Richard Jenkins

Jenkins was born in England to Australian parents. He was raised in Lymington, a small village near Southampton and on his grandfather's farm in Western Australia. He became interested in sailing and engineering at a young age: he was dinghy sailing at age 10, working on the last airworthy Short Sunderland flying boat at age 12, building an International Moth dinghy in his early teens and doing design work for super maxi yachts while attending college. He first crossed the Atlantic when he was 16. He also helped to sail the Matthew, a replica of John Cabot’s 15th century caravel in which the explorer discovered the island of Newfoundland.