Kai Hockley, Christopher Joel-Fredrick, Jaydon Owusu, Jessye Opoke-Ware, and Tyler Harriott are the young crew of the Greig City Academy Intro22 mini-tonner Riot, who have just had their circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight ratified and are the first crew to set an IRCRecordTM for the course.
They made their initial attempt on Saturday 15th May but retired when the wind shut off just past the Needles, resulting in a tow back to Cowes. This young crew skippered by 15-year-old Kai Hockley are all under the age of 16 put in some extra schooling enabling them to take Wednesday 19th May out of the classroom and onto the water for their second attempt.
IRCRecordsTM commented that “the essence of record breaking is perseverance in waiting for the conditions you are happy with then arranging everything else around them.”
Resilience, confidence and developing a new level of aspiration are traits the Greig City Academy Sailing Programme look to develop. With that in mind, Riot set off just after 0625 heading west, getting to the Needles after 2hrs of sailing. Around the back of the island, the crew were blessed with sunshine, wind and a strong flooding tide carrying them east past St. Catherine’s, onto Ventnor and across Sandown Bay around to Bembridge. After Bembridge Ledge the conditions were challenging, and the young sailors faced with a series of squalls with shifting wind angles and different strengths and plenty of rain. The crew handled the conditions to remain on course, past Seaview, Ryde Pier, and back to the finish line off Cowes approx. 9hrs 40 after setting off to complete their circumnavigation and the course.
Riot’s elapsed time of just over 9hrs 40 mins gave them a corrected time of 7hrs 32mins 42secs and is the first time on the IRCRecordsTM board and now the one to beat!
“This is a great initiative,” comments Jon Holt founder of the Greig City Academy Sailing Programme and Trustee of the Scaramouche Sailing Trust. “Our young crew are competitive and challenges like this help to give them focus and enable them to once again compete on an even keel with much larger sailing campaigns out there. Thank you to Mark Angell, and IRCRecordsTM for putting this together.”
The Riot crew will receive a gold embossed certificate of their achievement, along with an IRCRecordsTM ‘Course Record’ transom sticker for the boat itself!
For more information on the project and to make a donation please visit scaramouchesailing.org.uk