MUMBLES: The 16-year-old sailor who’s always last up the beach, and now has an award for it

Wilf Tovey is 16, races for Wales and, by his coach’s account, is usually the last one up the beach because he has been helping everyone else with their boats.

That habit has earned the Mumbles Yacht Club sailor an RYA Cymru Wales Impact Award, presented at the Welsh Youth and Junior Championships in Pwllheli for the support he gives younger members of the national squad.

He did not see it coming. “I enjoy giving others a hand, especially if they’re new and aren’t sure what they’re doing, and if they don’t know many people it’s just good to give them someone to know,” he said.

“If I’m not in a rush to launch, it’s nice to help, and I like a good chat so I find it rewarding as well.”

“Always cheerful, always welcoming”: the coach who put his name forward

Wilf was nominated by Welsh National Sailing Team coach Jon Nuttall for giving his time to newcomers, from rigging boats to getting them launched.

The team supports around 70 young people aged eight to 18 through coach-led training weekends and residential camps, and RYA Cymru Wales says that for some a residential is their first time managing without a parent on shore.

“At squad residentials, Wilf is always helping the younger sailors, always cheerful, always welcoming,” Jon said. “Joining a squad can be very intimidating but Wilf makes the experience far less so.” He affects the younger sailors, his coach added, “more than he knows”.

Sarah McGovern, chief operating officer of RYA Cymru Wales, who presented the award, said: “He is always helping others and is quite often the last person up the beach having helped everyone with their boats, or the last person helping to load boats onto trailers. He is always offering support and is a friendly face in the boat park.”

Racing for Wales in the ILCA 7, and a summer volunteering at the youth worlds

The Gower College Swansea student competes nationally and internationally, and has been picked again for the 2026-27 Welsh National Sailing Team in the ILCA 7, the one-person dinghy raced at the Olympics.

This summer he also gave up his time to help the race officials at the ILCA Youth World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark.

Back home he sits on the Welsh Sailing Youth LAB, a group of young people helping shape the sport in Wales, whose ideas include the Welsh Sail | Hwyl Cymru awards for those who represent Wales in competition or volunteer.

Next on the list is qualifying as an RYA Dinghy Instructor with the Sea Cadets, so he can support their activities for young people and the youth and junior section at his own club.

A club with new dinghies and big plans for Knab Rock

That junior section has been growing. The club ran a Crowdfund Swansea appeal in 2024, backed by almost £37,700 from Sport Wales and £5,000 from the council, to buy new dinghies for children learning to sail in the bay.

In May it unveiled plans for a £4.5m Centre for Marine Sporting Excellence at Knab Rock, to be paid for by flats on the site of its existing clubhouse, with council planning officers giving the idea a mixed early verdict.

The Impact Awards go to people who go the extra mile for activities on the water, under RYA Cymru Wales’s Together on our Waters strategy. In 2025 one went to Aston Grindrod, the 23-year-old chief instructor at Swansea Watersports who volunteers with Swansea Sea Cadets.

Wilf says he enjoys the social side of sailing as much as the racing, along with the travel and the chance to meet new people. On the evidence of the boat park, he also enjoys making sure everyone else gets on the water first.

Author

Kit Peters

Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.