From a very young age, Katrina spent a lot of time in and around boats. The youngest of three she soon joined in with her siblings in racing International Cadets, a double-handed dinghy in the RYA Junior Class. She crewed from the age of six and was selected for the National Squad for a total of six years, first as a crew and later as a helm. During this time she participated in many of the major International and National events, as well as continuously training both in the National Squad and at her home club, the Royal Corinthian Yacht club in Burnham on Crouch Essex.

At the age of fourteen, Katrina was encouraged by her RYA coach to leave the Cadet class early to begin a crewing campaign in the International 420. His advice was based on her height, strength and ability and Katrina eagerly moved on to the challenge of learning to trapeze and race in an extremely competitive fleet.

She joined forces with Sophie Wequelin and they notched up notable successes, in particular winning the RYA 420 Youth Nationals in 2006 and then being selected for the ISAF Youth World championships, where they came twelfth. They then competed in the 420 World championships, where they finished a creditable eighth.

In August 2006 Katrina moved into the International 470 and sailed with Melissa Heppell, competing in the Olympic test regatta in Qingdao, the UK National rankers and the RYA Sail for Gold.

Later that year Katrina was asked by Hannah to crew at the Palamos Christmas regatta in Spain. Despite a challenging regatta with high winds and low temperatures they were successful both on and off the water in their result and launched themselves as a promising team.

Since then the Girls’ sailing has gone from strength to strength. They are members of the Skandia Team GBR Olympic Development Squad and have followed a full programme of fitness, race training and regattas and have earned themselves Junior (U.22) 470 World and European titles.

Katrina has now left school, having achieved three A’ levels and a glowing report, notwithstanding the fact that she has needed to take considerable time of school for sailing. She is understandably adept at time management skills and is something of a madcap, never sitting still for too long! She enjoys repairing and maintaining their boat and equipment, and when she does stay still for long enough she enjoys reading, current affairs and cinema.