Instructor of the Year
2023-24 Emily Vivian
Emily, the Dinghy Instructor extraordinaire! She's not just teaching sailing, but also forming super strong bonds with her students. Juggling mentoring duties for 5 Assistant Instructors, guiding deaf students with the help of ASL translators, to engage female deaf participants to join in the Humpybong Women & Girl's Regatta, Emily doesn't stop there - she's also a key player at the Discover Sailing Centre, boosting class offerings and propelling Humpybong Yacht Club up the Discover Sailing Centre leaderboard. Hats off to Emily!
2022-23 Robert Cooper
Volunteer Robert Cooper is the Sailing School Principal at Rye Yacht Club (RYC) and oversees and coordinates 12 instructors (six Tackers instructors, two assistant instructors and approximately 25 volunteers) to ensure RYC can deliver their programs successfully. Cooper always embraces change and new ideas and commits countless hours to the Sailing School to help the Club grow and move forward.
2021-22 Holly Hunt
Holly Hunt has certainly made her mark instructing, working more than 430 hours at the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club’s Training Centre over the last twelve months. Holly is accredited to Instruct courses in Dinghy, OutThere Sailing and Tackers amongst others. She has been instrumental in engaging the club’s teenage and youth development program.
2020-21 Andrew Omotosho
As the full-time Senior Instructor at Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club, Andrew coordinates the operational aspects of all NCYC sail-training programs, from kids in Tackers dinghies and the Green fleet, through the regular weekly school sailing programs, our new OutThere Sailing activities, the full range of adult programs including the National Keelboat Program, Women’s Sailing, Friday Harbour Sailing and our Corporate Sailing activities, as well as the delivery of powerboat courses.
2019-20 Diane Kelsey
Constantly looking to improve TSC’s programs, Di listens to members and new sailors, developing programs that meet their needs. A recent program as an example, nicknamed “STAR” Sunday Training and Racing, she developed to provide a platform for our Instructors to develop their coaching skills and assist with retention of our school teams and young adult sailors. During the shutdown period, Di built on her knowledge of community sports management by attending several webinars and online meetings. She also continued mentoring her Instructing team by offering them opportunities to develop advertising materials for the club, keeping them informed and encouraging them to complete online courses related to their instructor development.
2018-19 Brett Yardley
Brett is one of the most important links at Brighton Seacliff Yacht Club (BSYC) - the face of the club’s sailing school and a strong believer of the club, its members and sailors. The growth in sailing and the turning around of the club finances is partly due to the significant contribution Brett Yardley has made at BSYC. The club has some great events scheduled for its 100th Season and Brett is a big part of the planning as he continues to be BSYC’s biggest asset and drawcard.
2017-18 Alan Polglaze (WA)
Alan, or Poly, as he is affectionally known, is a talented and dedicated instructor. He has been heavily involved as a lead instructor for the Christ Church Grammar School sports programme and a lead instructor. Poly was a responsible for delivering 800 Keelboat Discover Sailing experiences across the two events. Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club is exceptionally proud to nominate Poly for his willingness to ‘go the extra mile’.
2015-16 Bob Cooper (Victoria) and Steve Hart (ACT)
Bob has been the driving force behind the development of the Sailing School/ Discover Sailing Centre at Rye Yacht Club (RYC) from its inception eight years ago to its current form. He began work on this as Vice-Commodore of the Club for two years and continued in the same role for another four years, while also in the role as Club Commodore. For the last two years, he has been able to focus more on the development of the Sailing School and continues to work to improve its programs to meet the growing needs of the Club >> Nomination Citation
Steve manages one of Australia’s largest sailing schools at the Canberra Yacht Club. He has developed and mentored 36 full and part time Instructors and Assistant Instructors and also conducts the Dinghy Instructor training in ACT each year, providing close mentoring to graduates. He was part of the Dinghy Working Group and has attended three Australian Sailing Instructor Conferences mentoring junior instructors. He has been an enthusiastic proponent in the progression of the Buoyed Up Program, involving 120 disadvantaged kids into sailing each term. It requires a holistic approach to instructing and has been a great success >> Nomination Citation
2014-15 Riccardo 'Ricky' Deghi (Victoria)
Sandringham Yacht Club’s most versatile instructor, Ricky Deghi has worked tirelessly over the last sailing season, rostering onto 198 shifts throughout the year teaching children as young as five in little tackers through to adults in keelboat courses. Ricky is renowned for his fun, vibrant and infectious personality as well as his passion for the sport. Ricky imparts great technical knowledge on his students, gets kids working as a team and taking responsibility for themselves and their actions. He gets to know each of his students personally and makes sailing interesting >> Nomination Citation
2013-14 Craig Ferris (NSW)
Craig has presented a great number of courses for Yachting NSW over the past twelve months,totaling 162 students. Not only has Craig presented these courses but also has assisted in the planning and follow-up, ensuing that the accreditation rate continues to grow across NSW. Craig has been praised for his ability to share experiences and provide genuine development opportunities for participants. His contribution towards the training of instructors, power and safety boat operators has invigorated the desire for clubs to become involved in the Discover Sailing program. Craig has also coached the NSW State Performance 420 squad, which performed outstandingly in both the Boys and Girls division throughout the Australian Youth Grand Prix pointscore.