Introducing Rebecca Owen, one of Sail Training Shetland’s Trainees partaking in the 2022 Tall Ships Races, sailing in the second leg of the race from Harlingen in The Netherlands to Antwerp in Belgium.
Rebecca is 18 and went to Banchory Academy in Aberdeenshire, she now works as a lifeguard at her local sports centre and helps run kids’ camps at her local sports loch.
She started dinghy sailing when she was 8 so has always had a keen interest in sailing. Rebecca’s mum sailed to St Kilda on a Tall Ship when she was younger and thoroughly enjoyed it, so when Rebecca herself saw an advert on Facebook for the opportunity to sail on Shetland’s Tall Ship Swan in the Tall Ships Races, she thought it sounded like a great opportunity and applied, telling me “I don’t know anybody I’ll be sailing with, but everyone seems so friendly!”
She is most excited about spending time on Swan, saying “there’s something nice about being on the sea and not being able to see any land.” Adding “You gain so much self-confidence with sailing, especially when you do something right and you pick up speed”.