Congratulations to the winners of the NSW&ACT Sailing Awards for 2022! 

Performance Awards

Female Sailor of the Year

Winner: Nina Curtis

Nina Curtis is a member of the Australian Sail GP Team after being the sole female athlete selected into the team in 2021. In 2021 she was the first female athlete to ever win a Sail GP event when the Australian team took the win in Sail GP Cadiz when female athletes were first introduced into the racing. Nina and the team went on to win the SailGP Sydney event in home waters. Nina and team finished a strong season by winning the Sail GP Grand Final in San Francisco with Nina becoming the first female athlete to stand at the top of the podium in Sail GP.

Male Sailor of the Year

Winner: Tom Slingsby

Tom put together a phenomenal 2021-22 season, with significant international wins. In 2021 was recognised by World Sailing awarding him his second Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award. Over the past 12 months Tom defended his Moth World Championship, winning 13 of the 14 races, securing back-to-back 2019 and 2021 title wins. He has also set the standard in the global SailGP circuit, winning four of the five events in the nomination period including the end of season Grand Final. He capped a fantastic year on the water by being a helmsman on Comanche which won the 2021 Rolex Middle Sea Race on IRC time correction, monohull line honours and breaking the monohull race.

Offshore Sailor of the Year

Winner: Lisa Blair

Lisa Blair has claimed the World Sailing Speed Record for the fastest circumnavigation of Antarctica. She completed the journey from Albany around Antarctica to Albany, a full circuit in 92 days. She now holds the title for fastest solo non-stop and unassisted journey. Lisa is only the third person to ever succeed with this perilous journey, including navigating Iceberg Alley and the remotest place on the planet, Point Nemo, and she becomes the first woman to circumnavigate below 45 degrees non-stop and unassisted.

Para Sailor of the Year

Winner: Jason Elwes

Jason has had a very successful year in the HANSA class. Consistently in the top three and finishing on the podium in both Sail Melbourne and the National Championships. He is also involved with the Class association, being the NSW rep, responsible for arranging annual NSW State Championships. 

Youth Sailor of the Year

Winner: Evie Saunders

Evie’s achievements over the last year have been placing 44th overall at the Open Womens world Championship in Oman and successfully gained selection to represent Australia in the Youth Worlds, where she came away with the silver medal. This is the first time in 14 years an Australian female has medalled in the ILCA 6 Class at the Youth World Championships.  

Coach of the Year

Winner: Carolijn Brouwer

Carolijn joined the Australian Sailing Team as the National ILCA 6 Coach in 2021 and the squad almost immediately started showing significant improvement in their results. Despite not being involved in international regattas since 2019, the Aussie contingent showed they were a force to be reckoned with under Carolijn and Assistant National ILCA 6 Coach Ben Walkemeyer. Mara Stransky won at Kiel Week, where all four Australian Sailing Squad athletes qualified for the Medal Race. There were also Aussies in the Medal Races at Palma, and Hyeres.

Club of the Year

Winner: Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club

NCYC have seen strong success with their SailPass program. 30% of users have transitioned into full memberships, increasing total club membership by 31.6%. The club has a strong SheSails Committee that work hard to offer female specific keelboat courses that saw over 200 women participate in training in the last year. They are the home base for the Making Waves Foundation in Newcastle and recently added a Veteran program – Saltwater Veterans. Their Discover Sailing Centre is ranked 4th Nationally and 2nd in NSW. 

Instructor of the Year

Winner: Freya Slater

Freya has been an instructor since November 2020 and in this brief time she has shown incredible growth in her instructing skills, and has shown incredibly leadership, especially in Youth Development and in the SheSails programs. Lake Jindabyne Sailing Club has wildly unpredictable weather, which Freya has dealt with through excellent planning and adaptability. She always has multiple lesson plan options for her students. Freya has also contributed to the newly released Club Participation Programs, assisting in the pilot group. This has also assisted in the success of the clubs recently relaunched Green Fleet which has grown to 18 sailors of all ages. 

