Although I endeavour to portray the diversity of sailors and types of sailing in my column, it bothers me that certain niches, such as Corinthian offshore racing, have very little to offer on YouTube. So I was happy when the first episode of Alex Bevis Sailing dropped this January, and have thoroughly enjoyed watching her skills as both a sailor and a vlogger develop since.

Alex is a Guernsey-based financial services professional in her mid-20s who grew up inland in the UK, and only set foot on a yacht for the first time 18 months ago, at the invitation of her then colleague (and now crew mate and boyfriend).

She loved the experience of being “rail meat” on the Jeanneau Sunfast 3600 Killing Time for the round Guernsey race, and since then she says she “just kept turning up” ready to learn and work hard, and soon became part of the team.

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Her main aim is to demystify the sport of offshore racing for people like her friends and family, who have had next to no exposure to it. In much the same way as British Vendée Globe skipper Pip Hare has done for elite ocean racing, Alex communicates very clearly and honestly about the ups and downs of making her way in this new arena.

In her most popular episode, sailing YouTube star Sam Holmes gets his first taste of racing aboard Killing Time. When I compliment her on the cleverness of this collaboration, she laughs and says it would have been even better if she’d known it was happening ahead of time.

The invitation to Sam was actually the result of her crew mates who bumped into him in a St. Peter Port chandlery. But if this episode, along with his own take on it, and his recent visit to The Ocean Race festivities in Genoa are anything to go by, Sam Holmes is immune to the racing bug.

Alex, on the other hand, seems to have an incurable case, with recent episodes covering her experience of qualifying for and racing in the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race, and the videos about the first few days of racing actually edited and uploaded by her while still at sea.

With her enthusiasm to learn as much as possible about offshore racing and clear ambition, along with her background in data analytics and growing skills in online media production, I would not be surprised to see her following in Pip’s footsteps.

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