WINNER KATIE MCCABE

YOUNG CLASSIC BOATER OF THE YEAR

Our first ever Young Classic Boater of the Year is life-long sailor 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, which she earned doing weekend jobs. Falanda had been imprisoned on dry land for a decade, but Katie brought the boat 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. Katie had no paper qualifications and was just 14, but a lifetime of living afloat had prepared her perfectly. She arrived back just in time for the start of her next school term.