Athena Pathway held their first open trials over the weekend of the 13-15th February, giving 21 talented young athletes the chance to strut their stuff in front of Britain’s most successful sailors. At stake was the chance to join the team launched and managed by multiple Olympic gold medal winners Ben Ainslie and Hannah Mills.
The group of 21 that made it to the three-day session had already been narrowed down from 158 applicants. All of them applying for roles as crew aboard the Athena Pathway entry into the 2027 Youth America’s Cup.
The trials were held at the legacy Olympic venue in Portland, Weymouth. “We start off trialling on the simulators because the AC40 is a massively complex boat and it requires a lot of personnel and effort to be able to put that out on the water,” explained Matt Beck, coach to the Athena Pathway.
“We have put them on the [desktop] simulator absolutely blind,” added Pathway’s Eilidh McIntyre. “They have no idea what they're doing. They have to figure out how to learn as quick as they can, and then they have to put in their fastest lap. The second part of the trial is on the AC 40 simulator. It's an exact mock-up of the boat.”
At the end of the weekend, each of the sailors completed a time trial around the normal AC40 course on the boat’s simulator, and that time was added to their previous score.
“The simulator was pretty difficult to get to grips with...” triallist Sam Webb commented, “and I think we're on easy mode at the moment, so we've got lots of learning to do!”
Fellow triallist Katy Jenkins added, “I thought that the simulator was really good fun. It was challenging, but it was nice to be able to pick it up and feel like you're improving.”
Merle Nieuwland explained, “The simulator was really good… very different to the boats I normally sail, but a really cool experience, and hopefully we get to spend some more time on them.”
The team will ultimately select a core group of sailors to be part of the Youth America’s Cup team. Those with the best feel for the role of trimmer will be designated to a ‘fast track’ program. Two of those sailors will be chosen to race with Hannah Mills in the mixed Youth and Women’s AC40 team for the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Cagliari, Italy in May.