Young Sailor of The Year – Past Winners
1993: Storm Nuttall and Sally Cuthbert – Winners of the Girls’ Gold Medal in the Laser 11 class at the Nautica IYRU World Youth Championships
1994: Ellen MacArthur – For obtaining her RYA/DoT Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate with exceptional examination results at the very young age of 18
1995: Ben Ainslie – for winning the gold medal in the Laser Class in the Nautica IYRU World Youth Championship and being the youngest sailor to be selected to represent Great britain in an Olympic regatta
1996: Sally and Jessie Cuthbert – for winning their second consecutive gold medal in the IYRU O’Neil World Sailing Youth Championships. For Sally, this was her fourth, record gold medal in the event
1997: Pail Campbell-James – for an exceptional performance in the International Optimist Class, included finishing eighth in the Optimist World Championship, the highest ever placing of a British entrant in this event
1998: Hannah Stodel – 13-year-old Hannah was born without a right arm but, crewing for Melissa Heppel in the Mirror Class, the two were the first ladies in the 1998 Mirror Dinghy National Championship and were selected to represent the UK in the 1999 Mirror World Championships in Cape Town
1999: Nick Thompson – first British sailor to win the Optimist International European Championship
2000: Sam Carter and Robert Graves – achievements ion the International Cadet Class
2001: Emma and Victoria Rawlinson – ISAF Junior World Champions
2002: Hannah Mills – for winning the Optimist National Championship
2003: Sebastian Clover – at 15, the youngest person to sail singlehanded across the Atlantic
2004: Nick Thompson – for a clutch of successes in the Laser fleet across Europe in 2004
2005: Craig Paul, Sam Coombs and James Hopson for rescuing a fellow sailor from certain death during the Scottish 29er Championships on loch Lomond
2006: Katie Miller – for her single-handed circumnavigation of the UK in her boat Elektra
2007: Laurence Greenough – for his courage and determination to overcome adversity after losing a leg in a boating accident in 2006. He was back sailing just two months later in an unmodified boat
2008: James and Frances Peters – recognising a fantastic season in which they were crowned joint RYA regional winners for the South; and both achieved gold medals at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF Worlds Championship in Denmark, sailing separate 29ers in the mens and womens classes with their crews Ed Fitzgerald and Claire Lasko. They were instrumental in helping Britain win the Volvo Trophy for best nation with a medal haul of two golds and one bronze at the event. James and his crew also won the European Championship
2009: Phil Sparks and Ben Gratton — both 17, were RYA southern region sailors of the year. Sealing gold on the final day of the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships in Brazil, they became the first British boys ever to win a 420 ISAF Youth Worlds title. They also won first in Kiel Week regatta and third in the 420 class worlds at Lake Garda
2010: Isobel Hamilton, age 18, RYA Volvo RS:X National Youth Squad Windsurfer. She was the highest performing British RYA Youth Class’s sailor in 2010 by a significant margin. and is a great ambassador for the sport, always willing to help promote the sport despite her busy schedule. She has started a Geography degree at Exeter University.
2011: Annabel Vose, 17, and Megan Brickwood,16. Hampshire female sailing duo
2012: Saskia Skills, aged 16, from Launceston, Cornwall, windsurfer
2013: Natasha Lambert, aged 16, disabled sailor using ingenious sip and puff method to control boat
2014: Emma Wilson, aged 15, from Christchurch, Dorset, who won both the under-17 and under-19 world championship titles in Clearwater, USA, in October 2014, to add to her European under-17 win earlier in the year.
2015: Eleanor Poole, aged 14, from Dunsford, Devon. Eleanor won the 2015 Topper National championships and, while garnering a string of firsts, also secured an impressive seventh at the Worlds on Lake Garda in Italy.
2016: Elliott Kuzyk, aged 15, from Poole, World Champion Topper Class
2017: Montel Fagan-Jordon, aged 18, student from the Greig Academy in Tottenham, London for his leadership in first raising the money to restore the 1980s classic American Admiral’s Cup yacht Scaramouche, then leading a crew of fellow students to compete in last year’s 605 mile Fastnet Race.
2018: Emily Mueller (aged 15). The Volvo Gill Optimist British National and Open championships concluded at Plas Heli, Pwllheli with overall victory for Bermuda’s Christian Ebbin and the British championship win going to Emily Mueller – who becomes only the third ever girl to win the national title.
2019: Matilda Nicholls – Winner of the Women’s Laser Radial Youth World Championship at Kingston, Canada by a margin of 13 points while also dominating the UK Qualifying Series, winning the national youth title in the class and also representing the British Youth Sailing Team at the Youth World Championships for the second time, finishing fifth.
2020: Not awarded
2021: Katie McCabe – for an incredible anticlockwise sail solo round Britain on her 26ft Morgan Giles, Falanda.solo at just 14-years old.
2022: Charlie Dixon – won the 2022 Youth World Championships, Hague in the iQFoil windsurfing discipline; won the International Games, Lake Garda, and the under-19 World Championships at Lake Silvaplana.