, and the young sailors faced with a series of squalls with shifting wind angles and different strengths and plenty of rain. The crew handled the conditions to remain on course, past Seaview, Ryde Pier, and back to the finish line off Cowes approx. 9hrs 40 after setting off to complete their circumnavigation and the course. Read on.
