Alex showed his passion for sailing early at about the age of 8 or 9 and was part of the Tonbridge Sailing Team for his entire time at the School. He was team Captain in his last year at Tonbridge.

Alex is now in his second year at Cardiff University studying Mechanical Engineering. He has been accepted as part of the Cardiff univeristy high performance programme. This is awarded to only 60 students and they support the selected high performers with their chosen sport. Alex started Moth sailing about 3 years ago and has progressed really quickly in the class.The hydrofoiling moth literally takes off and can travel up to 50mph with nothing but wind!

Last summer, Alex won the UK National Junior title in the class at Stokes Bay. Here is Alex on the cover of the daily report from the event:

Alex Barone on day 3 of the Wetsuit Outlet UK Moth Nationals 2021 © Mark Jardine / IMCA UK

The World Champions followed later in the summer and there were about 180 participants; Alex finished c100. The Moth fleet globally is very competitive with lots of past Olympic medal winning sailors as well as quite a few America’s Cup sailors competing in the fleet

For this season, Alex would like to try to retain his Junior title and then try to land in the Gold Fleet at the European Champs which will be in France.

Overall, Alex will look to create a career involving sailing & engineering… during Alex’s gap year he also achieved a RYA Yachtmaster Offshore (Commercial) qualification … it is pretty rare achievement to do at age of 18. 

Stokes Bay where Alex won the UK Nationals

Alex was interviewed in the Day one wrap up video: 

Bewl Valley's Alex Barone is easy to spot on the water with the shark mouth on the front of his Moth and is loving every minute of this championship:

"It was really good today - easily some of the best sailing I've ever done. Some of the bear-aways were a bit tricky but I managed to get through most of them, with only a couple of big pitch-poles today, so I'm really pleased with how it went! I've been sailing the boat for two years, but really starting to get the hang of it now, getting my tacks and gybes nice. It's one of the best fleets I've sailed in with loads of really friendly people so it's a great experience all-round."

Best of luck Alex and please keep us updated with your news!