David Murrin

A passionate Sailor and Commodore of the British Classic Yacht Club

Sailing is in David’s blood, as he was first taken sailing by his parents when he was only a few months old, and in all probability was conceived on a two month sailing tour of the Dutch cannels. living up to the family name Murrin, which means ‘of the sea’ or ‘sea warrior.’

He has been sailing ever since, initially as a boy on his father’s Harrison Butler, ‘Minion’ in the Solent in which they cruised around the French coastline every summer for  four to six weeks. Whilst visiting Saint-Malo at the age of 13, David took up windsurfing when it first appeared and was soon the youngest instructor in the country at 14, racing competitively in the youth squad, regarding sailing as a way of life and windsurfing as the competitive aspect to his sport.

He gained his RYA offshore yacht master certificate at the age of 18, and only then was allowed by his father to sail Minion.

Having had the resounding advise from his father to buy a boat before a house, David sought to buy a wooden boat that had a racing pedigree, and that was large enough for a family and small enough to be sailed by a couple, in effect a boat for life.

At 24 he bought Cetewayo as a wreck and renovated her in Pembroke dock, sailing her back to the Hamble after many trials and tribulations. It was not long before David started thinking about racing Cetewayo against other classic yachts. However at the time there were very few classics in the Solent, but when Solway Maid came back to the Solent  a match race was organised by The RYS, which ignited David’s passion for yacht racing. Since then David has been sailing Cetewayo successfully against both modern and classic yachts under IRC in offshore and inshore races, winning many events. Then in 2000, David started ‘Farr 40’ racing in his yacht 2XL. He did this for seven years with  some notable successes which started a love for ‘one design’ racing.

David started kite surfing and has been kiting ever since.

David along with Tim Blackman founded the BCYC in 2002, serving as the Vice Commodore until 2009 and since then has been Commodore of the Club.

David’s children have all been brought up sailing on Cetewayo as the third generation of Murrin Yachtsmen.

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