Reception pupil walks into the record books!
He started with a love of the outdoors and keeping fit, but a weekend hobby has turned into a world record for Sail Chapman, who has just become the youngest person to have completed all 214 of the Wainwright Fells at the age of 5 years, 3 weeks and 1 day. Sail finished his final Wainwright, appropriately named Sail, on Saturday 17 October.
The Lake District mountains include Helvellyn (950 metres high), Scafell Pike (978 metres) and Great Gable (899 metres). In contrast, combating Sail (at only 773 metres) was as simple as a toddle waddle for Sail himself, who is only 117 cm tall.
Sail, who celebrated his 5th birthday on 25 September, is in the Reception class at Hull Collegiate School. He is the third of five children of two GPs who live in Beverley, East Yorkshire, and the children have been walking the Fells of the Lake District from the age of 2 years.
The previous record was held by Robin Regan, who reclaimed the title earlier this year for his family at the age of 5 years and 11 months.
However, walking into the record books was not the original plan for Sail’s brothers and sister. “We have five children who are being brought up to appreciate the beauty of the British countryside, especially the Lake District, says Dr Clare Lavery, Sail’s mother. “Walking has always been something we’ve enjoyed,” she continues. “Each of the older boys’ enthusiasm has rubbed off on Sail and he loves to keep up with his big brothers.”
In fact, it was only after reading a newspaper article about the record broken by Robin that Sail’s parents realised that their own children were a similar age. Not only that, they realised that Sail had already completed most of the Wainwrights at the tender age of 4 years old.
“Our older two boys, Eire and Evan, could have gained the record themselves, but they have climbed many of the Fells over and over again with Sail and their younger sister,” says Dr David Chapman, Sail’s father. The parents are keen to emphasise that the family walk in the Lake District most weekends for pleasure.
Weekends away this may be, but the boys also need a lot of stamina. Each completed Wainwright has been carefully logged by Claire and David, who have been very careful to ensure that the boys completed their Wainwrights by themselves, rather than being carried part of the way. Sail’s older brothers, Eire and Evan, aged 8 and 6, completed their Wainwrights a fortnight ago, so Saturday's walk was familiar ground to them. “It was quite an easy walk today and the boys had a good time,” says Dr Chapman.
So what are Sail’s plans now that he has completed his Wainwrights?
“We have a younger daughter who has already started to walk the Fells and has completed over 70 of them,” says David. “Our youngest son, Coel, has just turned two so it’s time to start all over again!”
Sail and his family appeared on Look North on Friday 16 October and will also be featuring on tonight's Calendar. The ITV crew accompanied Sail on his record breaking walk over the weekend.
