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) Minoru Saito (Shutendohji II – 50’) – 71 year-old who has completed his 7th single-handed circumnavigation . He started solo racing in the 1990-91 BOC Challenge and has been sailing almost continuously in solo world-circling races and voyages ever since. He estimates to have sailed 240,000 miles so far. This year he received the CCA Blue Water Medal for 2006. He has always sailed without sponsorship with a sparsely funded budget and with a long-running heart ailment. While seldom among the winners and sailing an ageing boat, his dogged persistence, cheerful attitude and indomitable spirit have been recognised and praised in yachting circles all over the world.
b) Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, CBE (Suhaili & Saga Insurance ) - Sir Robin must by now have some half-million sea miles beneath his keel, much of it single handed (including two of his three circumnavigations and several of his 23 transatlantic crossings). In 1969 he became the first man to sail round the world alone, non-stop. He built his boat Suhaili in India himself. Since then he has acquired a string of international sailing records culminating in the Velux 5 Oceans single-handed race this year which he completed at the age of 67. He has written fifteen books, the first; “A World of my Own”, about his single-handed circumnavigation in Suhaili, the latest; “Force of Nature” about the 5 Oceans Race. (see also: Jester Medal, below).
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.
Andrew Bray (Member) – As editor of Yachting World (monthly circulation ±27,000) for the past 15 years, Andrew has probably encouraged more home-waters yachtsmen to bite the bullet and set off across an ocean than any writer alive. Before taking the helm at Yachting World, Andrew spent 20 years on the staff of Yachting Monthly, joining in 1972 as Projects Editor. A few years later he became Assistant Editor, and was promoted to Editor in 1985 on the retirement of Des Sleightholme. Over the past 35 years Andrew has edited or contributed to more than 400 monthly issues or well over 10 million individual copies. Under his leadership Yachting World has consistently covered ocean cruising and exotic destinations, and Andrew’s own enthusiasm is evident. It’s hard to imagine a more positive way to ‘foster and encourage ocean cruising in small craft’. He was one of the team behind the Azores and Back Race, first sailed in 1975, and has also taken part in OSTAR, 2-STAR, the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the ARC.
3) Jester Medal - for an outstanding contribution to the art of single-handed sailing.
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, CBE (Suhaili & Saga Insurance )– see OCC Award of Merit, above.
The following awards are for members only:-
4) Barton Cup - For the most meritorious voyage.
Tom & Vicky Jackson (Sunstone 40’) – for their 10-year circumnavigation via the five Great Capes which they completed in March, 2007 when they crossed their outward track at Port Davey in the Great Australian Bight after 80,000 miles. They left the Hamble, UK in 1997 and sailed via Spain, Madeira, the Canaries, the Caribbean Islands, USA east coast (obtaining a 1st in Class in the NYYC Regatta and doing the Bermuda Race), Nova Scotia then back down to Florida via the ICW, on to the Bahamas, St. Blas Islands, Panama Canal, the Galapagos and Marquesas Islands, the Tuamotas, Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand (including a circumnavigation of the two islands!), Australia (including a 1st in Class in the Sydney/Hobart Race!), New Caledonia, Vanuatu, back to Australia and New Zealand, then Tahiti again, on to Hawaii, Alaska, British Columbia, USA west coast to Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, back to the Galapagos Islands, Easter Island, Chile, Cape Horn, Falkland Islands, South America, South Africa and finally south Australia. Theirs has been an adventurous, determined voyage well documented in both the Flying Fish and their own website (www.sunstonesailing.com) which is illustrated with a most beautiful collection of photos.
5) Rambler Medal - For the most meritorious short voyage.
Jem Tetley (Carte Blanche 36’) – at the age of 76 and a broken leg in plaster he took part in his 4th AZAB, double-handed, doing quite well on the first leg to the Azores. He reached there in 9 days after encountering a severe gale of Force 9 and then, within a mile of the finish, the wind dropped to nothing and his crew dislocated his elbow. The return trip was quite eventful with self-steering gear failures, fog, some spinnaker runs and a Force 6 on the nose until about 500 miles to go when a fellow, single-handed participant called on the VHF to say he had dislocated his finger and was suffering blackouts. Jem turned about to assist as Carte Blanche was the nearest boat and his crew was a doctor. Going alongside was impossible in the prevailing conditions so it was decided to float painkillers down in a canister. In the meantime two other competitors arrived on scene, but whilst Jem was carrying out the manoeuvre, the lower fitting on the backstay parted necessitating the immediate removal of all sail and handing the drugs over to one of the other boats. After the successful transfer, Carte Blanche was escorted back by one boat and the injured single-hander was escorted by the other and, after encountering strong winds of Force 7/8 on the final night off the Lizard, they reached Falmouth with the mast still standing after 10 days at sea.
