Sports Professional Award (Formerly Services to Yachting)
2022- 23 Alanna Field
Training Academy Manager of Darwin Sailing Club, Alanna Field, has worked hard to develop strong relationships with community groups such as schools, youth diversion, defence and disability groups, resulting in a participation increase across group programs of 561% over the last two and a half seasons. Due to Alanna’s efforts, the DSC Training Academy now operates seven days a week across three locations.
2021 - 22 Michael Robinson
The Sailing Manager at Keppel Bay Sailing Club, Michael Robinson has brought a professionalism to the club that has fine-tuned the good work of previous management. He has been instrumental in establishing a Tackers program which has helped boost membership of juniors and youth at KBSC.
2020 - 21 Justine Kirkjian
Justine Kirkjian’s contribution to the sport of sailing over the last 25 years is well recognised. After a celebrated 19 years as Sailing Manager at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA), Justine progressively took on more responsibilities and was promoted to the role of CEO in March 2020. Since then, Justine has made an enormous contribution to the Club, its employees and members and furthered her contribution to sailing throughout NSW.
2019 - 20 Jack Buchan
Jack Buchan has been the Sailing Manager at NCYC for the past four years. He is an integral part of the management team that has helped shape the club culture, refocus on sailing, and grow membership and profitability. He has been fundamental to the growth of our fleet, racing participation and growth in our Sailing Academy numbers.
2018 - 19 Debbie Blaauw
Debbie has worked at Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club since 1987, accumulating 22 years of service. Her focus and dedication to a task means that she is highly successful in delivering events of the highest quality from Saturday Club racing to major global sailing events. As Yachting Operations Manager, she is responsible for the overall on-water program delivery at RFBYC including the continuing growth and development of the Club as a Discover Sailing Centre. It is one of the biggest sail training centres in Australia, delivering 11 percent of all sail training courses in Australia and 60 percent of courses in WA. During the 2018/19 season the RFBYC training school had a record number of participants thanks to Debbie and her team.
2017 - 18 Jordan Reece
Jordan Reece has been the organising authority for many of Australia's match racing events over the past year, including NSW state and Nationals youth match racing championships. In addition, Jordan is the head coach for the CYCA's Youth Sailing Academy and has taken his youth match racing teams around the world.
2016 - 17 Jen Suffield
Jen excels in her position as Training Centre Principal at the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club and her passion for providing opportunities for kids extends far beyond the reaches of the club.
2015 - 16 Katie Culbert
As the Program Manager for the Australian Sailing Team, Katie has dedicated the last 15 years to developing the platform to enable our Olympic and Paralympic sailors to perform at their best. In the years leading up to the Rio 2016 Games, Katie navigated the most complex of environments to ensure our sailors competing in Rio had everything they needed. This included boats on-the-ground and accommodation, to more obscure needs like medical and recovery needs, and a safe venue for family and friends travelling to Rio to support the sailors >> Nomination Citation
2014 - 15 Justine Kirkjian
Justine Kirkjian is the long-standing and highly respected Sailing Manager of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA). She is charged with developing and overseeing all racing undertaken at the CYCA including ocean racing, club racing, social racing, special events and regattas. The Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, the pinnacle of the Australian annual ocean racing calendar, showcases Justine’s unique organisational, administrative and leadership talents. She contributes to the year-round development of the race and through its Planning Committee and has absolute control of the on water aspects of the race itself – extending to the prize giving and associated celebrations >> Nomination Citation
2013 - 14 Iain Murray
Designer, competitive sailor and professional event director, Iain Murray has been contributing to the sport of sailing for over 40 years. Iain’s professional peak was during the 34th America’s Cup where he held the position as Regatta Director and CEO. Iain played a significant role in the success of this event that was held on San Francisco bay as well as the Louis Vuitton Cup that was part of the lead up to the America’s Cup.
For several years Iain has managed the 18ft Skiff ‘Gotta Love it 7’, he has held the position of tactician and strategist on Wild Oats XI in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, operating also as a consultant in the modification and developments of Wild Oats XI. Iain has a had a successful sailing career including competing in the America’s Cup and the 2008 Olympic Games in the Star keelboat class for Australia.
2012 - 13 Richard Hewett
Richard is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Sandringham Yacht Club (SYC), a position he has held since June 2005. In 2013 he was awarded the first Certified Marina Professional Accreditation (CMP) by the Global Marina Institute. In 2013 SYC was also awarded the 2013/14 Australian Club Marina of the Year.
Currently overseeing a highly prosperous era in the Club’s history, under Richard’s leadership SYC is experiencing record membership levels, the most profitable era in the Club’s history, 100% marina and hardstand occupancies, growing waiting lists, highly regarded member services and a rapidly expanding training agenda. In 2009 SYC also opened the doors to its World Class $12.75m Clubhouse.
