First female Yachtsman of the Year, Tracy Edwards MBE, has come to Greig City Academy to see the progress GCA Sailing has made.

With many of our Year 10s currently reading her autobiography, Tracy Edwards is a bit of a hero of ours at GCA Sailing. In 1989 she skippered the first all-female crew in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race and only a fractured mast ended her bid of winning the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe in 1998.

Tracy viewed one of our GP14s and our MacGregor Venture 22.  She also spoke to some of our elite sailors, currently regulars at Poole Harbor who are flying through their sailing qualification.  We discussed our visions for students and agreed that at a time of government cutbacks it is important for schools to have maintained our focus in this area.

As our sailors have no such concerns.  As they told Tracy, their ambitions are France, circumnavigating the Isle of Wight, and the potential of Fastnet 2017.