Issue date
Josh Armit was named the winner of the Sir Peter Blake Memorial Trophy at last weekend's Sir Peter Blake Torbay Regatta which attracted close to 400 sailors from 22 yacht clubs to Torbay. At just 14 years of age Josh was pushing the vey experienced Scott Leith (4 x world laser masters champion) to the max in every race of the Laser Radial class.
To be competitive against such proven and experienced sailors is a rare talent, however those who have watched his rise may not be so surprised. Josh has a long list of regatta victories to his name including winning every major Optimist fleet racing regatta, and also winning every fleet racing regatta in the Starling this season except for his very first regatta (where he placed second).
Being 13 at the time, Josh is the youngest person to ever win the Starling Nationals beating Dan Slater and Peter Burling's record of age 14. At the recent Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards Josh was awarded the Youth Performance Award for outstanding achievement and jointly awarded the Aon Emerging Talent Award.
Previous Sir Peter Blake Memorial Trophy winners including Jo Aleh and Peter Burling have gone on to become Olympic medallists and also to achieve yachting highest accolades as ISFA International Sailor of the Year, following in the footsteps of Sir Peter Blake who was honoured with the Sailor of the Year award in 1994.
Josh is a thoroughly deserving winner of the prestigious Peter Blake Memorial Trophy. We will be watching for him to follow in the footsteps of his father Leith Armit (an International representative) and of other New Zealand greats.
