1) OCC Award of Merit - (for members or non-members). For performing some outstanding voyage or achievement (may award more than one per year!)
a. Mary Falk, (QII – Pocock 35) (OCC member) – for achieving second overall in the singlehanded "Petit Bateau 2006" event, less than a year after being diagnosed with, and treated for, breast cancer. By mid November she’d raised £41,500 for the Institute of Cancer Research. She intends to compete in the same event again next year.
b. Mike Golding (Ecover) - a consummate sailor in both crewed and single-handed races and one of the world's best offshore racing sailors who, in the true traditions of seamanship, turned back in the Southern Ocean to rescue fellow British sailor Alex Thompson, one of the competitors in the Velux 5 Oceans Challenge, after Alex's yacht, Hugo Boss, suffered serious keel failure more than 1,000 miles south of Cape Town. As Mike beat to windward for 80 miles to rendezvous with Alex, his Open 60 yacht took a terrible pounding and suffered serious gear failure. Not surprisingly, she was dismasted shortly after Alex was aboard following Mike's text book rescue. (These yachts are essentially downwind 'sledges' not designed for beating upwind in the Southern Ocean.)
2) Geoff Pack Memorial Award - (for members or non-members). Awarded to the person who, by his or her writing, has done most to foster and encourage ocean cruising in small craft.
Ian Nicolson (OCC Member) who has written more than 20 books, both narrative, but mostly practical, and certainly a splendid combination of entertainment and information for cruising yachtsmen. Born in 1928, Ian remains as passionate as ever in his late 70s about everything to do with boats and sailing. His early books, "The Voyage of the Maken", and "Sea Saint" tell of his adventures as a young man. In the first book he sails from the UK to Vancouver, via the Panama Canal in the 1950s. In The Sea Saint Ian describes how he hitchhiked from Canada to East Coast USA and built and fitted out the bare hull of a 30ft wooden yacht in Nova Scotia - sailing her singlehanded to Weymouth in the summer of 1954.
Some of his books - which include "The Boat Data Book", "Build Your Own Boat", "Surveying Small Craft", "A Sail for All Seasons" and "Yacht Design" - have been translated into several languages and Ian has written for all the British (and several foreign) sailing magazines over the years.
3) Jester Medal - for an outstanding contribution to the art of single-handed sailing.
Pete Hill (Shanti - Kingfisher 22) – for an outstanding achievement in single-handedly completing the Jester Challenge (2006) from Plymouth to Newport, Rhode Island with the assistance of an Haslar wind vane steering gear in just over 44 days. His achievement in his little 19 year-old Kingfisher 22 is all the more remarkable as the boat was probably the oldest and smallest of all the entrants, most of whom retired for various reasons so that Pete was the second and last boat to reach Newport.
During the previous 6 months he had also delivered the junk rigged 38’ catamaran he designed and built, from Brazil to Tasmania using his own design of wind vane steering, non-stop via the Southern Ocean.
The following awards are for members only:-
4) Barton Cup - For the most meritorious voyage.
Larry and Maxine Bailey (Shingebiss – 43’) – who have just completed a 14 ½ year circumnavigation at the age of 74 from Seattle, Washington via some of the Aleutian Islands south to Mexico, Central America, Galapagos, Chile, Cape Horn, Antarctica, Falklands, S. Georgia. Tristan de Cunha, St. Helena, Cape Verdes, Canaries and then the Mediterranean for 3 years. After that it was up to circumnavigate Ireland and on to Scotland, back to Wales and a period in London followed by a season in the Baltic. From there to the Faroes, Greenland, New Foundland, Nova Scotia and down the east coast of the USA to circumnavigate Cuba. On to Florida, across to Bermuda and the Azores back to the Canaries and then south to Cape Town. From Cape Town across to Freemantle and on to circumnavigate Tasmania and then to New Zealand, the South and North Islands before heading north via Fiji, Vanuatu, Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands then on to the westernmost of the Aleutian chain; Attu. They then sailed the complete set of Aleutian Islands as far as Dutch Harbour, Unalaska before crossing over to Alaska at Kodiak. From there to Prince Rupert in Canada and back home to Seattle. They are justly proud of the fact that in all those miles and years they had remained staunchly self-sufficient and never, once had to make use of emergency outside assistance.
5) Rambler Medal - For the most meritorious short voyage.
Doug and Dale Bruce (Bluewater – Tayana 55’ cutter)- who carried out a well-planned and executed 1,700 mile circumnavigation of Newfoundland from Camden, Maine, the entire round-trip being over 3,000 miles. They stopped at 40 different coves, harbours and anchorages and provided the OCC Cruising Information Service with excellent information on each place.
6) Rose Medal - For the most meritorious short-handed voyage.
Stephen Pickard (Lone Gull) – who won the Rambler Medal last year for his voyage on his Neptune 33; Fiddler III, but while holed-up in Tunisia that time he had spotted Maurice Griffiths’ 1938 vintage; “Lone Gull” and this year decided to buy her and sail her back to Beaucaire at the confluence of the Canal du Rhone and the River Rhone. The boat had not been sailed for 5 years and the engine had not been used in that time and, in order to repair the engine he needed to return to France to purchase parts and obtain an outboard as a standby. On returning to Tunisia he rebuilt the engine with local help and re-launched Lone Gull before sailing northwards towards Sardinia but found that she needed a constant hand on the tiller until he started up the engine and she motor-sailed for long periods without needing corrections to the tiller.
After some mishaps such as the main halyard being trapped behind a shackle on the jumper stays, the port running backstay being foul of the port after shroud, the fan belt being on it’s last legs due to wear on a re-welded flywheel and the failure of the topping lift, the wind picked up so that they were reaching along at 5 knts together with a school of some 50 dolphins. After 44 hours at sea they found themselves a snug anchorage in Sardinia at 0300 hrs. The voyage was completed via the east coast of Sardinia , the west coast of Corsica, northwest across the Ligurian Sea towards Cannes and then up the River Rhone and the Canal du Rhone to Beaucaire.
7) The OCC Award - Awarded to a member who has done most to “foster and encourage ocean cruising in small craft and the practice of seamanship and navigation in all branches”. This may include any invention, report, idea or action, which is calculated to promote the objects of the Club.
No nominations received this year!
8) Water Music Trophy - To a member/s who has/ve contributed most to the Club by way of providing cruising information, navigation and pilotage.
Tanya Leech ('Thursday's Child of Lee – Westerly Corsair 36) - has provided very full cruising information reports of the Southern end of the Panama Canal, for Taboga - Panama, for the Galapagos and for Hiva Oa, Ua Pou, Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas, using the approved OCC format, which although laborious to complete, provides a range of valuable information for the cruising yachtsman.
9) David Wallis Trophy - For the most valuable contribution to “Flying Fish”.
This trophy, a gift from the family of the previous editor of the OCC journal FLYING
FISH during the year. The recipient is nominated by the Editorial Sub-Committee.
Sally Melling (Taraki - Saltram Saga 40) – for her article: “The adventure of a Lifetime” which describes her travels with her husband in and around the Chilean Channels on the west coast of South America and their return voyage home cross the Atlantic which was published in the house magazine: “Flying Fish”.
10) The Qualifiers Mug - For the most ambitious or arduous qualifying voyage by a new member as submitted for publication in the club’s house magazine; “Flying Fish”.
Jarvist Frost (Fantana - Contessa 26) – for his account of his qualifying passage from the Azores to Falmouth to be published in the next Flying Fish. He sailed from Ponta Delgada, single-handed with a slow, typically high-pressure start, heading northwards and a near-miss in the middle of the night with a tanker not showing any navigation lights! This was then followed by a full gale in which he had to heave-to for 48 hours and then a great, galloping run under storm-jib alone. Another few gales one of which was spent hove-to for 12 hours followed by a day senselessly trying to beat into a F7 but then a few days perfectly broad-reaching in a F6. 300 miles out from Falmouth his paraffin stove develops a terminal fuel blockage and he has to use a blowtorch to heat cups of coffee to keep him awake around the Western Approaches. He entered Falmouth Harbour at night with barely any sleep in the previous 3 nights, “vomiting with fatigue” before tying up.
11) Vasey Vase - For a voyage of an unusual or exploratory nature.
John Gore-Grimes (Arctic Fern – Najad 44) – sailed from Howth, Ireland up as far north as 810 15’N in Spitsbergen (where he and a crewman took a swim!) and return, a distance of 5,055 miles were sailed in 59 days with a crew of 6. The voyage took in the Faeroe Islands, Spitsbergen, through drift ice to Greenland and a place called: Ittoqqortoormiit. From there they headed further south through thick ice and spotted a polar bear standing on a flow, 150 miles offshore. I quote from his write-up:- “Pressing or pushing through ice is laborious and disheartening. The unimaginative triumph in ice because they cannot see or feel the peril. For many years I ploughed on merrily with about as little care as a tightrope walker on the wire one foot above the ground. We were bold and carefree trespassers. Today, the words horror, panic and dread would come close to describing my involuntary feelings in ice. I have not suddenly become imaginative but I have become more familiar with this erratic and perilous environment. I am seduced by its beauty. I am intimidated by its energy and its potential to do serious damage at very short notice.”
Meeting a pod of about fifteen whales before stopping at Reykjavik they stopped at Hiemey in Westmann Islands to climb the world’s newest mountain: Eldfell, created in 1973, before heading for home via the Faeroes and Scotland.
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