Under Richards leadership SYC have received a range of awards and accreditations. These include the 2013/14 Australian Club Marina of the year, the 2010 Victorian Club of the Year and the 2010 Victorian Marine Industry Achiever Award. SYC is further accredited as a Level 3 Clean Marina with 4 Gold Anchor Accreditation. A full list of awards and accreditations are viewable at www.syc.com.au
Richard is also a founder and Co-Organiser of the Australian Yacht and Boat Clubs Managers Group, an organisation created to share best practice among Australia’s major clubs.
2011 - 12 Peter Conde
Peter Conde has been Yachting Australia’s High Performance Director since May 2009 with the team having numerous outstanding results both on and off the water during that time.
This culminated with the London 2012 Olympic Games where the team won three gold and a silver medal and the London 2012 Paralympic Games where Australia won a gold medal. Under Peter’s leadership Australia topped the Olympic sailing medal tally and for the first time ever sailing was Australia’s number one sport.
2010 -11 Matthew Owen
Matthew has been manager of the Canberra Yacht Club since 2001 and is also Executive Officer of Yachting ACT, playing a major role in sailing in the ACT.
2009 - 10 Alistair Murray
Alistair has made contributing to the sailing industry a lifelong passion. Alistair is a successful sailor winning three National and one World title and joined Ronstan in 1976. Alistair is now the Managing Director, guiding Ronstan to become Australia's leading manufacturer of sailing equipment and one of the world's largest in the field. Alistair's efforts in the sport have been extensive including filling roles from founder, organiser, sponsor, board member, chairman to social co-ordinator at summits, conferences, selection panels, events, organisations, associations and regattas from local dinghy meeting to World Championships and the Volvo Ocean Race stopover.
2008 - 09 Victor Kovalenko
Victor is a legend of sailing and has been involved with the Australian Sailing Team for the past three Olympic Games. At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Victor coached Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page, and Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson to Gold medals in the men's and women's 470 competitions. Victor is a driving force behind Australia's continued success in Olympic class sailing, working closely with athletes from all corners of the country and helping them to reach their goals.
2007 - 08 John Anderson
1972 Star Class Olympic medallist, John Anderson OAM became a talented player in the sail making industry with North Sails. A consultant to Yacht Owners as an IOR Optimiser, John became highly sought after for his technical advice. He took on the role as Development and Technical Officer for Yachting New South Wales in 1982 and has been one of the lead technicians though many offshore rating systems as they evolved: IOR. IMS, CHS and IRC. John has also taken on roles within youth development, training and events.
The previous Services Award was split in an effort to recognise the contribution to sailing and/or boating achievements over a number of years in the area of coaching, officiating or administration by both professional personnel and by volunteers.
2006 - 07 Doug Jarvis, Michael Fletcher, Phil Vardy & John Winning
Doug was the driving force behind the Geelong based event, ‘Festival of Sail’, created in 1998. Seeing the huge potential in the event and the ability to make it greater, Doug travelled to Skandia Cowes Week in the UK to evaluate and learn from the event. From this, Skandia Geelong Week was born in 2004. The event has now grown to over 400 yachts, 4000 competitors, 100,000 visitors to the city of Geelong and an economic impact of $12.4M. This is all primarily due to the vision, passion and hard work of Doug.
Michael (Fletch) has been an icon of the Olympic sailing arena for nearly three decades. He has participated in every Australian Olympic Team since 1972, several times as Head Coach and has personally coached crews to four Olympic Medals including the Silver medal won by Tornado pair Darren Bundock and John Forbes at Sydney 2000. In the last year, he has coached Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby to Gold and Silver medals at several ISAF Graded events, wins at the ISAF World Sailing Games, the Tornado World Championships in Argentina and most recently the Miami Olympic Class Regatta.
For over 13 years, Phil’s name has been synonymous with disabled sailing. As the National Sailability Coordinator, he oversaw the incorporation of Sailability into every Australian state and territory as well as the ‘sailing is for everybody’ philosophy. During his eight years as Vice President of the International Association of Disabled Sailing (IFDS) he made a considerable contribution to the international sailing scene for people with a disability. When he retired from IFDS in 2006, he was immediately appointed President of Sailability World.
John is an accomplished sailor with wins at the 12ft Skiff Australian and Interdominion Championships as well as being 18ft Skiff World and Australian Champion. He has competed in some of the world’s toughest ocean races including taking line honours at the 1976 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, winning the veterans division of the 50th Anniversary of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and contesting the Transpac Race. John currently contributes greatly to the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race through donating his personal boat JBW to act as ‘Radio Relay Vessel’ as well as providing sponsorship for the event.
