The Yacht Racing Academy, based in Cowes, aims to train the world class team racers of the future, providing young people who would not otherwise get the opportunity, with the training, mentoring and facilities to develop their racing skill, knowledge and personality. This initiative managed by UKSA offers young people the chance to become professional racing yacht crew on two of the most famous sailing yachts – Chernikeeff 2 and Bear of Britain – which are high performance Farr 52 yachts (the equivalent of Formula One of the sailing world). Normally the yacht racing industry is extremely difficult to break into, so UKSA together with a variety of sponsors are offering this as a platform for stars of the future. “The team is fantastic. I was worried that I’d be an outsider because I had a severe lack of racing knowledge, but the ethos is brilliant – there’s a huge amount of knowledge and experience in the team and we’re all learning from each other” Tom Roden, aged 21, Yacht Racing Academy crew 2007 “The selection weekend taught me that even if there’s something you think you can’t do, if you give it your best try you’ll probably find that you can do it. Its also really nice being treated as an equal and not be given all the “girly” jobs!” Lauren Mead, aged 19, Yacht Racing Academy crew 2007 Candidates race at weekends throughout the year, and work hard during training to maintain their fitness, skills and knowledge. “I’ve been really proud of their success so far this year, it has been outstanding, and this is down to the hard work and passion of all the individuals - they have had some amazing results beating teams of professional yacht crew, including their recent success as 6th and 7th in their Class in the Round the Island Race and 4th at Red Funnel Regatta.” Ben Willows, Yacht Racing Academy Manger The Yacht Racing Academy was created in 2006 by Kit Hobday, Peter Harrison and UKSA. It follows on from the successful ‘Bear Academy’ set up by Kit in 2000. There is no cost to those taking part thanks to the generosity of the Yacht Racing Academy’s President Peter Harrison, Bear of Britain’s new owner Andrew Palmer and UKSA’s charitable endeavours. Isle of Wight Economic Partnership is supporting the Yacht Racing Academy through their Inspire programme which aims to give young people unique, life changing opportunities.