Meet Shayne and Anna
Who We Are
Between us over 50 years at the sharp end of composite engineering, rigging, and sailmaking. Volvo Ocean Race. America’s Cup. Grand Prix multihulls. And now, a 42ft Catana that’s getting the full race-boat treatment.
We’re not influencers. We’re not vloggers. We’re professionals who happen to be filming our work because we think the sailing world needs fewer lifestyle channels and more actual technical knowledge.
Shayne
Composite Engineer. Yacht Designer. Rigger. Racing Sailor.
Shayne started building boats because he wanted to understand them from the ground up. That meant training as a diesel fitter, then building a Kevin Dibley-designed 8m sports boat from scratch in the late 1990s. From there, the career accelerated:
Southern Spars (now RigPro) — carbon fibre mast construction
C-Tech — high-tech composite battens
High Modulus (now Gurit) — composite R&D lab manager
Two Volvo Ocean Race campaigns — shore crew, project manager
America’s Cup Challenger campaign — shore crew, rigging systems
His rudder design for Liz Wardley’s solo Atlantic row helped break the record by 15 days. He designed and built the CS6, a fully carbon water ski that Wayne Mawer won the World Water Ski Racing Championship on. He’s placed top 3 in the 18ft Skiff JJ Giltinan Championships. He’s raced an ORMA 60 from NZ to Fiji — a record that still stands Alongside the shore-side engineering work, he’s a professional delivery crew member and racing sailor in his own right, and one of the most experienced riggers working on large performance multihulls today, having commissioned the first four Gunboat 68 rigs and worked on Gunboat 62s, 66s, HH66s, and many more.
Anna
Sailmaker. Rigger. Professional Crew.
Anna came to the marine industry via a different path. She started with an MBA and a professional consulting career at PwC. Then she helped Shayne build the Dibley-designed 8m sports boat, realised that was considerably more interesting than corporate consulting, retrained as a sailmaker at NorthSails NZ, and never looked back.
Her sailmaking career spans:
NorthSails – sailmaker responsible for America’s Cup sails, J Class, superyacht and grand prix racing yachts at the highest level
Volvo Ocean Race campaign – shore crew
Sail Loft Valencia – loft manager servicing high profile grand prix yacht teams
Balthasar Refit – sailmaker and refit crew
Alongside that shore-side work, she’s a professional yacht crew member and racing sailor: crew on a Volvo 60 at Antigua Sailing Week, professional delivery crew on large performance multihulls including a Gunboat 66, and competitor at national and international level in 12ft skiffs.
Ayden, Harry and Olly — the next generation.
Professional Delivery Crew. Composite Builders. Cruising full-time since 2018.
They’ve grown up working on composites, rigging, sailmaking, and engines — and they’re all accomplished sailors in their own right. Recently, Olly built his own carbon fibre pump foil board using skills learned on Paikea. He won the Youth pumpfoil division at Foiling Week, Lake Garda 2026. He runs his own YouTube channel OliverFoils where he leans towards filming the technical side of pumpfoil builds and foil selection.
The boys assist with professional deliveries and work alongside us on Paikea’s rebuild. They’re not just crew — they’re the future of this project.
Why We Started Youngbarnacles
There’s a lot of content out there about boats. Most of it is lifestyle. Some of it is genuinely wrong — and when it comes to composites or seamanship, wrong information isn’t just frustrating, it can be dangerous.
We started Youngbarnacles because we wanted to put something serious into that space. A genuine technical resource for people who actually want to understand what they’re doing — whether that’s laminating carbon fibre correctly or making good decisions offshore.
Paikea is our teaching tool. She’s a real boat with real problems, being solved the way we’d approach any professional project. We’re not staging it for the camera. We’re just showing you how we actually work.
Meet Paikea
42ft Catana catamaran. Originally named Andromede. Built in the early days of the Catana yard, from hull molds derived from Lock Crowther’s successful Catana 40 design — extended two feet and fitted with six cabins.
She’s been with us since 2018. Since then, she’s had:
- A rebuilt front beam
- A carbon fibre longeron
- A carbon spreader-less rotating rig
She has good bones. What she needed was updated construction techniques, modern materials, and someone willing to do the work properly.
That’s what we’re sharing with you.
What You’ll Find Here
- Free technical resources — composite engineering papers, offshore regulations, sailing technique guides, and Paikea’s complete systems breakdown
- YouTube videos — showing the actual rebuild, no staging, no fluff
- Membership library — deep dives into resin selection, infusion technique, failure analysis, foil design, and sailmaking. $20/month or $180/year. No upsell ladder, just the knowledge.
Join the Members Hub | Explore Free Resources | Watch on YouTube