2005 - 06 John Kirkjian, Bill Joselin and Lou Abrahams
John has put over 20 years work into the sailing community, officiating on committees and holding flag officer positions at sailing clubs. On a voluntary basis, John, a long-term member of the Yachting NSW Racing Rules Committee, is the present chairman of the protest committees at the CYCA and RSYS and chairs protests at number of other clubs when needed. He is currently Chair of the National Safety Committee, and until recently, represented the CYCA on the Yachting NSW Special Regulations Committee.
Bill, who built and sailed his own boats as a youth, switched from 16ft skiffs to windsurfing in the 1980's, becoming successful in the Windsurfer One Designs. Bill has helped establish policies and guidelines, encouraged the development of clubs, co-ordinated youth training and personally encouraged the involvement and participation in racing of board sailors throughout windsurfers.
Lou, a world renowned and respected yachtsman has been a member of Sandringham Yacht Club for over 30 years. He holds the record for skippering his own yachts in the Sydney Hobart race, which ha has done since 1965 and has competed in 43 races. Lou represented Australia four times at the Kenwood Cup in Hawaii.
2004 - 05 Stanley Burnicle, Arthur Hodge, Jackie Kay and David Tillet
Stanley Burnicle has been a committed volunteer at the Dobroyd Aquatic Club in Sydney since 1964, he is a life member and patron of the club.
Since the 1970s Arthur Hodge has also been a committed volunteer. He has held various class and club positions and is currently Principal Race Officer for numerous major events.
Jackie Kay has contributed to the development of Sailability around Australia and in thirteen other countries. Her full time commitment includes Chairmanship and membership of the Access Dinghy Foundation, Sailability International Steering Committee, International Foundation for Disabled Sailing (IFDS) Development Committee and Yachting Australia’s Sailability Australia Committee.
David Tillett is an experienced and skilled international jury member, umpire and committee member and has officiat in these positions at numerous Olympic Games, Pre Olympic regattas, America’s Cups and Louis Vuitton Cups.
2003 - 04 Michael Kelly
Michael has made an outstanding contribution to the sport of sailing. Acting in a volunteer capacity, Michael has been a dedicated and devoted Chairman of Skandia Geelong Week’s Regatta Committee for five years over two periods. Michael Kelly citation.
2002 - 03 Syd Fischer
Syd Fischer is highly respected, well-known member of the yachting community. His past record indicates that he is a fantastic yachtsman – he has competed in 34 Sydney-Hobart Yacht Races and races on a regular basis (and places well) in many of the major offshore yacht races around Australia. Syd Fisher citation.
Kevin Wood
Kevin is well known in yachting circles as an active keelboat sailor and also for his efforts in yachting administration. Over the years he has introduced many young sailors to keelboat racing aboard his various yachts, and has significantly contributed to the life and development of Sandringham Yacht Club. Kevin Wood citation.
Alan Carlisle
Alan has demonstrated a huge voluntary commitment to the sport of yachting and in particular, the promotion and development of boating safety within Victoria and Australia. His commitment to training and education in this field has significantly enhanced the safety of recreational mariners. Alan Carlisle citation.
Malcolm Hughes
Malcolm has been involved in sailing for many years as competitor, club and class administrator, event manager and race officer. Malcolm’s dedication to the sport stems from a desire to encourage sailing, primarily at youth level, within South Australia. Malcolm Hughes citation.
Christopher Mitchell
Christopher designed, developed and manufactured the first ever 2.3m single seated Access dinghy. Chris recognised a need for a safe, stable, user-friendly boat in order to promote sailing for disabled people, and used his design and boat-building skills to develop a class of boat that is now sailed worldwide, and has introduced approximately 10 000 Australians to sailing. In 2002 Chris was named National Winner of the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Business and Community Partnerships, and was also a National Finalist in the Australian Sports Industry Awards for Business Innovation. Christopher Mitchell citation.
2001 - 02 Ralph Duffield
An active member of the Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club since 1963, Ralph has served on the Executive Committee, has held the position of Commodore, Rear Commodore, and Vice Commodore. Ralph has been the club coach, the QYA delegate, the Chairman of the QYA Regatta Committee, the current Measurer, and Principle Race Officer for many championships, including the World A Class Catamaran Championship.
Ross Wilson
Ross has been involved in Race Management covering World Championships, Olympic test events, Sail Melbourne, and the 2000 Olympic Games. Ross was also an integral part of the VYC Coaching Committee, Development Committee, Youth Program, State Squad Program, Regional and Country Program, and coaching courses around Victoria. He is also a member of many race management and officials Committees, and helps to develop race management and judging accreditations.
