Students from the Jarhead Young Sailors Foundation Malta have boosted their sailing experience through participating in the 2020 Rolex Middlesea Race.
Founded in October 2017 by Gregory Nasmyth and his wife Samantha Rowe-Beddoe,
the Jarhead Young Sailors Foundation was established to encourage young people in
Malta to take up sailing. The foundation is a not-for-profit voluntary charity that offers
two programmes on-board the two J109 yachts ‘JYS Jan’ and ‘JYS Jarhead’.
The schools programme offers introductory sailing sessions to Maltese students,
encouraging them to sail and teaching them skills such as rope work, navigation and
yacht maintenance. The second programme meanwhile enables Maltese teenagers to
develop their existing dinghy sailing experience and steps them up to world-class
offshore racing, with the young sailors joining both the Rolex Middlesea Race and the
Rolex Fastnet Race, as well as competing in other local races.
“We are proud and honoured that seven Maltese teenagers from the JYS programme
once again participated in the Rolex Middlesea Race this year,” says Jarhead Young
Sailors Foundation administrator Wilfrid Buttigieg
“The Rolex Middlesea Race is a legendary and epic race, in which sailors take on the
force and beauty of nature, while dealing with the extremes of frustration and
exhilaration brought on by the ever-changing elements. This year the race experienced
light winds for much of the course, but the team continued to push themselves and the
yacht ‘Jarhead’ to arrive safely back to Malta – and win the first RMSR prize in the
history of the Foundation,” adds Mr Buttigieg.
The Foundation’s team of promising young sailors – Emilie Gregory, Shaun Miggiani,
Nicky Debono Drury, Saul Vassallo, Patrice Pace, Luke Rausi, and Daniel Bajada – won
the Race’s first prize in ORC Class 6, while they also placed sixth in IRC Class 6 and
thirteenth in IRC overall. The mixed team was selected from young people taking part
in the JYS programme, who undertook a vigorous training schedule with the
Foundation’s own professional racer before being joined by experienced skipper Lloyd
Hamilton in the race.
Through enabling this unparalleled sailing experience, the Foundation has become an
important stepping-stone for many young Maltese sailors who have gone on to join
larger teams on more competitive yachts. In fact, this year’s edition of the Race saw past
Jarhead Young Sailors racing on other Maltese boats, including Karl Miggiani and Zach
Zammit on Artie III, Daniel Fenech and Craig Farrugia Vella on Commanche, and
Gregory Mifsud on TonTon.