6) Rose Medal - For the most meritorious short-handed voyage.
Bill McLaren (Vagrant of Clyde 40’) - for his westabout circumnavigation of the Americas with his wife, Jane, in their Bowman 40 Vagrant of Clyde from Scotland in 2000 back to Scotland via the US nor-east canals, the Great Lakes then on a lorry to the Pacific, thence up to Alaska, down the west coast of S. America including Chile and then home via The Falklands. They spent six weeks exploring the Falklands – 670 miles, 20 anchorages – going around the islands in a figure of eight. Their last major passage was 56 days non-stop from the Falklands to the Azores, including some pretty nasty weather. Again, their voyage has been well documented in Flying Fish.
7) The OCC Award - Awarded to a member or Port Officer non-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.
Col George Curtis CBE (Galliard of Beaulieu) – OCC webmaster extraordinaire who has put a huge amount of effort and his own time (unpaid) into getting the website to where it is today and continues to strive for improvement. He is continually managing other’s efforts in looking into ways in which to make improvements. He produces incredibly detailed reports for the committee to keep them abreast of developments and to assist them in making decisions on various directions to move the website forward.
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.
Neil Langford (Crystal Blues) – whose website (linked to the OCC web site) provides a mine of cruising information, now easily available to members (http://www.svcrystalblues.blogspot.com/) is well worthy of the prize. As well as containing vivid illustrated accounts of cruising in Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Borneo, Indonesia and Australia and New Caledonia, the site contains downloadable customs and immigration documentation for ports in many of those countries, comprehensive marine service directories for Asia and Australia and a section for their favourite recipes for the gourmet cruiser. Anyone contemplating cruising those parts should not fail to browse this site!
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.
Jo Wallace (Aurora of Polruan ) – for her article "Aurora Homeward Bound" in FF 2007/1 p.166. It tells the story of her and husband Dennis’s passage from Oman through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to Port Said, near the end of their circumnavigation aboard their Moody 425, Aurora of Polruan. Neither had written for Flying Fish previously.
Although longer than most Flying Fish submissions, AURORA HOMEWARD BOUND holds the reader’s attention throughout. Most unusually, Jo chose to write entirely in the present tense. Few writers can bring this off successfully, but Jo has the knack of carrying us with her, and enables us to share the passage through her eyes. Her comments are perceptive and entertaining, whether about the places they visit, local officialdom, other cruisers or their own experiences, and remind us what we all enjoy – or miss – about long-distance passagemaking.
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”.
Chad & Carolyn Carvey (Tambadil) – for their 2,200 mile uphill pounding from Honolulu to San Francisco as described in Flying Fish 2007/1. This was done in a Cal 40 through 23 squalls and a gale, hand-steering all the way without dodgers into headwinds over a period of 19 days. Of the 14 boats that left Hawaii at the time, 6 turned back, others suffered a broken boom, a lost rudder and one sank altogether (without loss of life) after hitting a whale!
11) Vasey Vase - For a voyage of an unusual or exploratory nature.
Graham & Avril Johnson (Dream Away 40’) – for their incredible voyage from Cape Horn to Puerto Montt, a distance of 900 miles up through the Patagonian channels almost all against headwinds. Made over a period of 7 ½ months they estimated they’d covered twice the distance and only motored twice against the winds, the strongest of which reached 70 knots. The voyage is described in wonderful detail (useful as pilotage notes!) in Flying Fish 2007/2.
Post edited by: vischeeg, at: 2008/03/12 10:41
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Re:OCC Awards 2007
Date: 2008/09/24 23:23
By: John Franklin
Status:
Eric
Could we have, somewhere on the website, a tabulation of all the awards and the award winners, year by year as a permanent record?
Thanks for your consideration.
John
Sorry, Eric. I see that what I am requesting has already been posted. Please ignore/delete this request.
John
Post edited by: alshaheen, at: 2008/09/24 23:39
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