13 October 2004

A 19 year old South African is the youngest sailor competing in this year's America's Cup events in France and Spain and among the youngest ever to compete in the world's most prestigious yachting event.

Marcello Burricks, whose sweet smile and charming manners belie the tough township environment he grew up in at Ocean View, near Kommetjie, in the Cape, is the starboard grinder on Team Shosholoza.

The grinders are the powerhouse of America's Cup class yachts. They weigh in at around 100 kg and have to be super fit and strong but also quick and sharp.

Burricks', who weighs around 81 kg's, is madly trying to add weight, muscle and strength through rigorous work outs, but he claims he was well set up for the job from his teenage years as a fighter in Ocean View's gang environment. And he has scars from screw drivers and knives to prove it.

"I was quite a naughty boy and was sent to Ian Ainslie's sailing school in Simonstown six years ago to keep me out of trouble. I wasn't a member of a gang but I fought them to protect my friends. I am a good fighter," said Burricks.

SA Olympic sailor Ian Ainslie, started the Izivunguvungu MSC Foundation for Youth in 1997 after returning from the Atlanta Olympics. The school focuses on teaching street kids and children from poor backgrounds life skills through sail training.

"Marcello just kept coming back and was soon sailing everyday after school. He helped us with boat maintenance and started coaching other kids. He also read everything he could about sailing, all the big races and the America's Cup. I had to chase him home during exams," said Ainslie, the strategist on board Shosholoza.

He said Burricks was his most prominent and promising student and has become a legend in his community because of his achievements in sailing. His teachers and family are particularly proud of him.

In South Africa Burricks has competed in five Lipton Challenge Cups, the first with a development team and subsequently as crew for Izivunguvungu coach Mathew Mentz on the L26 MSC Donna Mia owned by Durban based Captain Salvatore Sarno who is driving the South African America's Cup Challenge.

He has also competed in most local offshore regattas and was on the delivery crew of a Cape to Rio yacht returning from Rio in 2000. He has also won two development regattas in Simonstown.

He matriculated last year from Simonstown High School where the curriculum includes maritime studies and joined Team Shosholoza full time in April this year.

"I was at school in Ocean View and only went to Simonstown High because of an American Round the World sailor, Kelly Wright, who paid for his tuition. I always liked hanging around boats in Simonstown and used to help him with his yacht. He asked me if there was anything I wanted. I said no, but my friend told him that I wanted to do maritime studies in Simonstown." Burricks turned 19 on 12 August just days before he left for Europe to compete in the first America's Cup events in Europe, the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act 1 in France and the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts 2 and 3 in Spain.

Besides grinding, he helps service the winches and ensures the onboard cameras are in position and switched on during races. He is also the keeper of the Shosholoza sound track which is played as the yacht leaves and returns to dock every day.

The French loved him in Marseille and he was often invited out on sightseeing trips and here in Valencia he makes friends wherever he goes. He reads avidly and takes every opportunity to get on his bike and explore the city. There is little that he misses and if one needs information on anything from the technical aspects of a race to crew gossip he'll know it.

On his return to South Africa at the end of October he hopes to buy his first car and fit it with the biggest sound system available.