After intensive training in the Carrick Roads last winter with his coaches Dr Phil Slater and Ed Shelton,  Benno Marstaller, 13,  from Restronguet SC and Mylor Yacht Club, has won the British Inland Championships and qualified for the British world championships team.

Benno, 13, a former Mylor Bridge School student and now a student at Penryn College,  qualified for the British squad after sailing against the 80 best Optimist sailors in the country, between Friday, May 3, and Monday, May 6, at the Great Britain trials, held in Weymouth Portland.

Benno was there aiming for a place in the top five, meaning he would be selected to represent his country at the World Championships at Lake Garda in Italy this July.

With an impressive performance during which he won five out of his 12 races, Benno made the cut and will travel to Italy this summer.

Not content to sit on his laurels, Benno took part in the first UK Optimist ranking event at Grafham Waters  held on the 18th and 19th of May.

Despite being pitted against  the country’s top 260 young sailors at the annual Volvo Gill Optimist Inland Championship,  Benno once again came out on top, claiming the Inland Champion title after winning all but one of his races.

Over May half term Benno is training with the British Team at Lake Garda in Italy, followed by team training in the UK in June, after which the GBR Team will head out to the Nieuwpoort Sailing Week in Belgium in July.

The event will provide their final preparations for the  world chamionships in Italy later that month.