Issue date
Later this month the yachting community will come together to celebrate the year’s successes, achievements and contribution to our sport at the 2015 Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards.
Every year Yachting New Zealand receives a wad of nominations in the Service Award category, the calibre of which never ceases to amaze. Restricted to an annual ‘budget’ of just ten Service Awards it can be a tough job for the judging panel to narrow it down.
The short story is that around New Zealand there are dozens of individuals who quietly contribute hours and hours of service to the sport which we’re all passionate about. These are the people that make our yacht clubs, our class associations and our key regattas tick – and without them things would fall apart.
They all deserve a thank you – every time you see them on the beach or at the lake. And it is Yachting New Zealand’s pleasure to say thank you and pay tribute to their efforts, with a Service Award.
In the lead up to the 2015 Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards, on in Auckland on 27 November, we bring you a feature on each of the ten 2015 Service Award winners. Today we focus on Matt Hall-Smith.
Matt Hall-Smith – for services to French Bay Yacht Club
Matt Hall-Smith has given dedicated service as committee member, Commodore and Rear Commodore of French Bay Yacht club, selflessly leading the Club’s renaissance into a vibrant center for junior, youth, women and adult sailing on the Manukau harbour at significant personal and family sacrifice due to the massive effort, time and energy he has put in since approximately 2010.
In addition to his leadership and support of the various Club sailing initiatives Matt entered the club at a time when it had recently been saved from closure by a small team of long term club members. He lead the committee and club members in developing a vision for the club to be a thriving, family friendly hub of sailing in West Auckland, and in the implementation of the Club’s strategy as set out in the Strategic plan. French Bay Yacht Club is now looked to as a model for club rejuvenation.
Matt leads sub-committees working endlessly on property matters, fund raising, and in-depth negotiations with other interested / competing parties in the French Bay locale, to ensure the wellbeing of the historic building and landmark, and that the club’s infrastructure would meet the needs of sailors in the future. Some of these achievements include;
A complete re-roofing of the Yacht Club building
- The consenting and installation of a re-engineered sub-floor structure for the Yacht Club building.
- The achievement of building consent, resource consent and coastal permit for a mitigating large deck structure (value $300k) to compensate for future space loss due to the requirements of the local Coast Guard branch.
- Securing necessary funding to meet the Club’s operational and capital needs in support of its activities.
Matt operates and maintains the Club’s communication media including the website and newsletter propagation system; one of the most important tools for club marketing, and sailor and volunteer participation and he inputs and maintains the Club scoring and handicapping system.
Matt’s not only a dedicated Club leader and administrator but a pretty handy sailor too with several Jollyboat titles to his name including the single handed and overall National Jollyboat Championship titles in the recent past.
(Extracted from French Bay Yacht Club’s nomination)
