The Royal Ocean Racing Club has announced the launch of the 2025 Griffin Offshore Pathway, a programme designed to provide a range of opportunities to young sailors of different abilities, wanting to hone their skills in offshore sailing.
Building upon the success of the Griffin24 programme, the 2025 Griffin Offshore Pathway will offer increased opportunities to sailors across various offshore disciplines, onboard a variety of racing boats. The programme will enable three fully crewed squads to compete in the RORC Season’s Points Championship, as well as various JOG races.
In addition to racing in the UK programme they will provide sailors with the opportunity to gain invaluable offshore experience racing one-design. RORC will enter a team in the fully crewed, Tour Voile, part of the Figaro 3 circuit in France and expand their partnership with the Nastro Rosa Series in Italy, giving more opportunities to compete double-handed.
With the success of Maggie Adamson and Cal Finlayson winning this year’s Offshore Double Handed World Championship, RORC hopes through a better structured pathway they can support the development of more World Champions, especially in 2025, RORC’s centenary year, when the World Championship will be held in Cowes.
Hugh Brayshaw, an experienced and accomplished Figaro sailor who has successfully made the transition to offshore racing having gained his extensive experience from campaigning internationally in the 470 dinghy class, has joined the programme as lead coach. He will work alongside other world-class sailors to ensure all the Griffin intake receive the necessary support to develop throughout 2025.
Brayshaw said: “I am thrilled to be involved in this exciting programme. I look forward to helping these talented sailors take their sailing to another level.”
Sailors aged 18-30 as of 1 January 2025, who are interested in participating in the 2025 Griffin Offshore Pathway are encouraged to sign up for a Zoom webinar on 29 October. During the webinar, full details of the programme will be shared, and an application form will be sent out to interested applicants. Successful applicants will be invited to attend a selection long weekend on 10 – 12 January.
Jim Driver, Chair of Griffin, said, “ We have learned a lot from the first year of our refreshed Griffin project and we have put those lessons into our planning for 2025 and beyond. This is a long-term initiative and next year’s plan takes us in the right direction to creating new opportunities for developing offshore sailing talent; we look forward to sharing further details of our exciting 2025 programme with interested sailors on 29 October.
The Griffin Offshore Pathway is an ambitious project with funding split between RORC, sailor contributions, commercial sponsors and donations. RORC is actively seeking to build upon existing sponsors and supporters, to help keep sailor costs as low as possible, whilst expanding the reach and scope of the programme. Companies and individuals interested in supporting the programme are encouraged to get in touch for more information.
To get involved as a sailor, or to offer support to the Griffin Project, contact Griffin Chair Jim Driver: griffin@rorc.org
