For 27-year-old Brit Cameron Gregory, capturing high-performance sailing is more than just a job – it’s a daily balancing act of performance tech, storytelling, and fast-moving logistics.
As Senior Content Producer at Athena Sports Group, Gregory’s work spans two high-profile campaigns headed by legendary British yachtsman Sir Ben Ainslie: the British America’s cup team and the Emirates GBR SailGP Team – as well as the Athena Pathway Programme.
If it involves a camera and a foiling boat, he’s probably behind it – on the chase boat, flying a drone, or behind a laptop turning raw footage into content.
“In short, everything that involves a camera around the Athena Sports Group sailing teams,” Gregory explains. “Across Athena Racing, Emirates GBR SailGP Team and Athena Pathway – I currently create the majority of video and photo content that you see on social media as well as some other responsibilities around cameras.”
And it’s not just the glossy media stuff. “For AC37 I was responsible for operating and maintaining a selection of the performance related cameras – coach cameras and onboard GoPros – as well as flying a drone for coaching and analysis video of the sailing.”
That means long days on the water, helping the performance team get the footage they need, while simultaneously trying to document the broader story of the campaign.
“When the America’s Cup is in full swing this was a bit of a balance,” he says. “The daily on-water role included: ensuring the performance team were content with what they were getting from GoPros positioned on the yacht; managing the ‘coach cam’ [a fabulously expensive gyro stabilised video camera that sits atop the main chase boat] to stream the yacht’s session back to mission control ashore, getting the drone up and down for aerial shots – all whilst also trying to ensure I could capture storytelling elements of the campaign and the training/testing session, and capturing glamorous Mediterranean backdrop images for social media.”
With the Cup campaign currently in a quieter phase, Gregory has turned his full attention back to SailGP. “The SailGP side of things is a bit of a different beast,” he says. “It’s less of a continuous full-steam approach than the Cup, with gaps between events, but each event is a million miles per hour.”
A Creative Path to Professional Sailing
Gregory’s route into professional sailing wasn’t traditional – and neither was his introduction to the sport. “I was quite late getting into the sport,” he says. “Growing up, my family was always very water sports orientated but never really particularly around sailing. My grandparents were sailors in their younger years in Plymouth and often spoke of it – I would say that was an influence in me choosing to get into sailing when I went to university.
That decision – combined with a longstanding fascination with extreme sports videos – steered him in a new direction.
“A particular memory of the Red Bull video of Kai Lenny racing the AC72 between Alcatraz and the Harbour Bridge in San Francisco, may well have fostered my initial interest in the America’s Cup and wanting to create fast foiling sailing content.”
At Portsmouth University, Gregory joined the sailing society, even though the boats weren’t exactly top spec. “I jumped into learning to sail, admittedly in some slightly tired Firefly dinghies initially – but loved it. Coincidentally or by fate, I’d chosen Portsmouth – at the time home to [Ben Ainslie’s] Land Rover BAR.”
Gregory studied film production and was already focused on media work through school and college. “This isn’t necessarily a required path for the role – others in a similar capacity across teams haven’t necessarily followed the university route – but I suppose a good skill and eye for content creation as well as an affinity with being on boats in varying sea states going rather fast helps.”
Technically, at least, his first sailing media job was doing photography at Neilson holiday resorts during a summer break from his university studies. “I always preferred capturing the on-water and sailing stuff over anything else, and used that time to hone my sailing capture skills in both video and photo.
From Charity Work to Chase Boats
Gregory’s first job out of university was with the 1851 Trust, the team’s official charity. “I spent nine months working there as a digital marketing assistant, taking on running the social media channels, capturing the activities of the charity across the UK and various other marketing tasks,” he explains. “I suppose it was a bit me trying to wedge my foot in the door.”
The real break came when he met Land Rover BAR’s Dan Wilkinson, now his manager at Athena Sports Group. “Via Dan I was asked to come out for a few of the team’s first sailing sessions on RB1 [Race Boat 1] to take photos for the team.”
That gig turned into a full-time offer in late 2019 – and Gregory joined the team just as the UK went into its first COVID lockdown. “My first day, the entire UK was sent into lockdown,” he recalls. “So I took home my laptop and started the lockdown content production at home using Zoom calls.”
He’s been with the team ever since.
