A young man will celebrate his birthday today doing what he loves — working on the high-tech speed machines that will take to Bermuda’s waters this weekend.

Keeron Wilson turns 25 as a full-fledged member of the technical team for SailGP, helping to tune and repair the F50 catamarans just ahead of the Apex Group Bermuda Sail Grand Prix.

Watching the work outside a hangar at the SailGP Tech Site at Cross Island in Dockyard, he told The Royal Gazette: “I would have never thought I would be doing this.”

Chance encounters with the right people, and the immersion into the science of F50s given to students through the SailGP Inspire programme in 2022, took him from a childhood love of boats and the water into the heart of SailGP’s technical team.

Mr Wilson now works at SailGP Technologies in Southampton on England’s southern coast after moving to the country in 2023 with the urge to “go off and work on boats”.

He ended up getting hired in January, saying: “I’m living life, I’ve got a career and my own place — what more could I ask for?”

Guidance came several years ago with some wise words courtesy of a founding member of the Bermuda Sloop Foundation.

Mr Wilson recalled: “I was 19 and working for Crisson Construction. I ended up working on fixing a bulkhead.

“I ran into Malcolm Kirkland from the Spirit of Bermuda.

“He told me I needed to get signed up for a scholarship and go to school — he just told me to go home and sign up. I thought I might as well try it.”

It paid off. Mr Wilson garnered a scholarship to attend the Landing School in Maine, where he qualified in composite boatbuilding and marine systems.

After graduation, the outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2020 left Mr Wilson stuck in Bermuda.

He continued working at Crisson with exposure “every day” to boats and put his skills to work on wooden craft.

However, his interests in high-tech vessels were fired up while working as a deckhand on the Calico Jack floating bar during the 2017 America’s Cup and seeing the catamarans in action.

Mr Wilson said: “That’s what made me really like the high-level boats.”

He also remained friends with the Landing School’s president, Richard Downs-Honey, who was “hooked up with SailGP”.

Mr Wilson explained: “We had a nice relationship. He said if I wanted to come work in this, I should show them what I could do.”

He got his feet wet in 2022 through the Inspire Programme, recalling: “I liked it — I decided this is what I want to do with my life.”

With help from the head of his former school, Mr Wilson got introduced to Joel Marginson, the director of SailGP Technologies.

The two spoke before Mr Wilson decided to try life in Britain last year.

“He said, ‘Come to England, come see me, and we’ll make something happen’,” the young man recalled.

The two met last December, with Mr Wilson dazzled by the high-level craft in the SailGP warehouse.

The next month, a contract was ready. He heads back to work in Southampton on Monday.

Mr Wilson’s advice to other young people with a hankering for boats was: “Learn a trade.

“You can be a carpenter and still be able to build boats.

“Learn a trade and stick to it. Master it early in your years of life. You’ll just go up and up.”