World Champion and four-time Paralympian, Hannah Stodel, joins Clean Sailors

World Champion and four-time Paralympian, Hannah Stodel, joins Clean Sailors

Hannah Stodel, ambassador and Holly Manvell, founder of Clean Sailors

We are very excited to share that four-time Paralympian and world champion sailor, Hannah Stodel, joins Clean Sailors as a partner and ambassador. 

Clean Sailors, a not-for-profit, was set up in 2020 to create new standards of cleaner sailing within the global marine community to campaign on legislative issues and to promote education and conservation opportunities specific to sailing as well as the wider marine ecosystem.

Partnering with Hannah showcases the organisation’s determination to encourage all fellow sailors – both professional and recreational - to motivate their global sailing community to contribute to the better protection and preservation of the oceans.

Sailor Holly Manvell, who set up Clean Sailors after witnessing first-hand the amount of rubbish and debris floating in the sea, is delighted to have Hannah on board.

“Partnering with Clean Sailors - our team and our mission, underlines Hannah’s commitment to promoting a cleaner standard in sailing, and in inspiring every sailor to become an ocean ambassador,” said Holly.

“To have a sailor such as Hannah, already so known for using her voice for greater change, join our team is just awesome. That she is committed to using her profile to help raise awareness of what we are trying to achieve and how important it is that our global sailing community strives to protect our oceans, raises our game even further.”

Hannah, who is working towards becoming the first disabled female sailor to compete in the 2024 Vendée Globe – a single-handed, non-stop round the world yacht race - said she was looking forward to working with Clean Sailors.

“Having been a professional sailor for all of my life, I’m still astounded at how wasteful our industry can be, particularly on professional race circuits,” she said.

“Each cycle, we build new boats - to be faster, more technical and more spectacular -without full regard for old machines and their components; the recyclability and circularity of the high-performance materials we use.

“Development without full regard for our oceans and our planet needs to be challenged.

We can upcycle old boats, we can build truly recyclable boats, we can care about what we put into our oceans- we can make a difference, and that is why I am so so proud to join Holly and Clean Sailors and use my voice to do just that.” 

Hannah and Clean Sailors want to encourage other members of the sailing community to become ambassadors and help raise awareness of the issues facing the world’s oceans.

 

For more information about Clean Sailors, visit: www.cleansailors.com

For more information on Hannah Stodel and her sailing career to date, visit:https://www.hannahstodelracing.com

 

 

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors:

Hannah Stodel and Clean Sailors founder Holly Manvell are available for interview or comment upon request.

For further press information contact Bernice Saltzer at Sorted PR on 07977 860183 or email bernice@sortedpr.com

 

 

About Clean Sailors

Clean Sailors is a not-for-profit, mobilising the global sailing community in conservation of our oceans. Launched in July 2020, Clean Sailors' mission is to set a new standard of sailing within our global sailing community: clean sailing, by raising awareness of ocean conservation opportunities within our sport, our passion, our pastime.

The crew's aim is to make an ocean ambassador of each and every sailor around the world.

In  2021, Clean Sailors launched Cleaner Marina with industry partners including boatfolk, MDL Marinas, savvy navvy and Ecoworks Marine, to encourage better, cleaner standards across marinas, ports and harbours, globally.

In January 2022, Clean Sailors announced the launch of the Clean Sailors Youth Racing Team with three international Champion sailors; CJ Perez (18) the youngest sailor ever to join the SailGP league and the first latina, Lukas Hesse (22), German Champion 2020 and Swiss sailor Jan Schüpbach (20). 2022 will see the exceptional young champions compete together in the Persico 69F, at the very highest standard of foiling and as ambassadors for cleaner, healthier seas and a cleaner sailing industry.

Clean Sailors counts Henri-Lloyd, the Ocean Cruising Club, Finsulate and Ecoworks Marine amongst its early supporters.

 

About Hannah Stodel

Born missing her right lower arm, Hannah went on to become a three-time world champion and four-time Paralympian.

Growing up on the East coast of the UK, learning to sail became a way to cope with bullying around her disability and provided a sense of freedom with a “can do” attitude. Most of all it taught a strong independence that has defined the rest of her professional sailing career.

Hannah learned how to race from her parents, both fierce competitors: Mum narrowly missed out on selection to the 1988 Olympic Games in Korea while Dad was a strong player on the Hornet and 505 circuits.

By 13 years old Hannah had attracted real attention. Alongside the likes of a young Lewis Hamilton, she became the focus of an ITV advert filmed to encourage youngsters into sport. Later that year she became the youngest ever winner of the BT YJA Young Sailor of the Year award for her achievements at the Mirror World Championships. The award opened many doors including meeting Dame Ellen MacArthur who took Hannah racing aboard the trimaran “Foncia Kingfisher” during the Round the Island Race in 1999. Naturally, Dame Ellen waS the sportswoman Hannah aspired to be like and this is where dreams of one day doing the Vendée Globe began.

At 15 came a call that changed her life forever: Andy Cassell, the Atlanta 1996 PARALYMPIC Gold medalist in the Sonar class, invited her to go and train with him.

Until then Hannah had solely competed among the able-bodied. She held the mixed World Championship title in the 29er class, and actually viewed disabled sailing as the weaker option… a weekend in Cowes training with Andy changed that and the rest, as they say, is history!

Selection for the Sonar Development Squad, and 15 years more work with some of Britain’s finest sailors, coaches and support staff saw her win multiple World, European and National Championships over several sailing classes.

In the 2004 and 2008 Paralympic Games she competed as the only female racing in the physically demanding Sonar keelboat class - proving, once again, she could not only compete with the men but out sail them. To this day her team is the only one to have their names on the Sonar World Championship trophy 3 times.​