16-year-old completes solo English Channel swim in support of YoungMinds

Hertfordshire teenager Felipe Irvine crosses from Dover to France in 11 hours 20 minutes through Force 4 winds and heavy swell, just months after finishing his GCSEs

A 16-year-old swimmer from Hertfordshire has completed a solo crossing of the English Channel in support of YoungMinds, the UK charity fighting for young people’s mental health.

Felipe Irvine walked into the dark water at Samphire Hoe, near Dover, at 2.00am on Monday 14 September and cleared the beach at Plage du Châtelet, France, after 11 hours and 20 minutes. On the support boat were his parents, Wera and Jeremy Irvine, his friends Prisha Tapre and Jeffrey Gill, and photographer Paul Meyler.

Watch our Q&A with English Channel swimmer Sophie Etheridge

Felipe had wanted to become a Channel swimmer since he was 12. Association rules meant he had to wait until after his sixteenth birthday. He did not want to wait any longer.

Bad weather had already closed his tide window, leaving him the choice of postponing for a year or taking on rough water. Force 4 winds were forecast. Only four of twelve Channel escort boats were prepared to go out, and one of those cancelled after the midnight forecast. Felipe chose to swim.

An experienced open-water competitor with the British Long Distance Swimming Association, Felipe has raced in a wide range of conditions and is known among his support team for reframing discomfort rather than being stopped by it. After a short tender ride to the stony beach in darkness, a siren marked the start. He walked into inky water and was soon alongside the escort boat, being cheered on.

The first three feeds were in the dark, on the hour: hot, carbohydrate-loaded fluid thrown to him in a tethered bottle. He powered through the shipping lanes, feeding quickly and in good spirits.

The swell became severe as the tide turned just south of Cap Gris-Nez. The pilot told the crew to sit down for their own safety as the boat was thrown about. At times Felipe rose above the gunwale, at others he disappeared from view. The waves slowed him, but without a grumble he kept his head down and fought through.

The tide carried the swim north of the Cap and into the shelter of the bay, where the French beach came into sight. Told that this was his last feed, Felipe’s face lit up and his pace increased. He finished in 11 hours 20 minutes.

The crossing was undertaken in support of YoungMinds, whose purpose is to stop young people’s mental health reaching crisis point and to make sure they get the support they need, when they need it.