Danny Boatman steps down from Musto Skiff Chairman role
by International Musto Skiff Class Association 8 Feb 18:58 AEDT
Danny Boatman - ACO 14th MUSTO Skiff World Championship 2025 in Sydney © Down Under Sail
After two terms as the International Chairman, Danny Boatman has stepped down from his committee role in the Musto Skiff class, with Brennan Robinson taking on the role from February 2025.
Danny has held the International Chairman role for two years after joining the committee in December 2022. During his chairmanship, Danny has been instrumental in steering the class through some major projects.
Danny hit the ground running after inheriting the long-term project to determine if class members wanted a new mainsail design for the Musto Skiff. This was eventually voted in, with the production of a new square top mainsail being given the go-ahead in partnership with Ovington Boats and Hyde Sails. To support the transition to the new design, first orders were discounted for a limited period for class members. This was funded by the international class, as well as Ovington and Hyde Sails, enabling the first batch of new mainsails to be produced at the end of 2023 in line with the start of the Australian sailing season.
Also in 2023, Danny greenlit the GBR Class project to deliver a new Musto Skiff training video. The full series of nine videos was completed and launched in October 2023 as a free-to-access training tool on the class YouTube channel and website. This was a much-anticipated project to follow on the success of Richard Stenhouse's training video, 'K16 Taking Control,' which is still sought after today for its excellent tips and advice for sailing a Musto Skiff. However, Stenhouse's original video is somewhat of a rarity now, having been launched on DVD format some 15 years ago!
Expanding the class with a new mainsail project
For the 2024 season, another new sail was launched under Danny's watch. This time, it was a small mainsail, which was once again produced in partnership with Ovington Boats and Hyde Sails. The smaller mainsail was launched in the first quarter of 2024 to align with the start of the new season in Europe with the aim of attracting lighter-weight sailors and those looking for a less powerful rig. Fully compatible with the current Musto Skiff rig, it was seamlessly launched alongside the standard mainsail following an international class member vote to allow small mainsails to race alongside the standard mainsail for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Since taking on the Chairman role, Danny has also worked on three major regattas as part of the event organising committee team, including delivering World Championship events in Lake Garda in 2023, Weymouth and Portland in July 2024, and more recently in Sydney for the 2025 World Championships, which was hosted in January.
However, after a busy two years overseeing some major projects and events for the class, Danny made the decision to step back due to work and family commitments but will remain as an active member of the committee in the Vice Chairman role for the foreseeable future. As one of the top-level sailors in the class, with many accolades and podium places under his belt, Danny will also continue to sail in the Musto Skiff fleet in the UK, representing his home club, Sunderland Yacht Club.
Commenting on stepping down from the International Chairmanship role, Danny said: "I have thoroughly enjoyed being class chairman over what seems to have been a relatively short but very busy tenure. The committee team has grown with fantastic volunteers who have put their hands up and given time to help organise events and make key decisions. I also want to add how amazing the support has been from the Hiltons! Both Natalie and Jamie put so much effort into the class, and I genuinely believe we would be lost without them. Going forward, I know that everything is in great hands with Brennan, who is one of the most respected and liked characters in the class and shares a huge passion for the Musto Skiff. He has some fantastic ideas to push the class ahead, and with such a positive and charismatic personality, I am sure he will do great things in this role. I look forward to seeing you all soon on the circuit."
Robinson gets ready to take on the 2025 season
Whilst the International Committee all voted in favour of electing Brennan Robinson at the end of last year, enabling a smooth transition upon Danny stepping down, the handover to Brennan was formalised at the close of the 2024 Annual Class Survey on 7th February 2025, when class members voted by majority for Brennan to be elected.
Originally from South Africa, Brennan is currently based in Cambridge in the UK and is an active member of Grafham Water Sailing Club. As a popular sailor in the class, he has become well known for his witty and humorous MC stand-ups as part of hosting the daily prize-giving's at recent World Championships. He is also well known in sailing circles for his skills on the water having topped the silver fleet in a major regatta in the Musto Skiff class, in addition to some sailing successes on the South African dinghy and keelboat circuits whilst representing his homeland sailing club, Boskop Yacht Club, Noordwes.
Brennan has also sailed many different boats over the years, including Dabchicks (a South African junior class), Fireballs, 420s, 470s, and 505s, various keelboats, and catamarans. He has also tried his hand at ocean racing with much success, coming 2nd in the Cape2Rio Race with his family in 2011.
Commenting on his new role and what's to come for the class in 2025, Brennan said: "Being part of this class is an absolute privilege, and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to step up and help drive the class forward. The class has laid the foundations of some great initiatives to add even more appeal to the class and enable us to welcome in a much broader range of sailors. I want to give special thanks to Danny for his decisive direction and enthusiasm in heading up the international committee. Anyone who has seen the man knows that those are big shoes to fill."
In addition to Brennan, all other committee members were voted in by majority, including David Annan who assumed the newly created role of Class Member Secretary in 2024 and has now formally joined the International Committee following the class member AGM voting. This increases the core committee number to six active members for the current season, with Andy Whittle also supporting the committee in a volunteer role to support major regattas and class projects.
To view the current members of the International Committee, see the Musto Skiff class website here If you would like to volunteer to join the International Committee in any capacity, get in touch at