David Pescud was awarded the Australian Sailing NSW Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, and in the 2023 Australia Day Honours he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.

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 take part in their programs each year.

David Pescud

He went to a lot of trouble to make boats for the disabled to sail on even with wheelchairs. 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.

We congratulate David, on this very worthy award for his vision, hard work and enthusiasm.