KATIE MCCABE
For anyone despairing at the state of young people today, we give you our first Young Classic Boater of the Year: Katie McCabe. Her incredible round-Britain voyage at the record-breaking age of just 14 was undertaken on her 1952 West Channel One Design, bought by Katie for £800 made by doing weekend jobs. Falanda, imprisoned on dry land for a decade, was a mess, but Katie brought it back to life with advice from her boatbuilder father and woodcarver mother. The slog, however, was all hers. In June 2021, she set o to sail around Britain. Experienced global circumnavigators often refer to this as one of the most challenging voyages. Katie had no paper qualifications and was just 14, but a lifetime of living afloat had prepared her perfectly.