Haringey 'trailblazers' win sailing awards

The Greig City Academy students are soon to compete in Miami, reports Olivia Opara

Two Haringey students have been called ‘trailblazers’ as they scooped up top prizes at a prestigious sailing competition.

Chris Frederick and Kai Hockley from Greig City Academy won the Youth Trophy and Musto Young Skipper’s Trophy respectively at Cowes Week last Wednesday (August 9th). 20 very senior sailors voted for Chris as the young person under 25 who has done something incredible within sailing and Kai was the highest placed under-25 skipper of a boat.

Chris and Kai first began sailing after buying their first boat, the Riot, from eBay following an assembly about the sport by geography teacher, Jon Holt. The pair form part of the senior team of Greig City Academy’s Scaramouche Youth Sailing Project alongside Jaydon Owusu and Jessye Opoku-Ware.

The junior team formed of Corneille LePrince, Kyle Dixon and Felipe Garcia also took part in Cowes Week.

Since starting in 2014, the teams have made appearances in numerous sailing competitions – doing particularly well in the Round the Island Race (an eight hour race around the Isle of Wight) and Cowes Week. They have also raced in the Etchells World Championships in Miami and Chris was the youngest to ever compete in the Rolex Fastnet Race in 2019.

Mr Holt told HCP that Chris, Kai and the junior team competed against Olympians, senior and amateur sailors during Cowes Week and that they are “trailblazers” within sailing.

“They are trailblazers because sailing is thought of as being traditionally an elitist sport. It’s not diverse at all, not just in terms of ethnic diversity but also in gender diversity and economic diversity. But they are not just doing it,” said Mr Holt.

“They are doing it and doing really well and everyone in the sailing world is really really supportive of them because they can sail really well.”

Chris added: “We are trailblazers because we are showing that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, you can still go and do this sport and have connections with people.”

Leading up to Cowes Week, Chris underwent a day skipper course which he passed and took part in Tall Ships Youth Trust’s Fastnet race. However, the crew that Chris was a part of during the fastnet was faced with some challenge which led to him having to take on a leadership role.

“There was responsibility suddenly put on my shoulders and I kind of enjoyed that because I got to show that I am really good at sailing and now they are offering me to come back on the boat,” said Chris.

Mr Holt told HCP that the students train every weekend and participate in races frequently in order to keep up with the demands of the sport. The students also fundraise by delivering talks to companies and trust funds around the country, raising about £200k a year which goes towards helping to continue doing to the sport.

“They don’t just learn to sail very well, which they do, but they also learn how to change a boat to make it go faster. There is a physical side to actually sailing the boat and doing the sport but there is also an intellectual side,” said Mr Holt.

“On one hand it is great to do competitions and to win them but it is also about providing career opportunities for the students.”

Chris plans to take more sailing courses and aims to enter the superyacht industry and continue competing professionally. He is also heading to Spain in September to compete in another competition.

Corneille and one other student from the junior team will be joining the senior team to also compete in up-coming competitions such as the Etchells World Championships 2023 in Miami this December.

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