John Merricks Sailing Trust donates two RS21s to Rutland Sailing Club

RS21 Keelboat Sailing Cowes © RS Sailing

John Merricks was born in Leicester in 1971. His father Dennis taught him to sail in a Mirror dinghy on Rutland Water at the age of 11. John became a leading Olympic sailor and in 1996 won an Olympic silver medal but died tragically in a car accident whilst competing in the 1997 Melges 24 European Championships in Italy.

The John Merricks Sailing Trust was set up by those closest to John to do some good in his name and further the memory of such a remarkable person. The Trust has been in operation for twenty-five years raising over £1,000,000 and has helped many young sailors and youth sailing organisations to achieve their goals.

Earlier this year, the JMST trustees decided to wind up the trust and invited sailing clubs and organisations to apply for a share of the remaining funds. Rutland Sailing Club were selected as one of nine clubs from over 100 applications. This will now allow the club to procure and maintain two sailing boats with a value of over £60,000.

The award has been gifted to RSC on the basis that it can provide "a lasting legacy" that will respect the Trust's purpose to help young people under the age of 25 to achieve their potential through the sport of sailing'.

Ian Walker, John's former sailing partner and Chair of the JMST Trustees, said: "The JMST trustees decided to wind up the trust 25 years after John's tragic death in a car crash in October 1997, and to invite sailing clubs to apply for a share of the remaining funds. The JMST received around 100 applications for these Legacy Awards. We are delighted that Rutland Sailing Club are one of the recipients of these funds and will continue legacy of Rutland Water developing the skills of many talented young sailors."

David Wilkins - Rutland Sailing Club: "I was youth fleet captain in mid 80's when John came to prominence as an exceptional young sailor in his Mirror dinghy. Spotted by UK Youth head coach, Jim Saltenstall, he persuaded two club members, Tony Everard and Len Brereton to support John. They bought him a youth 420 and later an Olympic 470 and he quickly rose through the ranks to compete in the 1996 Olympics with Ian Walker, both gaining a Silver medal."

With the formation of the JMST in 1997 following John's death, RSC committed to support the Trust financially by donating the entry fees for the flagship Tiger Trophy event which was also sponsored by Everards brewery. RSC and Everards have continued to support the Trust in this way for the past 25 years, helping to provide a significant contribution towards the £1,000,000 raised by the Trust.

When the JMST announced their plans for 9 Legacy projects, RSC put forward a Keelboat project to support the JMST Legacy aims for youth sailing both at RSC and surrounding communities. Still looking for next John Merricks. This programme would allow youth development from introductions to sailing and racing through to high level skills training in keelboat racing and match racing.

We also plan to extend this to cover all members of RSC with targeted activities to introduce sailors to keelboat sailing and cruising, upskill people with basic and advanced training in keelboat sailing and racing skills. And take this right through to match racing and fleet racing in keelboats. So hopefully something for every member of the club.

The boats arrived at RSC towards the end of May and there are strong introductory sessions planned during the Jubilee break from 2nd to 5th June.

After this there will be a full programme of activities throughout the rest of the year covering all facets of sailing and a wide group of members and local community groups.

This is just the start. RSC is hugely grateful to JMST for their support in this. Also we would like to thank RS Sailing who have been very generous in their support of this project, enabling us to purchase two RS21s.

The Jubilee events took place at RSC over the four days with around 200 club members participating in the many events organised. These ranged from "try a keelboat" skippered by expert club sailors, and including introductory through to advanced sessions for different groups. On Saturday a mini "keelboat league" event took place with 8 teams in 20+knots of wind giving some very exciting sailing in front of the clubhouse with a running commentary by the club's commodore Nick Neve.

This was won by Andy McKee and his team of adults, who just beat by a short nose, the RSC Youth team of Jamie Tylecote, Solomon Wilby, Freya Penbery, Will Fearn and Oli McKee.

Thanks must go to Jack Fenwick from RS who has given the club huge support in getting this project up and running so quickly.

This is going to be followed in 2 weeks time on 18th June with the Rutland Sailing Club open day, when the local community is invited to the club and spend the day there and try different types of boats including the RS21's.