Twin brothers racing towards the Olympics

by Arthur Ferguson on 20 Mar 2013 We are twin brothers John and Arthur Ferguson and we are on the pursuit of our dream, representing Canada in the 49er at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic games. The 49er, the Olympic-class high performance skiff is one of the most physically challenging boats in the Olympics and requires years of dedication and focus to master.

We are originally from Nova Scotia began sailing 420's together and after high-school decided to make the jump to a much to the much more serious and professional 49er. Training and attending university full-time is no easy task but it's the dedication that's required to achieve success. Training out of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto, Ontario we have been sailing the 49er for two years and after competing solely on the North American circuit have decided to take our campaign to the next level and start competing in international competitions where the level of competition is significantly higher.

This has so far been met with relative success, after our first international competition, the 2012 49er European Championships in Lake Garda, Italy in September, 2012 we finished as the top Canadian boat. On the back of this success we have started fundraising and raising a strong support network that will help them achieve success in 2016.

As part of our fundraising effort, we have been launched on a unique crowd-funding website called Pursu.it. It was created by an ex-Olympian with the specific purpose of giving up-and-coming Canadian athletes a way to connect directly to their fans online. We are hoping to raise $15,000 through this crowd-funding website that will go toward the purchase of a new boat in Europe so we can compete overseas for the next three years leading up to the 2016 games!

Please check out our Pursu.it campaign, https://pursu.it/campaign/ferguson-brothers/ and you can find out more about us through our website, Ferguson Sailing or on Facebook.

We are dedicated to becoming the best sailors we can be so we can make Canada proud in 2016!