Volvo Ocean Race Apprenticeship For Ingham
The Bermuda Tourism Authority and XL Catlin have teamed up with the Volvo Ocean Race and Turn the Tide on Plastic to grant an apprenticeship opportunity to Bermudian Mustafa Ingham, an aspiring professional sailor.
BTA’s Glenn Jones with Mustafa’s mother Mandy Ingham:
In joining Turn the Tide on Plastic, one of the seven teams in the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race, as a Volvo Ocean Race Academy apprentice, Ingham has the opportunity to pursue professional sailing with the most elite offshore sailors in the world.
The goal is for Ingham to gain the necessary qualifications and experience to have an opportunity to compete as a sailor in the round the world Volvo Ocean Race.
The 16-minute live video replay is below:
“I’ve joined Turn the Tide on Plastic team as part of the Volvo Ocean Race Academy. In doing this apprenticeship I get to work with the shore team and go out sailing with the sailing team during stopover activities,” Ingham said.
“I’ve just finished doing the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup in Bermuda with Team BDA and I decided I might as well keep the ball rolling and get into this.
“The apprenticeship programme is aimed to help people like myself to hopefully one day become a Volvo Ocean Race sailor and to get into offshore sailing.”
“This is an awesome opportunity for one of our own,” said Bermuda Tourism Authority CEO Kevin Dallas. “Building on the legacy of the 35th America’s Cup, hosted out here this past summer, is a priority of the Bermuda Tourism Authority and that priority aligns perfectly with the career aspirations of Mustafa Ingham.
“All of Bermuda is immensely proud of Mustafa’s accomplishments with Team BDA in the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, and as his sailing career takes shape, the Bermuda Tourism Authority looks forward to working with him as an ambassador for the sport.”
XL Catlin EVP and Chief Experience Officer Paul Jardine added: “As the insurance partner of the 35th America’s Cup and an organization that is committed to youth development as well as advancing ocean education, it gives us great pleasure to support Mustafa Ingham in his quest to become a professional youth ocean racing sailor.
“We are confident that he will make the most of this opportunity and we will be keeping track of his progress every step of the way.”
Turn the Tide on Plastic is a mixed, youth focused team with a strong sustainability message, led by Britain’s Dee Caffari. The campaign, backed by the principle sustainability partner the Mirpuri Foundation, and Ocean Family Foundation, is dedicated to the issue of ocean health.
Caffari has built a multinational, 50-50 male-female squad, with the majority under 30 years of age. Alongside the sustainability focus, the messages around inclusivity in age and gender will be strong themes of the campaign, which provides Ingham the opportunity to learn from some sailings most elite athletes.
The Volvo Ocean Race started in Alicante on October 22 and will conclude in The Hague in June 2018 after 11 legs and 45,00 nautical miles of sailing.
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Wonderful news! Congratulations, Mustafa!!! That’s two young Bermudians involved in this epic, epic race. Very proud.
As an instructor in the UK, I had the pleasure of Mustafa’s company on a 5-day course before he flew out to Cape Town. We struck it off immediately, as I also have Bermudian connections and had watched TeamBDA on TV as well as one very lucky day on Spirit of Bermuda (I think Mandy was on board that day too).
I am working with an Inner London school, Greig City Academy, on Project Scaramouche. This is largely about improving the chances of the students in the future. Some of them have become exceptional sailors, like Mustafa, with similar cultural backgrounds. Also, they have all realised there is a world of opportunity outside of their home environments, and have made a conscious effort to pursue them. If only a lot more people would make the same decisions !!
I hope I will be able to maintain contact with Mustafa for many years to come, and to get him to meet some of the Project Scaramouche guys next summer.
Onwards and upwards! Or as we say in sailing – Fair Winds!
So exciting! Well done, Mustafa. All your hard work does pay off. Happy to see the BTA and international business supporting you.
Well done young man, I am amazed at these sailing VOLVO Ocean vessels. Stay the course Mustafa would really like to see you one day as crew on one of these teams..
rich guy sailboat race. Did nothing for Bermuda or Bermudians.