An effervescent character to be found at the 44Cup is Hannah Peters, who sails as ‘floater’ on board Vladimir Prosikhin’s defending World Champion Team Nika.

A strong English accent hides Hannah’s origins – from Anglesey in the darkest depths of northwest Wales – partly thanks to having studied in London (physics and engineering at Royal Holloway, University of London) and having since largely lived in England.

Despite sailing today being her first passion, this was not always the case in her youth. “I did a little bit of dinghy sailing, but I was actually a horse rider - show jumping to a relatively high level. But my parents were sailors and I always dabbled in sailing.” This was typically out of Holyhead and Trearddur Bay Sailing Club, on board 420 dinghies and then the 29er and Laser (as was).

“My sailing really kicked off when I was at university. I got into match racing through 29er sailing and I became pally with a lot of sailing people down south.” Among them were 1720 National Champion and Quarter Ton Cup winner Tom Forrester-Coles and Annabel Vose, the former 420 World and European champion, ISAF Youth Worlds bronze medallist, a four-time World Champion and former Red Bull Youth America's Cup sailor – today one of Hannah’s ‘besties’.

After finishing her degree she gained ‘life experience’ working for a season skiing and then in Croatia for a yacht charter company, before getting a proper job – using her degree. “I did four years with a geophysics seismic monitoring company travelling a huge amount, running their Europe, Middle East, Russia and Africa department, setting up earthquake early warning systems, monitoring volcanoes and working with the UN to install nuclear test monitoring systems. But then I decided that I wanted to do a little bit more sailing…”

This manifested itself in Etchells and J/70 racing, often in Cowes. “It was amazing for a young person to learn how to really sail and set up a boat, especially the Etchells as they're so technical.” This soon took Hannah to the Med and more competitive programs racing Swan 45s and Melges 24s, winning the Corinthian title at the European Championship for the latter and also the UK J/70 Nationals.

“It's always been incredible sailing at a really high level, especially on smaller boats where, as a woman, you can play a more pivotal part trimming or on bow,” she says.

Another diversion was when kitesurfing was becoming an Olympic sport and she gained a place with the British Sailing Team’s ‘Kite for Gold’ initiative, that aimed to rapidly advance British female sailors in the new discipline. Hannah was one of five in its Transitional Squad over 2018-19 which included a three month training block in Mexico with a coach. “It was incredible to get a glimpse into what the British Sailing Team is all about, where [for example] you have a nutritionist and physical training plans. It was a fantastic experience.” This she did for a year, but admits “I wasn't built for being an Olympic sailor long term. When I came back to the UK I had to make a decision as to whether to move to Weymouth, and really devote my life to doing that.” With doubts, the answer was ‘no’. “With the Olympics, you just have to be fully focused on that. I still absolutely love kite surfing.”

She returned to geophysics working on digitisation of earthquake and seismic movements and connecting those to alert systems as well as frack monitoring for the oil and gas industries. Her keelboat racing moved to boats like the Maltese J/70 Calypso and Melges 24s.

The eventual step up to the RC44 came via Team Nika’s tactician Nic Asher with whom she was sailing on a J/70, belonging to Peter Harrison (who attended Wednesday’s King’s Cup event). “He asked me if I was interested in sailing on the 44 and of course, I've been obsessively watching the 44s for many, many years, thinking that it was the most amazing fleet. So I jumped at the opportunity of sailing on one.” Her first event was at the beginning of this season in Lanzarote.

Her observations: “The perception is that it's incredibly high-level racing on really good quality, one-design boats. And it's actually probably the highest quality, one-design racing. It's a very strict one-design, when some so-called one-designs are not quite so strict. You can have different sails which makes a small difference but basically, it's all about how well you sail it.

“That first day when I walked down the dock in Lanzarote for my first event there were stars in my eyes looking at all the people I was walking past who I’d only ever seen on TV or read about in magazines. Suddenly, there was this whole dock full of sailing superstars.”

On board Team Nika Hannah has the floater role, which means different things on different boats. “I'm obviously the lightest on the boat, so I'm the little person that goes in and out of the boat when things need to be done. Skip - at our mainsheet trimmer - I've started being his caddy. Hoisting the kite, I tail the primary when the boys are on the pedestal. Everybody knows their role in every single procedure. You never get in the way of people, because there's also no space to!

“I've attempted to go on the pedestal once or twice, and it was exceptionally hard. If you look at the size of those strapping Irish lads [on Aleph Racing], for example. We've got Taavi [Taveter] on our boat, who's twice the weight I am! But I'm learning a lot through being part of that team. We have a coach, we have debriefs, etc.”

And the RC44? “It is not a big, heavy tank of an offshore boat. It's all about your pressing on every wave and feeling how the boat responds. That's what I love about it - it's a big dinghy.”

“Vladimir is really good. Nic is really good. And obviously, you've got some world-class sailors around you.They know where the bar needs to be set and I'm learning a lot. There is constant looking at the cut of the sails. And you've got the coach. The first few days of Lanzarote was all about making sure that every manoeuvre was as slick and as clean as it possibly could be especially with me added as the new person.”

Every RC44 team now has a female crew on board and Hannah’s story is fairly typical of how each has earned their position.