Jon Sanders

Eleven-time circumnavigator, Australian Jon Sanders, takes home the OCC Lifetime Cruising Award. Jon is a CCA Blue Water Medal recipient, was awarded the AO OBE and Chichester Award in 1983, was inducted into the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame 1989 for "service to sailing and to marine science" and the Single-handed Sailor's Hall of Fame in Newport USA. Jon has received the James Cook award and is an Honorary Member of the OCC.

Jon completed his first solo circumnavigation in 1975-77, double circumnavigation continuously at sea in 1981-82 west to east via the Southern Ocean and was the first man to circumnavigate the Antarctic solo. In 1986-88 he completed a triple non-stop solo circumnavigation in 658 days at sea and covering 71,022 nautical miles. His only contact with the outside world was electronic communications and some parcels thrown from passing boats. This is recognised in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest distance sailed non-stop by any vessel. He undertook another circumnavigation in 1990-91 and in 2010-12 did his 8th, 2013-15 completed his 9th, and in 2016-17 completed his 10th. Not one to rest on his laurels, on 3 November 2019, aged 80 (born 1939), he began his 11th solo #NOPLASTICWASTE circumnavigation on Perie Banou II, taking water samples daily which will be analysed by the Curtin University’s Western Australian Organic & Isotope Geochemistry Centre to determine the quantity of microplastics in our oceans. Jon’s sailing resume is unmatched in the cruising world.