“Hot Socks”, KMY Racing’s Figaro II, will be on display in Feature Berth 63 for the duration of the PSP Southampton Boat Show, as will Katie in her role as Ambassador to the show.

The boat show has been a regular feature in Katie’s life since her first sailing experience back in 2000, where she has been a visitor, employee and now, exhibitor.



Katie will be promoting the show, her partners and sponsors and also her OSTAR 2009 project from onboard and everyone is more than welcome to come down and meet Katie, her boat and the rest of the team.

On Friday 12th September, Katie will also be on the main stage as part of the official launch of the OSTAR 2009, before the launch of her own project on the following Monday.



Katie said, “The PSP Southampton Boat Show has always been an exciting event for me, but this year the boundaries have been pushed even further! The show provides a fantastic opportunity to meet up with current sponsors, heat up the pursuit of potential ones, and importantly, open up our project to other members of the sailing community. “Hot Socks” has had a mini make-over for the show, (the first of many I would imagine!) and it would be fantastic if other sailors would like to come and see her.”

The weekend of the 8th September saw Katie competing in the third race of the Petit Bateau Solent Series. The series consists of four short races in the vicinity of the Solent, and the third featured four turning marks around some of the Solent’s racing buoys.



A longer than normal passage from Cowes to the start line for Hot Socks meant that unfortunately they arrived later than usual, and sailed straight across the line to start. However, they remained with the majority of the fleet until the first mark, before twists in both of her spinnakers ruled Katie’s downwind sails out of the race. As a rule, Hot Sock’ competitive edge had been lost and a very disappointed Katie said “It wasn’t our best race, and a testament that you just cant get to the start line early enough. Clearly I need to practice a little more in the spinnaker department too. Still, on the windward legs we remained competitive, and there were still some good points to be taken fron the race. 5th overall wasn’t that bad, but its always frustrating when you know you should have done better.”

The last of the Petit Bateau Solent Series is on October 11th.

The Royal Southampton McGuigan Wines Honfleur Double represented Hot Socks’ first class win of the series.

The race was a challenging cross channel one in light airs with co-skipper Lizzie Shawcroft. In all, the 95 miles took the girls just over 17 hours and 10 minutes averaging a mere 4.9 knots. The race was made all the more challenging by the lack of wind instruments, the transducer for which had been lost in the previous race and an opportune replacement time had yet to be found.



Katie said, “The lack of wind instruments certainly provided us with a little more fun, but it was actually a great opportunity to work on a bit of good old fashioned sail trim. The lack of wind meant the race would inevitably be a long one and sleep management became an issue. I thought Lizzie and I worked well, with a one on one off system the worked as one started to nod or hallucinate! A bit of a match race between Oscar on Juneau added some excitement to the mix too!”

After crossing the finishing line as fourth boat, Katie and Lizzie turned immediately back toward the Solent, enjoying an equally long trip back.

Katie and Hot Socks are currently fourth in the full series with one race to go.

This year saw Katie and Hot Socks compete with 6 additional crew members onboard during Skandia Cowes Week.

Hot Socks was competing in IRC 2, along with some pretty big boats! The racing was fast, fraught and very intense all week, with Katie’s top speed on Hot Socks achieved… 17.7 knots!!



It was the first time that Katie had skippered a fully crewed team before and at first she found it quite difficult. She said, “At the start of the week I was still very much a solo sailor trying to sail a fully crewed race. I was still eyeing up the jib trim, thinking about the spinnaker sets and continually navigating and anticipating the tides. As a result, my helming was pretty shocking, usually the pilot would be in charge of that while I thought about everything else! By the second day though, I was focussing on helming alone and let the other guys deal with the other stuff. They knew exactly what they were doing and from then on we sailed perfectly.”

The five nominees for the Liz Earle Ladies Day Trophy at Skandia Cowes Week have been announced today by a panel of judges that includes the double Olympic Gold medallist Shirley Robertson OBE.

Liz Earle Ladies Day, which takes place on Thursday 7 August, culminates in an exciting on-the-night announcement of this year's recipient of the exquisite Liz Earle Ladies Day Trophy, presented by Dame Ellen MacArthur in front of an invited audience at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Cowes.

Selecting the nominees and an overall winner of the Trophy is all about publicly recognising the achievements and contribution of women in sailing, from those who have overcome difficulties in order to succeed, to those who have undertaken considerable challenges. 