A Day in the Life
No two days are the same in Gregory’s world – but SailGP race days do follow a rough pattern. “I’ll come into the tech site after breakfast and before the boat rolls out, typically around 0800,” he explains. “I’ll catch up on any work left over from the night before – often logging footage from the previous day.
From there it’s full throttle: filming social content around the base, capturing sailor briefings and boat prep, rigging the onboard action cameras, and hopping on the RIB for race coverage.
“Around roll out time or just ahead of it we will film a social media boat roll out piece, which will be Georgie Ainslie or Freddie Carr talking to team members about predictions for the day. I may then film some content of the boat roll out as GVs [media speak for general views] for edit. Then I’ll quickly edit the roll out content so that this can be posted on social media straight away.
“After this I’ll balance filming some bits around the base, such as sailor briefings and general prep, as well as prepare my own kit for on the water – such as the action cameras for on the boat that I set to turn on and start recording two minutes before the first race. Then I’ll capture sailors walking down to the dock before heading to the chase boat myself. We usually leave the dock around two hours before racing is scheduled to start.
“On the way out to the racecourse I’ll jump onto the yacht with the sailors as they prepare it for sailing. I’ll film this (trying to get some comedic lines from Nick Hutton and Neil Hunter) and put my action cameras onto the boat in spots I think will provide a good perspective of the on board action for the day.”
During the racing Gregory films with a 70–200mm on a gimbal.
“The goal is to get elements of the boat,” he says, “and in-between, capture ad hoc action on the water, with shore team, and the sailors – including some quick reaction clips for each race.”
After racing, he wraps up with interviews before hours of editing. “Once ashore I’ll crack into edits for the day – images from on the water and racing, race day round-up video, ‘Fly Better Moment’ clips [for main sponsor Emirates], and then any reels or short snippets from racing that we can use.”
There are even moments when he gets hands-on with the boat’s operations. “Sometimes I run the tow line on the back of Chase 4 to the race boat – with the help of Xabi Fernández,” he says, modestly.
A selection of some of Cameron Gregory's favourite images | Image © Cameron Gregory / Athena Racing
Have Peli Case will travel
The travel schedule is no small part of the job. “Cup-wise, I spent two years living in Spain and flying home for any brief weekends that I could,” says Gregory. “Prior to that, the America’s Cup in Auckland was seven months in New Zealand. On SailGP, the time away is certainly less and split up with the gaps between events, but it’s a busier and busier calendar.”
Asked for his favourite venue, Gregory doesn’t hesitate. “I’d say Auckland is pretty up there – just as a spectacular sailing venue that never fails to look incredible and deliver. But also any home event – it’s always incredible to see a huge turnout of British fans lining the waterfront. Portsmouth this year looks to be on another level of that.”
The highs are memorable – like the team's win in the Louis Vuitton Cup in Barcelona, Spain last year. “It was a huge moment in the history of British America’s Cup attempts and one of the favourite days of my life on the water to date,” Gregory says.
And what does a good day at work look like? “Winning – a lot of the time it means more work, certainly a later night, but it’s more fun, easier to make content from and all round a good day.”
Bad days? “A long day where the results haven’t been amazing makes the storytelling a bit trickier and the general emotion of the day a bit deflated.”
Silky Skills, Funky Socks and a Passion for the Craft
Success in this line of work requires more than just technical skill. “It’s a rather demanding career,” says Gregory. “From relocating to different countries, travelling a lot, working long days capturing all the work being done by the team – including dawn rollouts and finishing editing at midnight. I’d say it is essential to have the energy, creativity and motivation to still enjoy the work.”
And when it comes to superstitions, he has one. “I like funky socks,” he admits. “I generally have a ‘lucky’ pair or pairs that I wear on race days. For SailGP Season 5 so far, I wore the same pair for every Sunday race day and we got in the final every time – until LA and San Fran – so I’m rethinking the ‘luckiness’ of that pair for the remainder of the season.”
It’s all part of the job – a blend of precision, personality, and persistence. Whether it's race day in Cádiz or a training session in Barcelona, Cameron Gregory is out there with a camera – capturing the action and shaping how the world sees professional sailing.
Get all areas access to Yacht Racing Life with a Full Membership free 7-day trial. There's no obligation and you can cancel at anytime.
