Issue date
The first winners of this year's Aon Yachting Excellence Awards have been announced, with club stalwarts and race committee members through to rising stars and seasoned international sailors honoured.
As in previous years, winners in four categories have been unveiled early with the major awards to be handed out at a gala event next month.
Ten winners were announced in the Yamaha Motor New Zealand Service Awards, and the Radix Performance Awards categories, while 12 were named for the Harken Youth Performance Awards and one winner of the Kiwi Yachting Cruising Award.
The full list of winners can be found below.
The judges were impressed with the quality - and quantity - of nominations.
“It feels like it’s getting harder to decide on winners each year and this year was again very tough in certain categories,” Yachting New Zealand chief executive David Abercrombie said.
“The Service Awards, in particular, were tightly contested with our club members and volunteers doing some exceptional work during what has been another really challenging year with adverse weather events across the country and some serious economic headwinds.”
The Aon Yachting Excellence Awards will be held at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron on November 24, when the winners of the major awards including the Orbit World Travel Sailor of the Year Award will be announced.
Last year the top prize was won by Tom Saunders, who became only the second Kiwi - and the first since 1994 - to win the ILCA 7 (Laser) world championships.
Tickets are on sale for this year's event, which will be hosted by radio and TV personality Mel Homer.
For more information, click here.
Yamaha Motor New Zealand Service Award winners:
Bart Allsop-Smith and Taylor Williams (Pine Harbour Cruising Club)
Bruce Benson (Point Chevalier Sailing Club)
Chris Bowman (Northcote Birkenhead Yacht Club)
Ann Byford (Clarks Beach Yacht Club)
Alan Dawson (Waiuku Yacht Club)
John Elliot (Hamilton Yacht Club)
Engor Leonenko (Gulf Harbour Yacht Club)
Paul Mygind (Paremata Boating Club)
Sarah Wiblin (Short Handed Sailing Association of New Zealand)
Chris Williams (Waikawa Boating Club)
Kiwi Yachting Cruising Award winner:
Island Cruising NZ
Harken Youth Performance Award winners:
Matteo Barker
Stella Bilger
Ewan Brazle
Aimee Bright
Tessa Clinton and Nicola Hume
Sean and Rowan Kensington
Greta Hutton
Callum Hyde and Callum Noyer
Bella Jenkins
William Mason
Jacob Pye
Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush
Radix Performance Award winners:
Jo Aleh and Molly Meech
Josh Armit
Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn
Edge Women's Match
George Gautrey
Knots Racing
George Lane
Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie
Veerle ten Have
Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson
