Pittwater Online News

Winners Of The 2019 NSW/ACT State Sailing Awards Announced

July 8, 2019 

The Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club was the big winner of the 2019 NSW/ACT State Sailing Awards, taking out the Club of the Year Award and members Jan Howard and Mary Holly winning the inaugural SheSails Award.

The awards, held at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, showcased the most outstanding achievements by New South Wales and ACT members across the nomination period. The top individual awards for the night went to Middle Harbour Yacht Club/Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron's Martin Hill (Male Sailor of the Year) and Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club's Annie Wilmot and Natasha Bryant (Female Sailors of the Year).

In handing out the Male Sailor of the Year Award, Vice-Commodore of the Middle Harbour Yacht Club Alister Copley highlighted that in October 2018 Hill won the Etchells World Championship in Brisbane ahead of a 90 plus boat field that included 7 past Etchells world champions, numerous champions from other classes and several Olympians.

Copley went on to also praise the work of Jan Howard and Mary Holly following their win of the inaugural SheSails Award.

"Jan and Mary have been instrumental to the NCYC womens sailing since 2010," he said. 

"Thanks to their work in promoting sailing to women by 2014, almost 50% of crew in NCYC Twilight races were women, 25% of Sunday point score race crew were female, and a NCYC all-female crew competed at Airlie Beach Race Week (ABRW).

"By 2019, over 200 women had graduated from a NCYC sailing program."

Michael Fletcher was a popular winner of the Coach of the Year Award, still giving to the sport through his efforts this year as the NSW YST 29er coach where his sailors achieved overall wins in the NSW Youths, Australian 29er Championships and Australian Youth Championships as well as 5th overall in the 29er World Championships.

Manly 16' Skiff Sailing Club's Niall Powers took out the Instructor of the Year Award for his work launching the Learn to Sail programme at the club. The program was highly successful in converting new learn to sail students into a green fleet and racing program.

The awards ceremony also included a moving presentation of Barrenjoey Pins to a list of sailing legends by to two-time Olympian Sir James Hardy. The Barranjoey Pin is awarded to athletes who have achieved the Australian Sailing Team standard or similar, dating back to our Australia's first Olympic representatives at the 1948 Olympic Games.

The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club also had a great night, boasting four winners from amongst its' ranks. Richard Slater was recognised as Official of the Year Award, Tom Spithill won the Sports Professional Award, Daniel Links the Youth Sailor of the Year Award and Wilmot and Bryant taking out the aforementioned Female Sailor of the Year.

The host club's Matt Allen won the Offshore Sailor of the Year Award, Woollahra’s Gaye Rosen and Martin Gill won the Volunteer of the Year and Dobroyd Aquatic Club’s Sarah Plunkett won Sailor of the Year with a Disability.

See below for the full list of winners. 

Finalists for the Coach of the Year Award were:
Michael Fletcher -New South Wales Institute of Sport
Tristan Brown -New South Wales State Coach
Robert Brewer -New South Wales Optimist Association
Winner: Michael Fletcher - New South Wales Institute of Sport
 
Finalists for the Instructor of the Year Award were:
Niall Powers - Manly 16’ Skiff Sailing Club
Wayne Loder - Chipping Norton Lakes Sailing Club
Orla Gray - YMCA Canberra Sailing Club
Nina Long - Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club
Winner: Niall Powers - Manly 16’ Skiff Sailing Club

Niall Powers

Richard Slater

Tom Spithill 

Invictus Games Regatta Organisers

Daniel Links

Tash and Annie were OS, Sailing! Their aunt picked up their award for them

Winners from the Club of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Coach of the Year, Official of the Year and Instructor of the Year will now automatically be nominated for this year's Australian Sailing Awards, to be held at the Sofitel Sydney, Darling Harbour on Friday 18 October. 

Bryant Wilmot Sailing - July 12, 2019:

Last week we competed in the 49erFX Junior (Under 23) World Championships in Risor, Norway.

We realised after the the European Championships that we needed a bit more hard racing. We never intended to do this event, it was a last minute decision to attend. 

With all of our race equipment in containers en route to Japan we had to rely on a charter boat, training rig, old sails and no coach. If we wanted to make life hard, this couldn’t have been any harder!

This regatta was like no other. The sailing was fully immersed in the town. We rigged on the roads and temporary launch ramps were placed in the centre of the city! 

Most of the week we raced offshore with some pretty hectic conditions and are stoked to discover that our training at home has produced some big gains in the wind and waves. The regatta was good practice for Japan! 

We had some really great races, and some not so great ones. Results weren’t the reason we went to Norway, we had some specific areas we wanted to focus on however we are thrilled to have finished in 4th overall and often amongst the leaders. 

Now that we are back at home we are going to quickly re-group and keep moving forward with our training as we lead into our next trip to Japan in a few weeks time!

NB: the girls are referring to the Japan Olympic test event this August.

In Risor, Norway!