Hannah Mills - the 'enigma'

The Daily Sail takes a look at one of Britain's most promising young sailors

“She’s an enigma really”. This is the first piece of explanation Alan Williams, Hannah Mills’ Optimist coach, divulges to thedailysail. The Welsh schoolgirl put her marker down last year, when aged 15 she finished fifth at the Optimist World Championships - top girl and top British sailor, ever.

So is this a sign of promising things to come? “I am quite clear really,” says Williams who coaches the Welsh Optimist squad and is Principle at the Plas Menai National Watersports Centre, “although I am biased too. I would say that she is one of the best junior sailors we have produced for many, many years. Her prospects for the future with the right support, the right coaching…well, she can go as far as it is possible to go in sailing, I have no doubt about that.”

Mills took up sailing on family holidays in Cornwall, but does not come from a sailing family. “We used to live in Cornwall,” she says, “and every summer we used to go there for a couple of weeks and my brother used to sail there, but I wasn’t allowed as I wasn’t old enough. Finally I was allowed and I really enjoyed it. Then I came back to Cardiff and learnt how to sail properly.”

When we speak to Mills she is in the middle of watching Snatch on DVD, taking a breather in the middle of her GCSE examinations. Her mocks in September went well, even though she had to cram them into a week after being away at the 420 Worlds in Australia, and she seems confident about getting the right grades this summer.

Mills find Physics “very easy” and is looking forward to going onto A Levels at her school. Having already dismissed early career dreams of being a doctor or a lawyer, Mills is keen to tackle meteorology, an interest developed alongside her sailing. “I like things like Hurricanes and stuff” says Mills. Hopefully not in her Optimist.

Now 16 (although technically just 4 years old - her birthday is on the 29 February), Mills has now moved on up into the 420. Partnering her is a fellow ex-Optimist sailor Peggy Webster as crew. The pair did a moderate amount of 420 sailing last year, before finishing top under 17 Girls at the 420 Worlds. Williams brings this fact to our attention: “She wouldn’t have mentioned that because she would not see it as important.”

The British 420 Girls team is heading for a bit of a clear-out explains Mills; “The end of this year, nearly all the girls who are beating us at the moment are moving on. This is all their last year in Youths, so it depends on who comes along really.”

So the plan at the moment is to try to qualify for the Youth Worlds in 2005. After that it could be a move into the 470 for the pair. Mills is keen to point out that any thoughts beyond that are just speculation and much depends at this stage on how big Peggy grows. “I don’t really know how big I am going to grow! I think she’s going to be tall as her mum is tall” says Mills.

So what really marks her out from the crowd? Mills’ own explanation is modest and she levels most of her achievement in Optimists to coach Williams. Williams in contrast is clear about exactly what makes the young Welsh sailor tick.

“I don’t think she had any expectations when she started off,” explains Williams. “She was a bit like a sponge really and just absorbed she was taught and heard." Similar has been said of Ellen MacArthur. "She is very determined sailor, who, when it comes down to it, is extremely focused and she has the ability to focus on the things that really matter. She doesn’t get distracted when racing and those sorts of attributes are very important.

“Even at the junior level, it's very much about making sure that the sailors make the appropriate decisions according to where they are at a particular point in time. And Hannah is really good at information processing.”

In addition to this, Mills has been supported by her non-sailing parents in a refreshing way for a young Optimist sailor. “Her parents are superb,” states Williams. “They are very good at looking after Hannah as a person and they just don’t presume to know too much about the sailing side. They don’t go home and give Hannah a hard time if she hasn’t done well in a race. They have been much more supportive and I think been very good role models.”

In addition to this it seems that Mills has the tenacity and intelligence to focus on what is important, and leave out what isn’t. Williams recounts the Optimist Worlds in 2003 where Mills scored two black flags early on in the regatta - one of these was a first place finish. Her two discards gone, another poor result would ruin her chances overall in the 221 strong fleet.

Williams’ fingernails were already chewed to the bone and he then witnessed Mills getting tangled with another boat just minutes from the start. It was a proper tangle too - Mills had managed to get a competitor's boom stuck in her hair and spent precious minutes trying to get herself sorted out and her hair straightened up. She went on in that race to finish fifth.

Mills admits that keeping cool on the race course is one of her strengths, but she also wants to enjoy herself. “A lot of people did more sailing than me,” says Mills of the Optimist sailing last year, “but I think there is a balance between what you should do and some people took it too seriously and didn’t come out as well as they had hoped to. I take it seriously when I am on the water, but other than that it was a bit of fun really.”

Her attitude and talent has attracted a sponsorship deal from Open 60/Volvo campaigners Pindar. Emma Richards met Mills when Richards was undertaking her role as an HSBC Ambassador and a Pindar sponsorship followed. This enabled Mills to get another 420 to practise in while her race boat was shipped out to Australia - and back.

Mills does not think that Open 60 sailing is for her at this stage: “No I don’t think I could do that! Definitely not on my own!” It seems that enjoyment of sailing with a crew in the 420 and sharing the highs and the lows is what has really motivated Mills on to the next stage.

If she was to go all the way, as Williams suggests she can, what does she think of sailing at the potentially Weymouth-based sailing event in the 2012 Olympics? “Apart from the fact that it would be in Britain! It would be good in Weymouth, but it’s not really Sydney is it!”

Williams is cautious however about looking too far into the distance. “I think the biggest test for Hannah will be a test of her patience. Because she has to be patient in terms of developing the skills. We know she has the ambition, she won’t accept second best.”

This comment is best summed up with another Williams anecdote from the Optimist Worlds. Mills was called out for a WADA Drugs Test during the event (Williams thinks this may have been the first test for a Junior sailor in the world). However the sample bottles have to go into a tamper proof container and protocol states that this has to be sealed by the competitor. Obviously designed for burly Finn sailors, Mills struggled to get the container sealed - telling the WADA officials that she would have to stand on it to snap the lid on. This isn’t in the protocol either, but for Mills it was a case of turning round with the sealed box and stating ‘Well, it is now.'

A modest young sailor, prepared to tell people what to do with their ‘rules’ and who enjoys her sailing as much as her concealed desire to win. We wish Hannah Mills continued success and hope that she, above all, continues to enjoy her sailing.