About us

I grew up in Lisbon, Portugal and thanks to my father started sailing on his boat, a 10m sloop called “Beau Geste”  . at 8 years old I started sailing school and at 10 years old I was a young instructor at the Naval association teaching the young kids to sail !

Soon sailing Lusitos, Cadets, and then Moth. At around 12 the “Snipe” came into my sailing life eventually wining the Junior National championships 4 years later. In the meantime as crew I won the Senior National championship in “Vouga”  (a kind of Soling ) and “Sharpie12m”

In the meantime I had the pleasure of being the first person to trapeze in a FD in Portugal . I could hardly pull that genoa by myself !! What a beautiful boat that was.

Less successful was my adventure in a “Star”, being too young, too light and not enough experience ! but that boat remained my dream boat to this day…

Luckily we had many older Portuguese sailors quite good internationally so I learned a lot by studying them, something I used to do quite professionally for such a young kid. Asked lots of questions and watched their preparations before a race.

Some years later I was sent to Scotland to study Naval Architecture and sailing in bigger boats became the norm. First in a half tonner “Scampi III” and later a One Tonner “Billycan” . By 1973 I did my first Admiral’s Cup.  Followed that by becoming a Navigator and sailing all over the World, also crewing on “Windward passage” ,“Equation” “Saudade” and so on.. phenomenal boats !

After some glorious years working with Ron Holland, I designed “Justine III”  and won the One-Ton Cup with 6 bullets , first one ever on a World Championship since 1896.  The rest is quite a long story…including the party consuming 159 bottles of champagne ! Joe English son was baptised on the cup the next day !

Throughout my professional life I always liked to design smaller boats. More difficult and less margin, or no margin for mistakes.. I recall wining the “National 18” national championship in Ireland and designing also the wining “Flying Fifteen”.  Also helped design a new mast section for the “Star”.

Later immensely enjoyed working on the Sydney Olympics “470” appendages for the bronze medal winners of my Portuguese friends.

It was thanks to the friends I made in Ireland that I got the chance to design the first modern “sportsboat”, the “ 1720 Cork One Design”.

This was the boat that got Laser excited about doing a smaller boat and the SB20 was born..!

My desire is to continue to serve the SB20 community the best way we can, promote the best possible events, have fun and think about other future SB designs perhaps….

Following the very sad news of the passing of Simon Russell we are looking for a new CEO. Please send CV’s to tony.castro@sportsboatworld.com

SPORTSBOATWORLD  FULL-TIME JOB REQUIREMENTS :

SBW is currently intended to be run singlehanded, so it is a 24/7 job and weekends sailing ,etc  so it requires total dedication.

We have a Store at Segensworth and an office in Hamble, UK

Priorities : ( in no particular order)

• Someone that is a sailor. A good one preferably.
• Someone with a some engineering and boat maintenance skills
• Someone that can run a company singlehanded.
• Someone with a business background.
• Someone that is a salesman at heart.
• Someone that that understands how to keep costumers happy
• Someone that is excellent at communication with clients in a timely manner.
• Someone that is “measured” and polite with costumers.
• Someone that can be pro-active towards SBW future
• Someone with very general good organisational skills.
• Someone that can drive and look after the SBW 8m RIB.
• Someone that, in the future, can travel and be away from family without jeorpardising his own and their happiness.

Also: ( in no particular order)

• Someone that can live and breath the Sb20 on a 24/7 basis and enjoy it.
• Someone that wants to sail the Sb20 on a regular basis
• Someone that can go and compete worldwide in a Sb20 and offer an SBW service at important regattas.
• Someone prepared to drive to regattas with trailer and spares.
• Someone prepared to drive to the Builders to have meetings and deliver equipment.
• Someone capable of doing the basic book keeping in “Quick Books” and knows how to present accounts like a company Director.
• Someone that can keep a record of contacts tidy and archive emails accordingly, building a contact list, etc.
• Someone that can go to the boat shows with or without exhibiting a SB20.
• Someone that can organise the shipment of boats and spares worldwide.
• Someone that can contribute to the continuing improvement of the SB20 and future SBW products .
• Someone capable of liaising with the Builder and supervise the Building of new boats.
• Someone that can attend the World Council and UK Class Zoom meetings.

Languages: a Bonus