Professional sailor Richard Mason joins live chat

This afternoon, we were honoured to welcome professional sailor Richard Mason to a live discussion with 22 of our pupils. Richard has competed in Olympic classes, solo offshore events, and is currently part of Sir Ben Ainslie’s SailGP team’s F50, with whom he won the Sydney Sail GP series last month.

During the talk, Richard offered advice and answered a number of questions from the pupils, led by Sixth Form student Henry.

Henry commented, “Today we heard from Richard Mason, currently a grinder onboard the GB SailGP team’s F50. It was really inspirational to hear from somebody so enthusiastic about their sport. Richard’s main message was that commitment, dedication and more importantly, enjoyment in the sport are the key ingredients for success. Richard also proves that it is possible to pursue sailing as a career alongside academic study. We are very fortunate that he was able to speak to us today!“

The session was organised by Jasmine Husband, who commented, “It was fantastic to hear Richard Mason share his experience of crewing for Ben Ainslie and competing at the very highest level of the sport. So many brilliant pieces of advice for the next generation of talented sailors, including: follow your own pathway in the sport – “do what you love doing in the sport and the opportunities will present themselves”; ensure that you plan ahead around the race course to prevent any rash decisions; and visualise different scenarios so that you are prepared for all eventualities in races.”

A huge thank you to Richard for joining us and to the pupils for their interesting questions!