SailGP Canada Driver Giles Scott's Ottawa Connection

When I heard that Giles Scott was taking over the (literal) helm of Canada's SailGP team, and that he'd first learned to sail in (my hometown of) Ottawa, I quite naturally had to know: at which yacht club exactly?!

SailGP Canada Season 5 line-up (Giles Scott, driver). Teams race F-50 catamarans on foils reaching speeds approaching 100km/hr.

Was it Nepean Sailing Club, Britannia Yacht Club (which would be fitting, since he's a dual Canadian-British citizen), or Aylmer Marina? It was reported he learned "on the Ottawa River", but living in Chelsea, Quebec, as he was, might it even have been the Gatineau River Yacht Club? (I myself have sailed the Gatineau, although I'm most often 'sailing' it on a pontoon boat called the "Party Barge".)

Nepean Sailing Club

I'll back up for a second: the Canadian SailGP team was in danger of being cut from the league this year if they didn't find a new owner. (The team was taken over by the league when the original owner, er, bowed out.) One emerged at the 11th hour, and a decision was subsequently taken to replace our previous – amazing, legendary – helmsman (who's from New Zealand) with one who holds Canadian citizenship. Exit Phil Robertson. Enter Giles Scott.

Phil Robertson

Phil Robertson's like a hockey player from Quebec during the NHL play-offs: he's gritty, and gets his elbows up in the proverbial corners. Which is to say he's exactly the kind of player you want on your team, and exactly the kind all the other teams hate. He ruffles feathers. And he's entertaining as hell, both on and off the water.

Phil Robertson driving in costume of team mascot, Justine Beaver. (Halifax, June 2024)

Phil Robertson driving in costume of team mascot, Justine Beaver. (Halifax, June 2024)

Phil will always be an honourary Canadian as far as I'm concerned.

Phil also helped mightily in securing a new team owner, Dr. Greg Bailey.

With that new ownership announcement on Oct. 2 came the simultaneous announcement that Giles would take over as driver. His Ottawa links were vaguely mentioned here, there, and everywhere in the press, with precious little specificity.

Giles Scott

Ironically, Giles Scott won the SailGP Halifax, N.S. event in June 2024, sailing for Britain.

So where exactly did Giles first learn to sail in or around Ottawa? Well, a recent article in the UK's Daily Telegraph, related to Giles' involvement in Britain's challenge for this year's America's Cup, sheds a bit more light on his childhood time in Canada's Capital Region:

Scott had lived in Canada for much of his childhood. His father John, a sports administrator, spent a period working for the federal minister for amateur sport in Canada, moving his family to Ottawa when Scott was one.

“We lived in a place called Chelsea just outside Ottawa,” Scott says. “It was great. I mean, a lot of my memories are through VCR tapes and family stories, but I do have fond memories. Skiing in the winter, skating on the local lake, and then swimming in the summer.”

For those unaware of where Chelsea is, it's less than 15 minutes north of Ottawa. It sits on the edge of Gatineau Park. It's quite idyllic.

Camp Fortune ski hill is in Chelsea, and there's several more ski hills nearby.

Also in Chelsea is the Gatineau River Yacht Club. Did Giles actually learn to sail on the Gatineau River, rather than "on the Ottawa River", as was extensively (and vaguely) reported? (The Ottawa River is very long, for those unawares.)

Gatineau River Yacht Club

So I asked Giles on Instagram...

Me: Hey, Giles, do you remember which Ottawa area yacht club or clubs you sailed at back in the day? 

Giles: [No reply. No reply at all.]

Undaunted, next I asked SailGP Canada on X,... to which there also came no reply. No reply at all.

Maybe Giles didn't sail at a yacht club at all – maybe his familly just plopped a Sunfish in somewhere along the protracted expanse of the Ottawa River and away he went!

Sunfish on the Ottawa River.

Who knows. Seriously, who knows?!

A.N.

SailGP Season 5 starts this weekend (Nov. 23-24). You can catch the races Sat. & Sun. live on TSN at 5am (replaying at 11am Sat., and 11:30am Sun.). Also available on Youtube.

SailGP in Halifax, N.S. (June 2024)