Milo Robineau-Potts, a Warwick Academy alumnus, is representing Great Britain at youth Techno 293 Windsurfing World Championships in France,

Robineau-Potts, who grew up in Bermuda and attended Warwick Academy until the age of 9, will represent Great Britain for the first time this week.

He first started sailing Optimists with the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club’s sailing academy under the supervision of Nathan Bailey, and he competed in Bermuda’s Open and National Optimist Championships in 2018.

While Milo still sails dinghies and catamarans, he has progressed into competitive windsurfing over the past two years, but acknowledges that many of the sailing and racing skills that he learnt in the Optimist fleet in Bermuda have prepared him well for windsurfing:

“The Techno 293 One Design is a very technical racing windsurf, with many adjustable components, just like in a sailing boat,” he said.

“Windsurfing is also very sensitive to wind shifts and balance, and, in this respect, it is really helpful to have grown up sailing, and capsizing frequently, in the Great Sound in Bermuda”.

The Techno 293 One Design windsurf board is the officially recognized windsurf board for youth sailors competing in the Under 17, Under 15, and Under 13 categories in worldwide competitions. It is also an internationally recognised feeder class to windsurfing, and windsurf foiling, at the Olympic Games.

The Techno 293 sailing fleet has seen its numbers explode over the years, with more than 10,000 Techno 293 sailors active globally, in more than 60 countries, making Techno 293 the biggest windsurf sailing fleet on the planet.

The World Championships are taking place in France, at the French National Sailing Centre in Saint-Pierre Quiberon in Brittany, between July 29 and August 5, with 327 entrants representing teams from Great Britain, France, Spain, Belgium, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Singapore, and Turkey.

Robineau-Potts, who holds three passports, and whose family has roots in France, Greece, the UK, the USA, and Bermuda, found it difficult to decide which country to represent competitively.

However he decided to represent Great Britain, given the training and coaching opportunities currently available to him in the UK, however he “promises to fly a Bermuda flag at the closing ceremony, especially if I win a medal.”

In preparation for the World Championships, Robineau-Potts has been training throughout the winter with the Queen Mary Sailing Club near London, and he has won medals representing his club in a number of regional windsurfing competitions in the South of England.

In the summer months, he has been fortunate to have spent time training at the UK National Sailing Academy in Weymouth and Portland, as well as in Greece, France, and Spain.

For anybody interested in following the Techno 293 One Design World Championships, the event website can be found here: https://worlds2023.techno293.org