Young Achievers - Seahorse March 2025

Written by Kate Cope

The start of a new season is a time to reflect on the achievements of the past and last year was  particularly successful for the younger sailors in the UK Doublehanded (DH) series.

I often hear that the growth of DH gives less opportunities for youngsters but the reality in the UK is very different. We had 22 sailors under 25yrs old racing with us in 2024. The partnership of older boat owners and younger co-skippers is a winning mix of skills with each bringing different skills to the boat. There are also opportunities on established boats, with many offshore races in the season there are often calendar clashes. We run a DH crew match with a personal touch to match the right sailors to these opportunities. 

Top of the pile of celebrations has to be Cal Finlayson and Maggie Adamson who squeezed past two very well sailed French boats to clinch the DH World title by 65 seconds. Both have been regulars in the UK DH series sailing against each other for the past three years on different Sunfast 3600. Unbelievably the DH Worlds was only their fourth race together as a pair.  

Cal started offshore racing with a season on a fully crewed boat. The boat had successful results although he confesses, as only one part of the team, he struggled to really own the results. Cal was one of our very first crew matches when he partnered up with Nick Martin (Diablo) for the 2021 season. 

Maggie’s DH Career started during Covid. The RYA set up an initiative aimed at the 2024 Olympics and with Covid this ended up in online training. Maggie’s home location of Shetland was no longer a barrier to gaining experience and connections. She came down South to do one race on Gavin Howe’s Sunfast 3600 Tigris and only went home again when racing season was over. 

Maggie and Cal are now planning for Transat Paprec, a mixed DH Transatlantic from Concarneau to St Barts in Figaro 3’s, under the banner of Solan Ocean Racing.

Another fantastic youth achievement was Josh Dawson and Ollie Hill winning the DH class in the RORC Cowes - St Malo race on Zephyr (Sunfast 3300) and coming second overall IRC. This race had brutal conditions with 40kt gusts against spring tides at Casquets kicking up massive seas. They battled through the waves, hoisting the spinnaker at Casquets, and flew past a lot of seasoned competitors. 

Zephyr had been kindly lent to them by the owner, Simon Toms, and this is another trend increasing year on year. In the past 2 years ten different boats have been loaned to two youngsters, some for the whole season, when the owner was otherwise busy. A big thanks to the owners of Diablo, Black Betty, Asgard, Tigris, Zephyr, Rock Lobster, Orbit, Surf, Wavetrain and Chilli Pepper.

Josh’s first taste of Offshore was fully crewed on Mark Emerson’s Phosphorus which has introduced a lot of youngsters to offshore sailing. Josh gained DH experience on the Young Tigris programme run by Gavin Howe. In this scheme under 25yrs mixed pairs are loaned a boat to race offshore – look out for them racing on Wavetrain (Channel 32). 

Both Josh and Ollie got into DH sailing after being introduced to Simon Toms via a coach, Josh has been the primary DH co-skipper of Zephyr since 2022.

Another success in the RORC St Malo race were mixed pairing Willow Bland and Zeb Fellows who came third in DH. They were sailing on Rock Lobster (Sunfast 3300) kindly loaned by the owner. Zeb at the tender age of 17 is more often seen in a winning combination with his father on Orbit their Sunfast 3300. Notable results were fourth overall in the ISC Round the Island race, third in the DH Nationals and winning the Youth Trophy in the 2025 UK DH Series.  He has a bright future ahead in shorthanded racing, he scored a bullet in his first solo race!

Sailing with Dad is a winning pathway as Ellie Driver has shown. She tells me the idea of offshore racing was very much her dads when they bought Chilli Pepper (Sunfast 3300), however Ellie soon took over and together they have had some great results. Ellie has now stepped up into Figaro 3 racing in France. Her first race was Lé Defi Paprec 2024 where she came second. Now partnered with Ollie Hill they are also planning the 2025 Transat Paprec.

The future looks bright in UK Doublehanded sailing!

Kate Cope

Director UK Doublehanded Series