Community engagement - Inspiring a new generation of sailors

by Extreme Sailing Series™ on 2 Apr 2017 With every aspect of the Extreme Sailing Series™ revolving around encouraging people to get involved, be that the public, clients or the media, one vital ingredient at each Act is the community engagement programme, which aims to inspire the next generation of sailors and raise the profile of the sport.

Throughout each season hundreds of children from local schools, youth groups and sailing clubs, take part in the Series’ “Chat with Champions” sessions, coming face-to-face with the very sailors they have been watching fly around the stadium racecourses on their GC32s. The fresh-faced fans have the opportunity to listen to the tales told by these world-class athletes and ask any questions they desire, and they certainly don’t hold back.

A keen advocate of the initiative is 2014 Extreme Sailing Series champion and dad of two, Morgan Larson, who skippered Oman Air in the 2016 season. “It’s an amazing programme and what the Extreme Sailing Series does for local communities and sailing clubs is really important,” he said.

“For me personally, growing up around sailing and knowing who all the skippers of the top boats were at a young age, going to a yacht club that did a similar panel, listening to those guys talking about their sport, how they got in and how they got to the level they were at, was inspiring for me. It’s one of the reasons I’m here in the sport today, so I think it’s important that we pass that down to the next generation,” Larson added.

Someone more qualified than most to understand the best ways to educate and inspire children is former schoolteacher turned solo offshore sailor, Dee Caffari, who competed as part of the first all-female team in the Extreme Sailing Series in 2016, Thalassa Magenta Racing. “When the sailors talk about their various accomplishments the kids suddenly get a grasp of who is sitting in front of them,” she explained. “All of the same lessons that the parents and the coaches from their yacht club have been trying to give the kids, they then hear from the Extreme Sailing Series sailors - so it suddenly becomes real. It’s really cool to see the kids get a buzz from that.

“You can just see that some of those guys are going to be the inspiration to those kids and it’s a really powerful thing,” added Caffari.

A cause that is close to Caffari’s heart is the drive to increase female participation in the male-dominated sport of sailing: “In the under-10 age-group it’s usually a 50:50 split between girls and boys participating, but then we have a big drop-out rate for girls between 11 to 17. If we can hook them now, then there’s a chance they will stay for the long run.”

Often as fiercely contested as the main event, the Optimist racing for children at the Acts sees young sailors from local clubs pitted against the Extreme Sailing Series sailors. The kids usually put these world-class athletes through their paces, sometimes bringing them back to their roots with a bit of a bump.

“You see in those kids that there is some real talent out there in the Optimist racing,” said Larson. “Programmes like this are the way to grow the sport and the way to stay connected, because someday we’re going to be the ones watching and it will be fun thinking, ‘yeah, I saw that kid from a young age and I remember following him through his career’,” added Larson.

During the boat tours at the Acts the children, some of whom have never stepped foot on a yacht or dinghy before, have the opportunity to get on board the state-of-the-art GC32s, where they are shown the ropes by the sailors. It’s inspiring for the youngsters and – who knows – some may leave having decided to take up the sport themselves.

By striving to deliver a unique and engaging youth programme at each Act, the Extreme Sailing Series ensures that it leaves a positive influence on the local community, wherever it goes.