Official of the Year

Winner: Hugh Leicester

Hugh Leicester is an outstanding International Race Officer. He has been involved with running the ILCA World Championships since 2001 and recently as a World Sailing Course Representative.  A major highlight for Hugh in the last year was acting as race officer and World Sailing Course representative for the Tokyo Olympics. Other recent world competitions also include 2022 Mexico, 2019 Japan, Olympic Test Series and Enoshima World Cup Series. He is also the current Vice-President of the ILCA Work Council. On the home front Hugh can be found most Saturdays laying marks and assisting the race officer at Manly 16s. 

Volunteer of the Year

Winner: John Byrne

John has been a member of Lake Jindabyne Sailing Club for over 8 years. Since joining, John saw jobs that needed doing at the club and got stuck in. Gradually, John took on more responsibilities. John has been responsible for planning and delivery of the club’s racing, including creating and scheduling the racing calendar, administering results, calculating handicaps and being the permanent Race Officer - running all races from the start boat. And as if THAT was not enough, John took on a few extras, including – photographer, website administrator, apparel orders, security and grants officer, and safety boat roster. In the 2021-22 season, John’s last season with LJSC, he performed all these duties for the club and more, adding COVID officer and even finding time to support the growing youth division and its programs, by attending to launch-and-recover the safety boat, and checking the instructors had all the equipment they needed.  John has recently retired from an active role in the club, necessitated by a move away from Jindabyne and he will be missed greatly for his dedication, contribution and commitment. 

Lifetime Achievement Award

Winner: David Pescud

David founded Sailors with Disability back in 1994 as President of the organisation, now known as the Making Waves Foundation.  That year he put together a team of disabled sailors to contest the 50th Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. This was the first time ever a fully disabled crew had competed in a Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Earlier in the same year, competing in the Sydney Southport Race MWF was the first fully disabled crew to compete in an ocean race. MWF has since competed in 20 Sydney to Hobart yacht races. The foundation has provided sailing opportunities to more than 64,000 disabled and disadvantaged people. 2,500 people partake in their programs each year. He went to a lot of trouble to make boats for the disabled to sail on even with wheelchairs. It’s an experience they just wouldn’t get anywhere else. He felt it was important to get them out in an environment that they would never have dreamed of, and that expanded their horizons. David is a great advocate for the disabled and disadvantaged in yachting, and very widely respected for this. This has very effectively demonstrated to the sailing community that sailors with a disability can seriously compete on their level, often to their surprise and amazement. Looking at what has been achieved we have a great deal to celebrate as a result of one man’s vision as a catalyst for change in the sport of racing and sailing – the list of sailing achievements is significant, but more importantly it demonstrates the sailing community’s ability to put aside fear and prejudice and move forward inclusively acknowledging difference rather than hiding it.  

SheSails Award

Winner: Wendy Watson

Wendy has been the driving force and inspiration behind the inaugural Royal Motor Yacht Club Toronto female skippers event, called “SheSkippers”.  Through her perseverance and dedication to the task at hand she attracted 27 yachts in 2021 It was so well funded there was a surplus of funds that was donated to charity. In the second year (2022) she set out to better her efforts from the first time, which was achieved with 28 entries.  She also enlisted the cooperation of sister clubs Lake Macquarie Yacht Club and Wangi Amateur Sailing Club and arranged for the three clubs to run a Tri-Series with a trophy being presented for the best performing woman from the three races series.

Sport Promotion Award

Winner: Melvyn Steiner

Melvyn has held the position of Sailing Master and undertaken the responsibility for running the Heaven Can Wait Charity Sailing Regatta for Royal Motor Yacht CLub Toronto. The regatta consists of a 24 hour around the buoys race on Lake Macquarie covering 30 nautical miles. Melyvn was able to raise $500,000 over the past 8 years to assist recovering Cancer Patients.

Sustainability Award

Winner: Australia SailGP Team

The Australia Sail GP Team has a clear purpose – race for a better sport and a better planet, and that underpins everything they do as a team. A key focus within the team is addressing issues of plastic pollution in the ocean, which the athletes have witnessed first hand. The Australia Sail GP team uses their platform to drive awareness an educate the world on the issues of climate change and ocean pollution. The team has made many operational changes such as: removal of single use water bottles and a 60% reduction in the use of single use plastics. They also commit to cleaning beach sessions, eating a minimum of one plant based meal a day, repurposing old apparel and donate old items to reduce landfill.