As well as Katie, four other remarkable ladies have been nominated :

Sam Davies

Sam Davies is one of the top five Open 60 female sailors in the world, which makes her one of the leading solo sailors in the world. She graduated with a Masters Degree from Cambridge University and has spent most of her life on the water, making her way in the offshore sailing world via the Mini Transat and the Figaro Class.  At the age of 33, she is now running an amazing Open 60 campaign called Roxy Sailing. Fresh, down to earth and with an unusual profile, she is someone that non-sailing experts can associate with and follow passionately. Earlier this year, Sam competed in the Artemis Transat and took an amazing fifth place, being the first Brit and the first female home. Despite sailing ‘blind' with no radar and having a collision with a whale, she arrived ahead of some of the other competitors who were racing newer yachts. This was seen as further proof of her talent. Impressed, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston commented: "Sam has shown her real ability. She does not have a new boat but has been keeping up as if she had. She has done her reputation no harm and others will appreciate that her dogged determination is a threat whenever she is racing."

Hilary Lister

Quadriplegic Hilary Lister credits sailing with changing her life.  Since Hilary discovered sailing in 2003, there has been no stopping her.  Not content to stay on the gravel pit sailing lake where she learnt to sail, Hilary set herself some amazing sailing challenges.  In 2005, Hilary earned national acclaim when she became the first quadriplegic to solo sail across the English Channel.

Hilary competed in the Skandia Cowes Week Round the Island race in 2005 aboard Pindar's Open 60 with Emma Richards and Lee Sharpe in the Celebrity Pro-Am Race.  In July 2007, Hilary sailed around the Isle of Wight, solo aboard her new Artemis 20.  Now she has taken on the challenge of sailing solo around Britain on her Artemis 20. We believe her to currently be in Newlyn in Cornwall.

Sailing solo gives Hilary a chance to be in control of her own life and she loves nothing more than spending hours out on the water alone. Hilary is rarely able to be independent, being reliant on other people to help her live her life. Out on the water, she is able to escape and spend time alone, in control of her own destiny.

Kerry Gruson

Kerry was the first disabled woman helm to compete at Skandia Cowes Week. Her condition, termed Anoxia (a lack of oxygen to the brain after being strangled by a Vietnam veteran), has left her with paralysis in the legs and arms requiring her to use a wheelchair for mobility on land.  While sailing a boat, Kerry uses a specially designed seat that provides the trunk stability necessary to sail in various wind conditions.

A graduate of Harvard, Kerry is now retired from her job as a news assistant in the Miami bureau of The New York Times.  She started sailing in 1991 at Shake-A-Leg Miami, and now teaches at the facility.  Kerry has been teaching sailing and working at a strategic level in the advancement of accessible sailing for people with disabilities for many years. From her almost daily sailing classes with children and adults with disabilities, to her board membership of Shake-A-Leg-Miami (a charitable organisation working to bring people with disabilities into the freedom that sailing can bring), Kerry has been and continues to be a committed leader in sailing for all.

Kerry, following her recent participation in Cork Week, travelled round Ireland to work with Waterways Ireland supporting sailing clinics for people with disabilities. One of the first steps in her Global Links Programme, Kerry is working to build a network of organisations supporting people with disabilities to access sailing; building best practice models and providing learning experiences for both the organisers and participants.

Competing in her third Skandia Cowes Week this year, Kerry continues her focus on overcoming her own disabilities and the additional element of recovery from cancer. She is a living illustration of joy and courage in sailing - a highly deserving nominee for the Liz Earle Ladies Day Trophy.

Louise Morton

Louise has been supporting Skandia Cowes Week consistently since 2003 with an all women crew. She teamed up with her friend Liz Rushall and they put together a group of friends on board her Folkboat "for fun".  That year they finished 4th overall in the Round the Island Race and also scored a respectable Skandia Cowes Week result too! After two years with the Folkboat, Louise moved onto a Quarter Tonner Super Q. Then in 2007 she took over Espada at Skandia Cowes Week from husband Peter, and made the transition to helming as well.

As well as sailing in major regattas, Louise is also frequently behind the scene's managing them, either in her former role as secretary of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, including running  various World Championships, and as Quarter Ton Class secretary. The highly successful revival of the Quarter Ton fleet, Quarter Ton Cup and Vice Admiral's Cup owes much to Louise's commitment.

There are few people who can combine this level of organisation and sailing successfully, so readily and cheerfully. Her transition to helming has been smooth, with a 3rd overall at Cowes 2007, winning her class at this year's inaugural Ladies Championship, and an 11th overall in this year's windy JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, up there with the TP52s. Louise's commitment to her sport has facilitated many women to get afloat at Skandia Cowes Week and she is a worthy contender for the Liz Earle Ladies Day Trophy.

We wish all the nominees the very best of luck - in this group of remarkable individuals there can be no losers.