Kevin Wilson
Kevin has been involved in many International and Olympic regattas, taking part as a member of race management committees or the jury. He works toward improving Race Management Principles, presents seminars, helps to develop accreditation programs, and organises the officiating of many large events.
2000 - 01 William (Bill) Cheal
Bill started sailing in 1940 at the Port Jackson 16ft Skiff Club. He was a Foundation Member of Balmoral 12ft Skiff Sailing Club and from 1945 until 1960 he served as Race Officer and on the Sailing Committee. Bill was made a Life Member of the club. In 1963 Bill moved to the Central Coast and reformed Toukley Sailing Club conducting sailing lessons in TL1 & TL2 and running TL3 courses. He has been Sailing Master and Principal since 1984. Also acting as course setter, starter and finisher, shipwright (his trade) and general handyman. Bill is now approaching his 38th year, unbroken, as Secretary of the club. During this time there have been 38 State and 16 National Championships conducted at the club. In 2000 he commenced sailing clinics for the NSW Dept of Sport & Recreation and is currently setting up for Sailability. Bill is a Life Member of Toukley Sailing Club, has received the NSW Government Community Service Award and Ministerial Sports Appreciation Award and is still going strong in his 76th year.
John Harrison
The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games was the pinnacle of a lifetime of volunteer work in Sailing by John. At his third Olympic Games for Australia, John delivered to the Australian Olympic Sailing Team the best possible management support a Team could hope for. Working under stressful conditions due to the demands of a home Games and the administrative requirements of the Australian Olympic Committee, John ensured that the Team Members were fully supported both on the land and on the water. He managed a team of 18 athletes and 11 support staff at what was Australia’s most successful Olympic sailing regatta. John has established a standard of team management that will be difficult to match. The Olympic Team members and staff appreciated his efforts and believe that John should be recognised nationally for his contribution to Australia’s Olympic sailing history.
David Linacre
David joined Royal Brighton Yacht Club in 1936 and sailed a 12ft Cadet Dinghy – he is now a Life Member of the Club. David became Club Captain and then in 1972, Commodore of Royal Brighton Yacht Club. From 1970 until 1972 David was the President of the Victorian Yachting Council and Victoria’s representative to the AYF. As Manager of the 1972 Australian Olympic Sailing Team, David was instrumental in arranging overseas training for the Olympic Team that contributed to a Gold Medal for John Cuneo in the Dragon class and a Gold Medal for David Forbes in the Star class. David recommended a Victorian Olympic Development Committee be established following the 1972 Games and this Committee has continues to this day. He become an International Judge in 1982 and was a member of the VYC Racing Rules Committee and the AYF Racing Rules Committee and remains a consultant to the national committee. David has participated in and contributed to the sport of sailing for over 60 years.
1999 - 00 John Hornby
“Hornblower” is acknowledged as a stalwart of the sport over a great number of years with a strong dedication to yachting safety. John’s knowledge of safety matters is utilised by the entire yachting community and he is a leading adviser on the AYF Safety Regulations.
1998 - 99 Lew Carter
Volunteer radio operator onboard the Young Endeavour during the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race for more than 10 years. Highly regarded amongst the offshore sailing fraternity.
1996 - 98 Graeme Owens
30 year involvement in sailing administration specialising in rules and officiating. A National & International Judge and Umpire, Instructor at 17 ISAF Judging/Umpiring seminars and author of the initial ISAF Umpire’s Call Book and Match Racing Manual. Graeme introduced protest mediation procedure in Australia.
1995 - 96 John Harrison
Acknowledged for his outstanding contribution as Team Manager for the 1992 & 1996 Australian Olympic Yachting Teams and the 1994 IYRU World Sailing Championship.
1994 - 95 Alan Payne (posthumously)
Acknowledged for his exceptional design in a variety of craft from entry level sailboats, to cruisers and racing yachts. Designer of Australia’s first America’s Cup challenger Gretel. More recently designing the Catamaran Ferries for Sydney Harbour.
Kay Cottee AO
Outstanding volunteer contribution to disabled sailing as Patron and Chairman of Sailability Australia. Chairman of the Australian National Maritime Museum. Acknowledged for the first female solo non-stop unassisted circumnavigation. 1988 Australian of the Year.
1993-94 Lindsay Cunningham
Involved in the design and winning of the Little Americas Cup Challenge in the C-Class catamaran and designer of the Sailing World Speed Record holder (at 46.02 knots!). Designer of many successful monohull and catamaran classes.
1992 - 93 Frank Bethwaite AM
Acknowledged for his outstanding work in boat & rig design, aero & hydro dynamics and weather analysis. Author of many books and magazine articles and contributor to high performance coaching seminars.