Hattie Rogers, aged just 22, has become the youngest ever recipient of the Yachtsman of the Year Award. Rogers, from Lymington, received the prestigious prize in March for her successes in foiling last year, including winning the SailGP Waszp Inspire Grand Final in San Francisco.
While she is only at the beginning of her sailing career, Rogers’s pathway demonstrates how quickly the sport is changing, especially for female high performance sailors. She hails from a traditional sailing dynasty – her grandfather was the late Jeremy Rogers, creator of the Contessa 32, and she is the daughter of yacht designer Simon Rogers. In 2019 she competed in the Rolex Fastnet Race on the Contessa 32 Assent with Simon and her uncle, Kit Rogers. However, she followed a different route into top level competition.
“I think for me, my pathway has just been about enjoying my sailing. That’s always been the biggest thing for me, just keep on loving it. But I grew up sailing on the Solent with grandpa and dad in the Contessa, and then on the Salterns Lake in Lymington being pushed around in my Oppie in waders by dad, and then in a scow, sailing to get ice cream up the river. It very, very quickly became more competitive though.”
Rogers competed in the Optimist at a high level, winning both British junior and senior Ladies National Champion titles. However, while many of her peer group progressed into the double-handed 420 class, she opted for the 29er. “It was tricky because I didn’t know a lot of people in 29ers, but I thought that asymmetric sailing and apparent wind sailing were going to really be most relevant in the future, so that’s why I decided to go for that route,” she reflects.
Rogers and her crew were selected to represent GBR at international events, as well as for the RYA’s Podium Potential Pathway. She was due to compete at the Youth Worlds for the British Team – traditionally an early indicator of Olympic potential – before a setback saw Rogers reassess her ambitions.
“Coming through the Junior and Youth Pathways, it was all geared to winning medals at Youth Worlds, Youth Europeans, and then you go into Olympic sailing. I had a bit of a moment, I guess, because I qualified for the Youth Worlds with Emily Covell back in 2017, and we were all set to go to Sanya in China.
“But a week before flying out, Emily had an injury. So that meant we couldn’t go. From that, it allowed me to focus on my A levels and get into university. But it was also a moment of reflection wher
