News Around the World
GREAT BRITAIN Nick Craig – King of Endeavour A fascinating curiosity of the UK sailing scene is a championship where past winners include Peter Bateman, Keith Musto, Phil Crebbin, Lawrie Smith, Eddie Warden-Owen, Ian Southworth, Ian Pinnell, Stuart Bithell and Luke Patience. It’s the end-of-season champion ships of champions, the Endeavour Trophy, hosted by the Royal Corinthian YC in Burnham on Crouch where one name has won it as a helm more times than anyone else, winning in 2023, and chalking up a record that is unlikely ever to be beaten. Nick Craig is undoubtedly one of the finest dinghy sailing talents
we’ve ever produced in Britain, but he’s done it with a humility that is exemplary. A racing record that includes 35 national champion - ships, five European titles and no fewer than 12 world champi- onships puts Nick in rarefied company, but his dedication to the sport and what he calls ‘quality time on the water’ is where the King of Endeavour stands out from the rest. Here’s someone with incredible talent, persistence and a
peerless record but with a deep realism that ‘growing up in the era of Ben Ainslie – I was never going to beat him’, so he parked any ambitions of Olympic glory and just followed his passion.
When asked about foiling and the whole new impetus that the
discipline has brought into the sport, Nick offers a refreshing view: ‘It’s fantastic that people are loving it and that it’s getting and keep- ing people in the sport, having fun and enjoying it. It gives something to the next generation that makes sailing a bit cooler again. ‘I tried it on a sailing holiday with the kids and went foiling for
three days on a Waszp and loved it. I think everyone should try foiling, it’s such a buzz when you’re up there and going. But after three days of zooming up and down I was watching the dads having a round-the-cans dinghy race with a beat off the startline and I just wanted to go racing. I’ve done that for now.’
The takeaway The competitive spirit burns brightly within Nick, who started crewing for his father in the family Enterprise dinghy before moving onto the burgeoning Cadet scene down at Frensham Pond… where the ultimate youth trainer is still sailed and regularly gets 20 boats every weekend. In fact, keeping children in the sport is a topic that animates Nick as much as his racing success. While he admires the hugely successful RYA squad system that
has produced multiple successes at the Olympic Games, he is concerned about the fall-out: ‘It probably works for some kids, some go on and flourish like the Chris Drapers and Ben Ainslies and many others – but for most it doesn’t. And the very big dropout rate is bad for the young sailors and bad for the sport. ‘There is this undercurrent of “all or nothing”. Miss a selection,
immediately become disillusioned and just give up. Or simply tire of the endless travelling, early starts and wet weekends and effec- tively burn out in favour of a different activity. Or the parents do. ‘I think there’s a middle ground, as everyone who comes to the
sport develops at different rates. They should feel it’s OK to leave then come back… but most don’t. ‘I think for kids it’s just about trying to fire their passions; the
sport is so diverse that it doesn’t matter what it is – dinghy sailing, coaching, club racing, international sailing or wing foiling – hopefully there’s something for everyone if they’re given the chance. It’s about everyone finding their niche.’ Nick reserves praise, however, for the RYA system: ‘They work
In 2023 British dinghy maestro Nick Craig was alternating freely between winning in the D-One, Finn (‘too small’) and OK, while also winning in the RS200 and RS400 two-handed classes. In 2022 Britain’s best amateur sailor won the OK Worlds, the D-One Europeans, the Merlin Rocket Championship, the B14 Nationals and the B14 Worlds… where he won seven races out of seven
‘I’ve never felt untouchable, I’ve always felt vulnerable which is
probably a good thing,’ although he does remember one RS400 Nationals in 2015 where he felt ‘in the groove’: ‘I’d come off the back of doing three or four championships in a row and I had just come from the Merlins where it was quite a windy week, force 4, big waves, and we’d battled it out with Stu Bithell down to the wire. Then we went to the RS400s and it was the same conditions, dif- ferent boat, but we were just totally locked in the groove with a little speed edge all the way around. But that doesn’t happen often!’ Doing it the hard way is Nick’s way and spending a few seasons
on the Finn professional circuit as what he calls a ‘weekend sailor with a busy job’ still took him to another level. ‘I did three years following the pro circuit around. That was fantastic, I learned so much and really pushed my sailing on, but I was never going to be good enough to beat Ben so it wasn’t worth selling my house and doing all of that to get annihilated.’ Today Nick still competes on the Finn Masters circuit which is
one of the hottest of the UK fleets with several ex-world champions and luminaries of the sport (even our editor) competing, but dropping into the asymmetric high-performance D-One class this summer saw him win the world championship and automatically qualify for another Endeavour Trophy.
22 SEAHORSE
really well at producing top sailors. If you look at the Team GBR results it’s a pretty phenomenal medal machine; it’s definitely got its place. But I’d much prefer it was more inclusive and kept those who don’t make it – recognising that people develop differently. ‘I was at an event with Dylan Fletcher-Scott last year with my son,
who was 13 and already getting worried about his results and won- dering if he was good enough… And Dylan was fantastic, he said, “Well, I didn’t start sailing until the age of 14, don’t worry about it, chill out.” He just said all the right things because he’s a sailor who loves going sailing – then the results followed.’ Nick’s advice for the next generation is clear: ‘Just do the sailing
you enjoy, then if you’re enjoying your sailing the results will follow. There’s a great thing too about sailing different boats – you learn something about what makes each boat tick and often it’s some- thing you learn from one boat that you can take over to another… ‘Also, sailing with different people you learn through being beaten,
through your mistakes. Always sail in the highest-quality fleets you can because that’s where you learn the most – when you’re being challenged by really good sailors.’ Asked about sailing clubs themselves, Nick sees a mixed bag as
he travels the world: ‘I think there are some clubs that are doing it really well. I went to Keyhaven Yacht Club in May for a Finn regatta; a local dinghy club that’s phenomenal – Saturday night and there’s a party and the club is just full of all age ranges. ‘But it’s hard: getting the sailing right but also the social side right
because that’s when you really draw people in. So there is probably a place for the “dining club” and the older guys to do that kind of thing, but it shouldn’t be to the exclusion of the youngsters.’ For Nick the next stop is the OK World Championship in Brisbane
in February. Who would bet against him making it a 13th world title? Magnus Wheatley
ROBERT DEAVES
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