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Fletcher (left) and Bithell (right) picked up gold in the 49er at the 2020 Olympics. Photo: Sailing energy \/ World Sailing[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWith a background rich in Olympic success and competitive experience, Fletcher-Scott\u2019s journey to the helm of the British team is a story of relentless determination and exceptional talent. Born in London in 1988, Fletcher-Scott grew up in a family with a strong sailing heritage.\r\n\r\nIntroduced to the sport by his father, who was an accomplished sailor himself, Dylan quickly found his passion on the water. By the age of 13, he was competing in national regattas and had already set his sights on an Olympic career. His early experiences in junior classes laid the foundation for his future success.\r\n\r\nDylan Fletcher-Scott first made a name for himself in the 49er class, a high-performance skiff that demands precision, speed, and seamless teamwork. It was in this class that he truly excelled, partnering with Stuart Bithell to form one of the most formidable teams in Olympic sailing. The duo\u2019s crowning achievement came at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where they clinched the gold medal in a nail-biting final race, solidifying their status as elite sailors on the world stage.\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...<\/em>\r\n\r\n[collection]\r\n\r\nFollowing his Olympic triumph, Fletcher-Scott\u2019s career took a natural progression toward the America\u2019s Cup, the pinnacle of yacht racing. His transition to the Cup was marked by his versatility and adaptability, traits that have been crucial in his rapid ascent to the top echelons of the sport. Like many before him Fletcher-Scott has seen significant success in the Foiling Moth class in which he won the World Championships in 2022 (American Magic's<\/a> Paul Goodison<\/a> and Tom Slingsby<\/a> and Emirates Team New Zealand's<\/a> Nathan Outteridge<\/a> have all also won the event).\r\n\r\nFletcher was the Skipper of the British SailGP team sailing the F50 foiling catamarans for the first season of the event. But the team was purchased by Ainslie's America's Cup syndicate for the second season of SailGP, which then saw Ainslie take over helming duties.\r\n\r\nAs co-skipper of INEOS Britannia, Fletcher-Scott is tasked with skippering a team that carries the weight of a nation\u2019s hopes on its shoulders. Britain, the birthplace of the America\u2019s Cup<\/a>, has never won the trophy, despite numerous attempts since the competition\u2019s inception in 1851.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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<\/a>If you enjoyed this\u2026.<\/h2>\r\n\r\nYachting World is the world's leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.<\/em><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nBuild your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers<\/a> and save at least 30% off the cover price.<\/em><\/div><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n
","excerpt":{"rendered":"“If someone gave you a lottery ticket with a 33 % chance of winning $2m, you’d snap their hand off!\u201d said Dylan Fletcher, helmsman of the Emirates Great Britain Team during last weekend\u2019s SailGP Grand Finale in Abu Dhabi. And certainly for a lot of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix Season Grand Final \u2013 an event title which took almost as long to say as it took the F50s to get to the top mark \u2013 luck seemed to be playing a significant part in results, with zephyr-light winds and exceptionally short course plunging the season\u2019s most consistent performers down the leaderboard. At first watch even the final looked to come down to a \u2018Hail Mary\u2019 decision when the British team, who were third \u2013 or last \u2013 off the line split from the leading duo of Australia\u2019s Bonds Flying Roos and New Zealand Black Foils to hook into a convenient shift and come out on top. But, as Fletcher explains, that\u2019s not quite how it happened. SailGP leaders play it safe Abu Dhabi was a new venue for the SailGP final, previously in San Francisco, and first impressions frankly weren\u2019t great. Racing on the first day took place in very light winds \u2013 often just 5-7 knots \u2013 with the teams deploying the newest 27.5 wing rig, extra large light wind T-foils and just three crew onboard to make racing feasible in the very marginal conditions. Fortunately the waters off Port Zayed were undisturbed \u2013 there was a notable lack of spectator boats. The race village was also smaller than some previous venues, with no giant grandstand packed with the roaring crowds of Auckland or Portsmouth. This was not a showcase of the stadium-filling, crowd-pleasing racing that SailGP can deliver \u2013 though it was a marker of the financial appeal of the league, with the event sponsored by the Sports Council of Abu Dhabi. In the