FEATURE Credit Merlin Class Association
A Class Act by Andy Rice
Tom Gillard has been winning dinghy championships for years, but 2022 was his most spectacular season yet. The Yorkshireman, who now lives down south working for North Sails, competed in 25 events across five different classes, winning 23 of them and finishing runner-up in the other two.
Even if Tom is a professional and gets his sails for free, he buys his own boats and loves the UK dinghy scene which continues to thrive, thanks to the hard-working volunteers and staff who run the clubs and classes around the country.
He also loves the diversity of sailing on offer, and one of the things that really stands out is his ability to win in a range of boats, from the hiking singlehanders such as the Solo and Streaker as well as the hiking doublehanders like the highly technical Merlin Rocket and the more one-design Scorpion and Fireball classes.
Tom’s approach in all the classes is to try to focus on doing the basics well, and to not get too caught up in the latest developments, especially in a complex boat like the Merlin
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Rocket. “Some people are spending up to £40,000 on a new Merlin Rocket but I bought an older Winder Mk4 for less than £12,000 and I don’t know anyone who’s going any faster than us at the moment,” he says.
“I was pleased that we were able to win in the Merlins at Salcombe Week and at the Nationals, especially to be able to beat a quality sailor like Christian Birrell. We’ve been rivals in the Fireball and we always have a good battle together. It was nice to be able to beat Stu [Bithell, 49er Olympic gold medallist from Tokyo 2020] too, even though he couldn’t do one of the days at the Nationals. And Taxi [Andy Davis] has beaten me at the last two Solo Nationals so it was good to be able to beat him for a change!”
One of the championships he missed out on was the Streaker Nationals, although Tom says he did have mild pneumonia at the time. He was beaten by Martin Penty, a former Fireball World Champion, so was at least consoled to have been outgunned by a great competitor. This means Tom will have to wait another year to match his dad Alan’s feat of winning the Streaker Nationals 10 times. Tom’s still only on nine!
RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show 2023 Show Guide
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