Chipstead Sailing Club

Chipstead SC Achievers – Dan Fox

Dan was born in 2000 and 10 years later started sailing with his Dad in an old Scorpion and then in a Mirror. By then the joy of sailing had truly bitten.

Dan joined Chipmates and started sailing Toppers and for the next 3-4 years competed in club and open events in Toppers.

But not only was Dan heavily involved in competitive racing, he was also helping with Chipmates, wanting to share his love of sailing with the younger sailors.

Dan also progressed through the RYA training programme and aged 14 qualified as an Assistant Instructor and at 16 as a Dinghy Instructor. At this point it was not uncommon to see a 16 year old Dan on the water teaching adults how to sail! By this time he was now too tall for a Topper and moved on to racing a Laser.

Not only was Dan committed to encouraging the juniors to maximise their enjoyment of sailing, he was also instrumental in arranging for the juniors to help out as AODs in the race hut on Saturdays. This gave the juniors a whole new perspective on racing sailboats as they started to understand the requirements of race management and could see from an elevated position in the race box the mistakes and the ‘great moves’ that racers could make on the start and finish lines.

In 2018 Dan was awarded the Ian Walker Trophy at the CSC prize giving by Ian Walker MBE himself.

This is awarded to recognise a member from within the junior class of the club that stands out as a role model for all other junior members through demonstrating real enthusiasm and improvement in their own sailing during the year (whether racing or not) and making a significant contribution to the club and junior class, through teaching, coaching and encouragement of less experienced helms. Success at club / regional / national / international events is taken into account as are factors such as good sportsmanship, commitment, and any obstacles that may have been overcome throughout the year.

In October 2019 Dan qualified as a Senior Instructor and a Power Boat Instructor and was invited to be Assistant Race Officer at the 2020 London Youth Sailing League events.

Dan is studying aeronautics at Brunel University and of course has been busy team racing for the university in Fireflies. Last year he was captain of the university sailing team and this year is Commodore of the BUSC.

As if that isn’t enough, Dan is the universities representative on the RYA South East Committee and is an advisor to the Youth Training Fund Charity which grants modest performance and coaching bursaries to young sailors to help fund them in furtherance of their racing or coaching programme.

Dan has recently acquired a Rooster 4000, a high performance trapezing dinghy fitted with racks and for the future is fully intending to enjoy blasting it around the Solent with his crew as often as university and work allow. Ah, the joy of sailing!