Martyn Styles MBE

Happy New Year to everyone at KSSA.  We are delighted to learn that our KSSA President Martyn Styles has been awarded an MBE for services to junior and youth sailing.  It is hugely well deserved for outstanding support to youth sailing from which KSSA has benefited over many years.  Martyn can recall sailing in the first KSSA regatta at Royal Temple Yacht Club in Ramsgate in the 1960s after KSSA was formed by a group of school teachers from local clubs.

Martyn has devoted all of his spare time to teaching, coaching and organising sailing at the Downs Sailing Club, Walmer, throughout Kent with KSSA and at national level with the National School Sailing Association. He started and organised the start of Kent Schools youth race training. He ran Centres of Excellence at Bewl Valley Sailing Club, Kent.

These Centres of Excellence were held over five weekends from October to March. There would be up to 45 dinghy sailors between the ages of 8 and 19 attending each time. He developed this into a Hi-Flyers Programme and for many years, with a group of like-minded individuals he took groups of aspiring dinghy racers to the National Sailing Centre on the Isle of Wight for a week’s training. This he later developed into a national Hi-Flyers Programme for the NSSA.

These training programmes were the precursor of today’s RYA Youth Programme. He has held every leadership role in the NSSA, the KSSA and the Downs Sailing Club. As a result of his inspirational coaching the KSSA Team has had notable success regularly winning or finishing in the top three counties at the NSSA Youth Regatta.

Many congratulations to Martyn and thanks to his huge contribution to sailing in Kent and particularly KSSA over the years.