Since 2024 Megan Pascoe has been our best Action4Europe Sailor. In 2025 she also is leading the Ranking. . Recently, she gave an interview to Jon Emmett, a world-leading sailor in various boat classes and coach to numerous Olympic medalists. Several people had difficulty understanding the interview on YouTube (see below). Therefore, Megan transcribed the interview and made it available to Aktion4Europe.
Megan has been sailing 25mR for 2.4 years and in this interview she gives exciting insights into her career and the further development of (Olympic) sailing.
Jon Emmett
So absolutely delighted to have another really important chat, can you introduce yourself to the folks at home?
Megan Pascoe
So I'm Megan Pascoe, I'm formerly a British Sailing Team member for too many years, I think 2005 to 2016, two-time 2.4 world champion, two-time European champion actually as well, and now spending most of my time at Frensham Pond Sailing Club.
Jon Emmett
So you're, let's start at the end and go back to the beginning, so you're very heavily involved in your local sailing club, how did that come about and what are you doing now and what are you doing for the future?
Megan Pascoe
So I moved up to Frensham area for work, I lived on the island for eight years. (That's Portland Island for the people at home), yeah the one behind us, and got offered the job up there, decided right okay fine Frensham's up there, that makes life easy being the home of 2.4 sailing in the UK, and I think I was there for about four or five months and somebody said, do you want to go on committee?
Jon Emmett
And you didn't say no quickly enough?
Megan Pascoe
No, it kind of felt like time, I mean like yourself I sort of grew up in clubs, I grew up at Weir Wood like you, grew up in a great club where everybody spent a lot of time organising my sailing, and it kind of felt that right time to step into it.
Jon Emmett
Very well said, yes.
Megan Pascoe
I managed to do a lot of my committee time through Covid which was a bit of a nightmare.
Jon Emmett
I just think all the people who were on committees when Covid hit, nobody was realising that was going to be in their job description.
Megan Pascoe
No and I think people forget you're running a small to medium-sized business these days, and I mean Frensham we have about a thousand members, we sort of say big club, small pond.
Jon Emmett
That's amazing, I've got to be honest, I didn't know that.
Megan Pascoe
Yeah I mean it's ridiculous, we put about 100 kids on the water every Saturday morning, and run RYA training as well, and then we have some of the top sailors in the country sailing there.
Jon Emmett
Well, that explains why so many good people have come out the club, because you've got so many people to start with. And so what roles did you have on committee, or do you have on committee?
Megan Pascoe
So yeah, so I went up through the, I started at Rear Commodore, and went up all the way to Commodore, got that bit done quickly because then nobody can ask you to come back, but they did, and now I sort of did communications, still doing that, and also our training principal, which scares me because I don't know that side of sailing, but we've got a great chief instructor who does all the hard work, and I just sit there and say yeah that looks about right.
Jon Emmett
And then right back to the beginning, the 2.4, and I know you were campaigning very hard, and just like any of the British sailing, you know, there's always strength and depth, and it's so unfortunate that sailing's not in the Paralympics so it's just tell us a little bit about your journey.
Megan Pascoe
Yeah I came out of Oppies, I was getting to the age where I had to leave Oppies, and sort of looking at what I wanted to go sailing in, and I saw the 2.4 in the water, and yeah because it was a part of the Paralympics, it sort of dragged me in there, and that was in 2000, going back a long way. I'm an old lady in the class now.
Jon Emmett
Don't say that, what's to say about me? Not that I'm an old lady, but yeah.
Megan Pascoe
No, but, you've been in there for a while in the Laser class. I sort of got into 2.4s, and some great guys helped me get into the class, and I kind of just sort of kept going, and then got invited on to development squad I think was it, it must have been 2002, yeah middle of, mid 2003, because I end up in Palma with the likes of Ben and Percy and Shirley, you're sitting there thinking, oh crap, okay, right, okay, yep, fine, what am I doing here, age sort of 15, 16, I did go to uni, went up to Bournemouth for uni, because I wasn't earning a living from sailing, I then got on performance squad that year, so talking end of 2005, and I wasn't really, I never really thought Athens was a contender, but then I took the Beijing trials reasonably far. I think we might have taken them to Miami that year in 2008, so for me that was quite good. I always have a good time in Miami, Biscayne Bay was always quite kind to me, kind of miss that, when you're sitting here in, even sitting here in March. The next two campaigns were great. Learnt lots of sailing experience and met some amazing people but never made it to a Games.
Jon Emmett
You were saying about my time in the laser, but doing the circuit, and that's, you know, it's, it's like a, I was going to say lifestyle, but that makes it sound too, but it's, it's absolutely institutionalised, and when you get used to doing that programme, and that, that side of things.
Megan Pascoe
It is quite hard to go 9 to 5 working. For me it was a choice to get out of the industry so I could go sailing at the weekends. It is hard working for a living but no I actually have a really nice job, I can't complain, but it is Monday to Friday.
Jon Emmett
Do you want to talk about your previous sponsors, and what, what you've actually, what do you do now, in terms of your Monday to Friday?
Megan Pascoe
Yeah, so I, we've obviously had a lot of team sponsors over the years, which have been very, very good, and it's very interesting to see how they work. I don't think sponsors get enough credit for what they do, and it's important, we recognise them, to encourage them to do more. I did, did quite a bit of Allen Brothers as well, actually a lot of it was after I left the team, but now I work for a promotional merchandise company, doing customer service for them, so dealing with all the complaint departments, which is interesting. I sort of fell into printing, and I had one job before that in printing as well. I think it was just, just before my 30th birthday I got a job, so it's a bit strange. My career path is a bit, a bit odd when it comes to actually work related, but it, it works.
The 2.4mR, everybody says, oh it's a disabled boat, but actually we're only about 20 percent disabled in the world, so there's a huge amount of inclusion, yeah, it doesn't really matter male, female, any age, any size actually. I'm probably one of the smallest, and then they go sort of 110 kilos, and we all race, and we all go about the same speed, so it's a great boat for that, and yes, most of them are ageing gentlemen, but they're, they're sort of like, oh, we don't want to find crew for the big boats, or we don't want to hike a dinghy anymore and that's why sort of 2.4 is great, and for me, it's something, there isn't another single hander out there that I can sell to a world level, and that's so, that's so important.
Jon Emmett
And the message we would love to see back in the Paralympics, sailing back in the Paralympics, and we're hoping that maybe there'll be a demo event in 2032, but how do you think we, we sell that as a sport?
Megan Pascoe
Because for the individuals, it's obviously so important, We all know the benefits of sailing, whoever you are, but I think for disabled sailors, it really does bring a sense of freedom, it's a big cliche, I know, it's a cliche, because when you are on the water, you, you haven't got all those, all that problems on land, my mate used to name his boats after penguins, because penguins on land are a little bit odd, but when they get on water, they're very good swimmers, We were racing yesterday at Frensham, and we include the Hansa in our pursuit race, we actually adjust all our start times, so they can join in as well, and it's great, because we're all just part of a big fleet, and I think that's that's one thing that sailing does, is that it doesn't really matter whether you're able-bodied or disabled, if you can be part of a club atmosphere, and that's what I'd like to see a bit more. It's just actually saying to these guys, well look, you want racing, and if you look at the Hansas world that have just been, and the Hansa circuit that goes around the UK, actually, racing time is what these guys want, and these guys need, so actually finding a way of including them into pursuit racing, into handicap races, is kind of what we should be doing.
Jon Emmett
Yes, make it more accessible, yes.
Megan Pascoe
I think when it comes to the actual Paralympic side of things, I think we need to rethink what sport is for the Paralympics because I think the sport of sailing that we've been doing since 1902, I think anyway it's a while ago. It is actually not what Paralympic sport is now, and what Olympic sport is now, it's a very outdated kind of long series format, and it's not easy to follow. We need a bit of modernisation and I think what SailGP is doing, where you've got the short race formats where you've got the big wings, or little wings, and lots of races in bang, bang, bang, and also, you, if they say, well, there's no wind, and one boat's finished, all the other points get taken back to the last mark, so you don't have all this, sort of faff and drift off and I think, I think you've got to start thinking that way. I mean, if you look at the, the disabled boats that world sailing have kind of adopted nothing goes over five knots, well it does, maybe a bit more a bit unfair but nothing's faster than a laser on handicap, so you, sort of, think, well, that's not very exciting, and we all watch, we want to watch a bit of frills and spills, the 49ers and Nacras, we watch, because it's exciting.
Jon Emmett
Incredibly impressive what they do, and now the 49er, I guess, in terms of Olympic sailing, is only a medium speed boat, yes, compared to the foilers.
Megan Pascoe
When you look at things like the Moths, and things like that, you sort of think, well, you know, they're getting a bit outdated, they're getting a bit old now, look at the 18-foot skiffs, and think they're really old school. So I think we need to start looking a bit more exciting, more exciting and more accessible. It's not my sport, but I think you're going to have to go down the kite surfing route, and the winging route, and then just say, well actually if we need to put a big rig on this, to make it go in no wind, then you have to do that, because you can't have races that don't happen in no wind, no, I think we saw that in Marseille, didn't we?
Jon Emmett
Yes, it is a very, very hard time for everyone.
Megan Pascoe
exciting, isn't it, I'll have a drift off, and, and it's a problem, because for us sailors we understand the light winds. At Frensham, if you don't sail under five knot you don't go out that much. So I think there is a bit of that, where you have to sort of say well, we have to change our sport, and if we want sailing back in the Paralympics, we have to rethink what we're going to do and, and take it out the box. I love my 2.4 racing, but I don't go faster than five knots which doesn’t bother me, big overhangs are sexy, 12 metres, Six metres. The reason I sail a 2.4 for one reason, is because I can't own a six metre. Yes I did think about blowing my life savings one time, I was sort of like, I've got a bit of money, and I'm like could we, just for a year, could we just, no. We're actually going to go and race with the 12 metres in Toulon in the end of May, and for me, that is just great, My mates are like, that's a long way to go for a sort of long weekend, I'm like, yeah, but it's kind of boat porn, it's just, yeah, it's just, for me, anything that's got an overhang, I'm like, I'm there, but that's not, that's not what the general public's looking for now, and I think, I think Sail GP has got it right, good, um, so, we have a model to look to.
Jon Emmett
Model to copy, yeah, brilliant, well, thank you so much for your time and your enthusiasm, and we're, we're going to be working very hard in the background to keep our beloved sport.
And here comes the original interview