Help Ben Tylecote's team get to Youth MR Worlds?

Can you help Royal Thames member Ben Tylecote and his GBR team get to the Youth World Match Racing Championships?

RTYC member Ben Tylecote and his team have been selected as the GBR entry for the forthcoming World Sailing Youth Match Racing World Championships to be held in Sydney Australia in December this year.

Due to circumstances beyond their control, they have only just had their entry confirmed leaving a very short window for them to prepare, train and to get the funds together hence this request for help.

The team are already European and double National Youth Match Racing Champions, this event gives them the opportunity to compete on a world stage.

The team is skippered by Ben Tylecote but the strength lies in the extraordinary depth of talent and diversity of experience across the whole team. The other members are Terry Hacker, Freya Pembery and Jamie Tylecote, and new to the team, but bringing a wealth of keelboat and dinghy prowess is Finn Morris.

The event they hope to attend is World Sailing’s Youth Match Racing World Championships 2023. It is the ultimate head-to-head challenge in supplied boats where no technical advantage can be bought or expected. The definitive keelboat test of skill with short course, dynamic racing. This event will be in Elliot 7s, not found in the UK and so they are also hoping to attend a pre-event to get used to the boats and give them a chance against the more experienced USA and AUS teams.

They are asking for support to help afford the flights, car hire, and the additional costs of the pre-event regatta. Of course, the National authority are involved and are providing some support, primarily paying for the entry fee but most of the money they will have to find themselves. They have worked in part over the summer, alongside racing to get some money together but without additional support they will be looking at student overdrafts etc and then working out the after effects later.

The team are all passionate dinghy racers in the ILCAs, Fireflies and 29ers at National and World level, with excursions into other fleets including Ben winning the Lord Birkett Trophy sailing an RS400. The team are all strong team racers too – they have won the Eric Twiname Youth Team Racing Championships several times as well as the BSDRA National Championships.

Ben was selected as part of the Waszp Inspire Program and Freya was a member of the RYA Keelboat Academy.

The team have been practicing in the Rutland SC RS21s sourced for the youth sailors of the club through the support of the JMST, and have recently been training up the younger sailors to go to the schools match racing championships.

They are often seen on the water coaching or sailing with junior or less experienced sailors and are considered outstanding role models. Ben is also a member of Royal Thames YC where he hopes to expand his keelboat skills. Terry is a long-standing member of Aldeburgh where he has sailed with his grandad and other family members. Finn is South coast based and alongside his 29er Youth Nationals win can boast being on the winning boat for J109 RORC Vice Admirals Cup 2023, J99 Nationals and J-Cup overall 2023 and Abersoch Keelboat week 2023. He is a member / has represented Lymington Town, Royal Lymington, HISC. and Royal Southern YCs.

The target figure is to get the team plus coach and manager to the event in a good position to do it justice. It includes an estimate for flights, car hire, accommodation, and the entry costs for the pre regatta. Return flights to Sydney are £1800 each. Car hire looking at about £2500 for the 2 weeks plus insurance, fuel etc, accommodation costs approx £2000. Pre regatta entry is approx £500.

We would be immensely grateful for any support you can give. Ben is an amazing young man who missed a lot of his teenage opportunities through illness. It is 7 years since he had to withdraw from the Open Bic Worlds due to his cancer – which ultimately resulted in his right eye being removed.

He has dealt with considerable adversity but has continued to maintain a positive ‘can do’ attitude throughout, and now values every second on the water. He has built his fitness back from nothing over a period of time including overcoming the frustration of half-finished regattas when extreme fatigue meant continuing was impossible.

Ben is now a confident young adult and well respected on the national match racing, team racing and dinghy scene. Having been through so much Ben is calm under pressure, and the strong bond between the sailors, forged through difficult times, means they are a force to be reckoned with.

We hope to enable Ben and his team to attend this event with the best possible chance of success and we thank you for reading this request.

If you have ideas about potential corporate sponsorship please contact us directly. The team are hoping to expand their sailing into other foreign events in 2024, alongside their University team racing and other National and International fleet racing events but they do not currently have a sponsor.

Any ideas welcome

Thank you again