- - A highly experienced young sailor Sam is 19 years old
- - Yacht Master and Yacht Master Ocean qualifications achieved at just 18
- - Over 25,000nm under his belt including four ocean crossings
- - An inspirational ambassador
- - Good at goal setting - aiming for the Vendee Globe
When only a few months old, Sam’s family (his parents and older sister) moved to the Caribbean to live on a boat, which is where he began to sail. The four of them lived on the boat, moving between islands until basing themselves in Grenada, where his brother was born. At the age of five, the family moved to Tortola, where Sam’s dad built him a wooden optimist, which he used as his transport to go to and from shore to catch the bus to school.
From Tortola, the five of them moved to Falmouth in Cornwall for two years, and then back out to Grenada, where Sam continued to sail and began to race in the local Sunday races and some of the Southern Caribbean regattas. These races were on various boats and dinghies, ranging from Lasers to 45 foot Keel boats, and everything in between.
Yacht Master Offshore
In 2004, Grenada was struck by a hurricane. This temporarily closed down his school, resulting in Sam moving to a boarding school in Oxfordshire in 2005. Once in the UK, he continued sailing, but much more competitively. Racing everything from 29ers and RS800’s to match racing in J80’s and at the same time building up his miles and experience to finally gain his Yacht Master Offshore at the beginning of 2008.
In 2006 he was selected to join the RYA keel boat squad, as the youngest member, which led onto sailing their Farr45 briefly and being invited to sail the Volvo 60 ’Hugo Boss II’ across the Atlantic and the Pacific in 2007. Both of these deliveries were completed whilst Sam was studying for his A-levels at Burford School in Oxfordshire.
In 2008 Sam started competing in more match racing events in order to become more competitive. His teams results started to come in very quickly, starting with 3rd in the first of the RYA Match racing qualifiers, followed by wins in both the NSSA match racing championship and the RYA youth match racing nationals. Which resulted in an invitation by the RYA to the governor’s Cup in California, 2009 and also a nation’s cup qualifier, which he unfortunately had to miss.
Sam’s career path
Also in 2008, Sam finished his A-levels, with reasonable results and he took the decision to start a career in the sailing industry, concentrating on his aim to compete in shorthanded offshore racing, starting with the mini Transat. Since then he has skippered bare boat charter yachts in Greece, competed in the RS800 Euro cup, RYA youth match racing nationals, RYA match racing national finals, worked as a Preparateur for Mike Golding’s Vendee Globe campaign and completed a second Transat aboard a Swan 65.
Qualifications
RYA Sea Survival, 2009.
RYA Yachtmaster Ocean, 2009.
RYA Yachtmaster Offshore, 2008.
RYA Club Racing Coach, 2008.
RYA Coastal Skipper, 2007.
RYA Safety Boat, 2007.
RYA First Aid, 2007.
RYA Diesel Engine Course, 2006.
RYA Short Range Radio Course, 2006.
RYA Powerboat L2, 2005.
UK Driving License, 2007.
Padi Advanced Open Water Diver, 2006.
