Trevor Millar
Founder and Executive Director
Where to start! Trevor’s innovative coaching style has landed him countless awards and honours over the past 40 years, with his athletes winning Olympic medals, European titles, World number one rankings, ISAF Youth medals and many World Cup and Europa Cup victories. Trevor, originally from the small village of Newtownards on the outskirts of Belfast began his prestigious coaching career with the RYA where he was the National Laser Coach with Team GBR for several years, enjoying successes at World and European Championship levels. He later moved back to his native Ireland where he set up the Irish Olympic Development Sailing Team and coached his squad of single and double handers on the international stage. Renowned for his visionary approach to coaching, Trevor later set up the SailCoach Foundation where he has guided sailors from an array of different nations to 7 Olympic Games and countless World, European and World Cup Championships with a plethora of silverware along the way. His experience at the highest end of our sport is unique in today’s age and his knowledge and medal winning formulae are of great benefit to the young sailors presently in Team SailCoach.
Tamas Eszes
Senior Performance Coach
As the Founder of Sailing Academy Gran Canaria (a SailCoach sister organisation), Tamas is a successful and innovative coach. Along with Trevor Millar, Tamas shares the philosophies essential to what makes SailCoach the unique success that it is. Unquestionably one of the most successful coaches in the last number of years on the underage circuit, Tamas has guided his 4.7 and Radial athletes to podium finishes in each of the previous four World Championships. As well as this, his team have won two World and two European Championships and numerous Europa Cup events and have become the envy of Youth Academies across the globe. These outstanding achievements were born out of Lake Balaton, Hungary where Tamas, a University graduate in Physical Education, began his own fruitful sailing career which included top 5 finishes at European Championships and two appearances at the Olympic Games, namely Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000. SailCoach now boasts a unique pathway to success from Opti to Olympic Games and looks forward to enjoying the benefits of Tamas’ expertise.
Alexandr Denisiuc
Senior Performance Coach and Director
Alex first joined SailCoach as an Emerging Nations Programme (ENP) athlete competing in the Olympic Laser World Cup Series. He has proudly represented his home nation Moldova at 5 Laser World Championships and 7 European Championships, a feat never before achieved by a Moldovan sailor. Alex successfully integrated his role as a full-time athlete with that of development coach at SailCoach, imparting his extensive experience across several classes including Optimist, 4.7, Radial, and recently at the Rio Olympic Games as well. Achievements in these classes led Alex to take up the position of Senior Performance Coach with SailCoach, allowing more SailCoach sailors to benefit from his expertise. Alex studied at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, and he has also earned a Diploma in Coaching and Sports Management from the National Institute of Physical Education and Sport, Moldova. He further holds a Level 4 Certificate in the Foundations of Coaching from the University of Malta. Alex is a native Russian and Romanian speaker and is fluent in English.
Miłosz Wojewski
Senior Performance Coach and Director
Miłosz has a Master’s Degree in Sailing Coaching from the Polish Academy of Physical Education and Sport. He started sailing from an early age, working his way through a number of youth classes to completing two Olympic campaigns in the Finn class. He has been a member of the Polish Olympic Team from 2008 to 2016 and finished second at the 2011 Finn Junior Worlds. He is also a regular top 20 sailor in the ISAF Sailing World Cup events. When he is not sailing the Finn, he can be seen racing in ice boats where he has been a National Champion at the Junior level. As well as his native Polish, he speaks advanced English and elementary Russian.
Rüya Çakmakli
Chief Instructor at RMYC Sailing School
The first thing that impresses you when you meet Rüya is her passion for being on the water, and she’s able to successfully pass that passion onto her students. From Istanbul in Turkey with a degree in Business Administration from the University of Bahçeşehir, after successfully finishing her degree Rüya travelled to New Zealand, where she took a language course in Auckland and spent her free time teaching sailing. Upon returning home, she worked for the biggest watersports company in Turkey before joining SailCoach in 2016, bringing with her a wealth of experience in the industry. Rüya has also gained a lot of experience coaching Optimists, both in New Zealand and with SailCoach, and has worked alongside a number of world-class coaches, gaining an abundance of experience with that class.
Nigel McCarthy
Strength and conditioning coach
Nigel McCarthy from Malta is our Strength and Conditioning Coach. Nigel has a Master’s Degree in Sports Science from the University of St Mary’s, London and during this period in the United Kingdom he coached at St Mary’s Richmond Athletics Club and through that experience has worked with a number of medaling athletes at the London Olympic Games. He also won a scholarship to attend the renowned International Olympic Academy in the ancient city of Olympia, Greece. He has also completed a number of other courses with the English Football Association, IAAF and UK Athletics, together with his Personal Trainer qualifications. We have tasked Nigel with creating fitness plans for all of our sailors and then working with them on an ongoing basis to reach and then maintain their personal fitness goals. During a competition, he will assist with pre-race warm-up and post-race recovery.
Roger Craig
Senior Performance Coach, Fitness Trainer and Dietitian
Roger’s passion for coaching has been reflected in an impressive array of results with his athletes winning medals in the 4.7, Radial and Standard rigs at World and European level. Roger is a registered Dietitian having studied Dietetics at the University of Plymouth and also has a degree in Food Science from University College Dublin. He is an RYA and ISA level 2 coach and a REPS level 3 personal fitness trainer. As a sailor, Roger represented his native Ireland at World and European level and has won a number of titles at the national and international levels. As well as coaching athletes on the water, Roger works with sailors dietetically helping them reach ideal body weight and optimise their nutritional status, as well as monitoring and developing their physical conditioning. He is also talented off the water athlete having completed the Ironman triathlon and several marathons over recent years, as well as enjoying his time playing team sports.
Patryk Kuczys-Lutomski
Performance Coach
Patryk was part of the first generation of young Laser sailors to come out of Poland after independence, being a member of his National Laser Team he campaigned the Laser for two Olympic cycles (2004 and 2008). Over this time he was coached by one of the foremost Laser coaches in the world, Kajetan Glinkiewicz (POL). Patryk who finished 4th in the 2002 Laser Standard Youth Europeans and in his last Olympic campaign was the sparring partner of Polish Laser legend Maciej Grabowski (POL), who went onto sail in the Beijing Olympics. Graduating in 2008 from the Sports Academy in Gdańsk, Poland, Patryk an outstanding student with top results of his class and is now a fully certificated coach. While at the Sports Academy Patryk spent a number of months each winter training with SailCoach at our former Toulon SailBase. His coaching career to date has had a number of success stories including the 2013 European Radial Youth Champion as well as a 3rd place in the 2012 Laser Standard Youth Worlds and a 2nd place in the 2009 Radial Youth Worlds. He has been a member of the SailCoach coaching team since 2011.