light, sub-foiling conditions and super-short courses, winning the start became everything, with Denmark, Switzerland and Germany having the best of the first day. At the end of four races three of the the top four teams – Emirates SailGP, Australia and Spain \u2013 were the sitting firmly in the bottom four on the leaderboard. The Kiwis only slightly redeemed themselves in 8th. What, I asked Dylan, was going on? \u201cI think, honestly, you could have called it before the event,\u201d Fletcher says. Article continues below… \u201cThere was a lot of teams who had couldn’t go up or down in the season championship; the points were basically closed off. Then you also had a bunch of teams changing people. And they were going to take risk. They were going to push it really hard. \u201cAnd I think we were all just so focused on doing what we needed to do to get into the Grand Final. As soon as it was that light, in reality, we want to win the actual Abu Dhabi event itself \u2013 but actually we don’t really care! …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1571,"featured_media":161293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3117,68],"tags":[3116,2133,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161289"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162000,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161289\/revisions\/162000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161289"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=161289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
","excerpt":{"rendered":"
“If someone gave you a lottery ticket with a 33 % chance of winning $2m, you’d snap their hand off!\u201d said Dylan Fletcher, helmsman of the Emirates Great Britain Team during last weekend\u2019s SailGP Grand Finale in Abu Dhabi. And certainly for a lot of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix Season Grand Final \u2013 an event title which took almost as long to say as it took the F50s to get to the top mark \u2013 luck seemed to be playing a significant part in results, with zephyr-light winds and exceptionally short course plunging the season\u2019s most consistent performers down the leaderboard. At first watch even the final looked to come down to a \u2018Hail Mary\u2019 decision when the British team, who were third \u2013 or last \u2013 off the line split from the leading duo of Australia\u2019s Bonds Flying Roos and New Zealand Black Foils to hook into a convenient shift and come out on top. But, as Fletcher explains, that\u2019s not quite how it happened. SailGP leaders play it safe Abu Dhabi was a new venue for the SailGP final, previously in San Francisco, and first impressions frankly weren\u2019t great. Racing on the first day took place in very light winds \u2013 often just 5-7 knots \u2013 with the teams deploying the newest 27.5 wing rig, extra large light wind T-foils and just three crew onboard to make racing feasible in the very marginal conditions. Fortunately the waters off Port Zayed were undisturbed \u2013 there was a notable lack of spectator boats. The race village was also smaller than some previous venues, with no giant grandstand packed with the roaring crowds of Auckland or Portsmouth. This was not a showcase of the stadium-filling, crowd-pleasing racing that SailGP can deliver \u2013 though it was a marker of the financial appeal of the league, with the event sponsored by the Sports Council of Abu Dhabi. In the light, sub-foiling conditions and super-short courses, winning the start became everything, with Denmark, Switzerland and Germany having the best of the first day. At the end of four races three of the the top four teams – Emirates SailGP, Australia and Spain \u2013 were the sitting firmly in the bottom four on the leaderboard. The Kiwis only slightly redeemed themselves in 8th. What, I asked Dylan, was going on? \u201cI think, honestly, you could have called it before the event,\u201d Fletcher says. Article continues below… \u201cThere was a lot of teams who had couldn’t go up or down in the season championship; the points were basically closed off. Then you also had a bunch of teams changing people. And they were going to take risk. They were going to push it really hard. \u201cAnd I think we were all just so focused on doing what we needed to do to get into the Grand Final. As soon as it was that light, in reality, we want to win the actual Abu Dhabi event itself \u2013 but actually we don’t really care! …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1571,"featured_media":161293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3117,68],"tags":[3116,2133,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161289"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162000,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161289\/revisions\/162000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161289"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=161289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}