14-year-old Vincy sailor pursuing Olympic goal

The 14-year-old Vincentian who sailed solo to Bequia and Union Island continues to pursue his dream of representing his country at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Kai Marks-Dasent, of Calliaqua, is training to participate in the UK ILCA Nationals later this month.

There, he will be racing in the ILCA 6, which is expected to be a challenge even as he builds up his skillset to be able to race the ILCA 7 at the Olympics.

Marks-Dasent told iWitness News that while he is not expecting to be among the top performers in the event, he is looking forward to honing his skills.

“I’ve love sailing. I started sailing eight years ago and I’ve just slowly built my way up. And I just love this boat, because anytime I race, I just feel a fire that makes me want to go fast and win.”

Marks-Dasent, who attends St. Joseph’s Convent Marriaqua, is a member of Vincy Sailing and has competed in the Caribbean Dinghy Championships in St. Martin as well as meets in Barbados and Antigua.

Additionally, he has taken part in a training clinic in The Bahamas, which was “very beneficial, because I learned a lot of new things and a lot of skills I didn’t know of”.

Marks-Dasent is approaching the UK events with an open mind.

“I’m not hoping to do well or win the competition because there’s over 100 boats, but I’m hoping to go and learn and get a lot of experience out of it…

“This is a new boat for me. I just moved up into this boat, so I’m not expecting to win the whole competition.”

Marks-Dasent will be racing in an ILCA 6. Previously, he raced the ILCA 4.

“The sail is a lot smaller, so it’s easier to control and handle on the 4,” he said of the boat that he has been racing for “a year or two”.

He told iWitness News he would feel confident racing an ILCA 6 after about a year of training.

On Jan. 13, 2024, Marks-Dasent sailed, solo, from St. Vincent to Bequia a year ago to raise funds for him and his teammates to participate in international sailing competitions, with his goal of reaching the Olympics in 2028.

“It was fun, fast, very wavy and it happened so fast,” he said of the 10-mile sail that took him an hour and 12 minutes to complete.

“I thought it would take a lot longer, but it was just a smooth, nice day for me, and I just sailed.”

On May 24, 2025, he sailed, solo, 42 miles from St. Vincent to Union Island, one of the southern Grenadine islands that were devastated by Hurricane Beryl on July 1, 2024.

Marks-Dasent wanted to raise funds for Union Island Secondary School students affected by Hurricane Beryl, helping them pay for their CSEC exams.

He’s also raising support for his sailing club to assist with costs related to competing in the Caribbean Dinghy Championships.

It took six hours to complete but he had music on his boat.

“So, it distracted me from how long it actually was.”

And while some people might be unnerved by a 14-year-old being on the open sea for six hours in a small boat, Marks-Dasent was not unnerved.

“I wasn’t scared. I had a safety boat following me. So, if anything happened, like if anything broke, they were there to help me.”

And while some people might think of the possible encounters with dangerous sea creatures while out on the open ocean in a small sailboat, Marks-Dasent do not pay these things any mind.

“When I was sailing, I saw a big fish, but I didn’t really think too much of it,” he told iWitness News, adding that he did not know what kind of fish it was.

And, during the sail to Bequia, he saw dolphins going by.

As with any other sport, sailing helps Marks-Dasent to be focused and disciplined and has helped with his personal development.  

“Well, I feel nice to know that I could help people learn about sailing, and I could just tell them about my experience,” he told iWitness News.

He told iWitness News that sailing is a sport for everyone and not just for people who are privileged.

“… anyone could come and sail because we love new people. We love to sail. And people from anywhere could come and help us and sail.”

Marks-Dasent’s mother, Sabrina Marks-Dasent, told iWitness News that Vincy Sailing has a wide variety of people from different backgrounds among its members.

“We offer sailing for local kids as well. So, we have a lot of local kids from Calliaqua; they come and sail. And sometimes for children that maybe can’t afford, we do let kids sail for free,” she said.

“So, I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a privileged sport. We have people from all sorts of backgrounds sailing at our club.”

Regarding her son’s outlook on the UK ILCA Nationals, she said that one of the reasons why Kai is not necessarily expecting to win is that he will be sailing in a new class of boat.

“And also looking at last year, … the person that won was 23. The people who came in the top three were like 17 and 15. So he is quite young for this class, but he is quite tall for his age and quite big for his age,” she told iWitness News.

“So that’s kind of why we’re not really expecting a top position. He hasn’t sailed in such a big fleet before, with over 100 boats, and the conditions are going to be very cold as well. So, it’s just going to be a really great experience for him to have to sail with really excellent sailors in the UK and just come back a better sailor, learning from this event,” she told iWitness News.