2017 our first Fastnet Year
2017, was a landmark year for the Scaramouche project, it would be the year Scaramocuhe and the young crew from Grieg City Academy would take to the start line of the Rolex Fastnet Race. Media attention was building around the crew, and in the lead up the race, they were getting a great deal of attention from local, national and marine press from around the world. Something that would be a great platform for their education.
Throughout the year 140 students took to the water, with four gaining their RYA Day Skipper, as well as Youth Sailing levels 1 – 4, Ocean Safety, Sea Survival and RYA First Aid being achieved not only by the crew of Scaramouche but by a number of students choosing sailing as an extracurricular activity.
In terms of on the water achievements, Scaramouche won the ASTO Small Ships Race, they finished 134th in the Fastnet out of 340 entrants. The crew completed 500 miles of qualifying in the RORC St. Malo, Le Havre and Myth of Malham Races.
In this year Montel Fagan-Jordan went on to win the Yachting Journalist Association Young Sailor of the Year, the crew and project as a whole being awarded for the Royal Yachting Association Award for Endeavour and the Musto Media Prize during the Rolex Fastnet Race.
Sailing is a great platform for adventure, and during 2017 the crew travelled to France as part of the qualifying series for the Rolex Fastnet Race. There were also 25 school sailing trips, which combined resulted in over 100 days of sailing.
Biggest learning lessons from the year included resilience, communication and teamwork. They also had an understand of boat maintenance and what’s involved. They started Etchells sailing and learned about flying spinnakers of and dip pole gybing on Scaramouche. They also learned about personal preparation and organisation skills for offshore racing. Not something you can learn in the classroom.
Boat inventory: Scaramouche, Riot, McGreggor, 2x GP14s, Laser, Optimist, 420