Still only 27, Harry Hall has come to Europe from Australia, won the Rolex Fastnet Race and then followed this with two season-winning campaigns on the 44Cup aboard Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika. Having raced all manner of other high performance yacht racing class from skiffs on his native Sydney Harbour up to maxi yachts in Europe, Hall has recently had to par back his racing as he has a full time job. The yachting he now limits himself to is: the RC44.

Growing up on Scotland Island on Pittwater, the idyllic estuary north of Sydney, Hall developed a love for sailing. He got a leg up first in the Youth Development Program of his nearby Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and then as part of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Advanced Squad program.

He was initially part of Harry Price’s team on the highly active youth match racing circuit in Australia, winning the prestigious Governor's Cup in 2018. This was enough to secure Price’s Down Under Racing team a spot on World Match Racing Tour events in Sweden and Norway in 2018. With other helms Hall won the Youth Match Racing World Championships in both 2019 and 2020, representing the CYCA. With James Hodgson he also won the Australian Youth Match Racing Championship in 2019.

Hall went on to race on the 16 and 18ft skiff circuits, which compete weekly on Sydney Harbour. This included sailing with Price again as part of the long standing 18ft skiff team Rag & Famish Hotel, reaching the podium of the JJ Giltinan Championship, the 18s’ effective world championship, in 2022.

Through connections made in these classes, Hall joined Australian sailing legend Sean Langman on board his Mini Maxi Moneypenny for the 2021 and 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobarts.

Having finished his bachelor’s degree in engineering in Sydney, Hall was planning on taking a year out but instead chose to come to Europe and through contacts, notably Aussie-naturalised Irishman Gordon Maguire, Hall got a spot sailing on Max Klink’s offshore TP52 Caro competing a ‘grand tour’ in 2023 including the Giraglia Rolex Cup, the Rolex Fastnet Race, Middle Sea and Sydney-Hobart race. Highlight of this unquestionably was Caro coming out on top of a fleet of 358 IRC boats in the Rolex Fastnet Race (with Team Ceeref Vaider’s Adrian Stead).

As if this were not enough Hall also raced on the successful Wally 93 Bullitt belonging to Yacht Club Costa Smeralda Commodore Andrea Recordati and it was via Bullitt’s bowman Pietro Mantovani, that he gained his present position as offside trimmer on Team Nika. In 2025 life got even busier for Hall, also racing on the Swan 50 Earlybird and on the 52 Super Series with Provezza, alongside Artemis Racing tactician Hamish Pepper, Aleph Racing main trimmer Skip Baxter, Peninsula Racing’s Matt Barber.

“I've been very lucky,” acknowledges Hall who has achieved in three years what usually takes most professional take decades, while also juggling a Master’s Degree in engineering in Barcelona. For the thesis for his Masters he got to work on a super computer in Barcelona and this has since caused him to stray in the worlds of meteorology and climate modelling and since then he has become a full time research engineer working this field in Barcelona.

The cost has been his sailing and having limited time off now he has chosen the RC44 has his class of choice. He is very impressed by the boat: “You've got to hand it to Russell [Coutts]… the forward thinking, the transportability – it is amazing to be able to sail a 44ft boat in some of the random locations we go to – to just drop into the BVIs or into a lake in Switzerland. You can't do that with other big keel boats.

“It's a perfect balance of being a very technical boat with the rig set-up. You've got the trim tab, which you don't have in many other classes. But there's still plenty of simplicity - you don't have eight jibs - you've just got three and one main and two kites for the whole regatta. There's still plenty of stuff to play with, but it's not over the top. And it's not forcing the owners to spend ridiculous amounts of money - it’s not an arms race like some other classes. There's a reason why people have been sailing them for 15 or 18 years- they’re just loving it.”

However it is not just the boat. “I'm lucky to have found this team. Vladimir is an awesome owner. He's been great to all of us and we've got a really good group on board. It's pretty hard for all of the stars to align - to get a situation where you have an awesome owner, an awesome boat, everyone on the team, et to the point where you’d say ‘I wouldn't change a thing. I love sailing with them. And the 44Cup is a super fun community.”

Hall is Team Nika’s under-30 sailor. “The under 30 rule does a lot for the class - making sure that all the teams have young people on board. And there's plenty of examples where people have stayed on once they’re older than 30. It's a really good stepping stone for people.”