Nominations are now open for a revamped Australian Sailing Awards.  Each year the Australian Sailing Awards recognise the achievements and acknowledges the contribution of members of our sailing community.

There have been several changes to this year’s awards, intended to streamline the process for nominees and to bring national alignment to the Awards process. Some of the changes include:

• Nominees will now only need to nominate once for both the State and National Awards
• The nominees for the National Awards will now only be the seven state and territory winners from each category, with the exception of the Performance Award categories where the Board of Australian Sailing will be the ability to add one additional nominee at their discretion
• A uniform judging process across State and National judging panels
• Alignment of the nomination periods across the country
• Alignment of all award categories and criteria across State and National Awards
• The Sailor of the Year with a Disability Award will now be known as the Para Sailor of the Year Award

The biggest changes revolve around the unified state and national awards nomination process. This will ensure individuals will only need to submit one nomination form, with State Winners automatically nominated as the nominees for the National Awards. No additional nominees will be taken for any category after the nomination period closes, except for the Australian Sailing Board having the ability to add one additional nominee in the performance categories only. This will help alleviate issues around having Australia’s two best performing athletes/teams from the same state not being included as nominees for the National Awards.

The process is as follows:

• 131 July – Nominations open for Australian Sailing Awards
• August – Nominations sent to State Judging Panels for voting on State Award winners
• September – State Award winners announced
• October – Winners of State Awards sent to National Judging Panel to vote on National Award winners
• Late October – National Award winners announced

The process will also align the period in which performances must have taken place, which will be 1 August to 31 July every year going forward. As State Nomination periods differed in the past, there will be a retroactive period included this year to ensure all state and national periods align going forward. As a result, the period in which the performances must have taken place for the 2020 Awards are:

• NSW: 1 July 2019 – 31 July 2020
• QLD: 1 July 2019 – 31 July 2020
• SA: 1 July 2019 – 31 July 2020
• TAS: 1 June 2019 – 31 July 2020
• VIC: 1 May 2019 – 31 July 2020
• WA: 9 March 2019 – 31 July 2020
• National: 12 September 2019 – 31 July 2020

Nominations are open for a range of categories, including:

Performance Award Categories

-              Female Sailor of the Year

-              Male Sailor of the Year

-              Offshore Sailor of the Year

-              Para Sailor of the Year

-              Youth Sailor of the Year

-              Coach of the Year

-              Motor Yacht Person of the Year (WA and VIC only)

-              Junior Sailor of the Year (VIC only)

Club Award Categories

-              Club of the Year

-              Instructor of the Year

-              Official of the Year

-              Volunteer of the Year

-              Discover Sailing Centre of the Year (VIC only)

Sport Award Categories

-              Lifetime Achievement Award

-              SheSails Award

-              Sport Professional Award

-              Sport Promotion Award

-              Sustainability Award

-              Inclusion Program of the Year (VIC only)

The sport’s peak awards attract a strong number of entries from across the country every year.  Nominations will close at 5pm AEDT on Friday 31 July 2020. With the cancellation of the Australian Sailing National Awards Gala Dinner due to COVID-19, winners will be honoured online with State Award winners to be announced throughout September and National Award winners to be announced in October.