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There was cause for double celebration in Christchurch last weekend as the area picked up two major gongs at the 2021 Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards.
Vaughan Bamford (Christchurch Yacht Club) picked up the Lucke Young Leadership Award and the Pleasant Point Yacht Club the Lawson's Dry Hills Presidents Award.
It probably won't come as a surprise to those who know Bamford that he was away at the Christchurch Yacht Club's annual Takamatua sailing camp when the online awards were screened last Friday evening.
Takamatua is close to the Akaroa Yacht Club, and they utilise Akaroa's small clubrooms as a base for the three-day training camp which was organised by Bamford. As many as 22 sailors in Optimists, Open Skiffs and Sunbursts participated in the camp.
Vaughan catches up on the Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards.
For those who don't Bamford, he is a young leader who gets stuck into everything he’s involved in.
Not only is the 22-year-old a coach at the Christchurch Yacht Club but he’s also rear commodore there and vice president of the Canterbury Yachting Association.
One of his principal aims is getting other youngsters involved at a governance level. If that wasn’t enough, he’s helped the club through their MOSS Exemption process and upgraded both the CYA and CYC websites, and also runs maintenance courses for young sailors and devotes time to training sea scouts.
The team at the Pleasant Point Yacht Club who gathered to watch the Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards.
Pleasant Point Yacht Club members gathered for a pot luck dinner on Friday to watch the Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards and celebrated with some much-appreciated product from Lawson's Dry Hills when learning of their award.
It has been quite a journey for the club over the past decade, from being devastated in the Christchurch earthquakes, to relocating, building a new launching ramp, new clubrooms and new boat shed. They also have new training boats and a bustling learn to sail programme. Oh, and they celebrated their 100th anniversary.
Congratulations to everyone involved.
For anyone who missed the screening of the Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards you can catch it on the video below.
