A Beer business is celebrating the success of one of its employees who sailed to victory in a national competition.

Iain Horlock, who works in the rigging department at Jimmy Green Marine, kept his cool against 110 other competitors in the dinghy class at the Supernova National Sailing Championships in Llandudno.

It is only the 25-year-old’s second time in the competition, which pits the competitors in seven races, with the chance to discard one of their results in a bid to claim first place.

In a nail-biting finish, Iain pipped competitior Mark Hartley to the overall top spot.

Iain said: “It felt amazing to win. It still hasn’t completely sunk in yet.

“I knew I had some good speed in the boat, but thought there was no way I could beat so many boats.

“It was a very strong wind at first and I do enjoy those conditions. It was good sailing conditions for everyone on the Sunday. I was very pleased to hold in there.”

Iain said that getting his craft ready for the competition took ‘a bit of boat maintenance and preparation’ to ensure all was ship-shape.

The sailor started on the sea at the age of 15 when he joined the Exe Sailing Club in Exmouth.

He said: “I trained on the safety boats at the local club first, then thought I’d have a go at sailing, rather than rescuing people.

“I was hooked. A good friend at the club gave me his old Laser dinghy as long as I donated it to the club after a year or two.”

Iain moved to Seaton to be closer to his workplace at Jimmy Green, where he has been based for the last two years.

It was not the only success in the Horlock household as Iain’s brother, Alex, also secured a fourth place finish in his competition.