Commitment to Leadership: Our 2025 Finalists for Coach of the Year
A commitment to exceptional leadership and athlete development is integral to the Coach of the Year finalists at the 2025 Australian Sailing Awards.
The strong field of finalists include Mikael Lundh (WA), Tony Bull (VIC) and Rafael Trujillo (QLD).
The nation’s peak sailing awards will be held at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney on Friday, November 14, with the winners set to join an illustrious honour roll including Olympic and world champions and legends of the sport.
Our 2025 Finalists:
Mikael Lundh
Mikael Lundh has taken the national ILCA6 squad to the next level internationally.
This season he has coached first place finishes in the Australian ILCA6 National Championships, Australian Championships and Trofeo S.A.R Princesa Sofia.
He also passionately contributes beyond his ILCA6 squad, including direct support into the 49erFX group. He played a hands-on role in the delivery of the STEM Sailing project in WA, bridging performance coaching and community engagement.
Mikael openly shares learnings across classes, and supports the broader AST coaching group with a generous and collaborative mindset and leads with humility and purpose, inspiring trust in athletes and peers alike.
Tony Bull
Tony Bull is a highly respected local sailmaker who has dedicated his life to the sport of sailing. His passion for coaching and helping sailors achieve their goals is truly remarkable.
In the 2024/25 season, Tony led yet another Australian team to a world championship title in the International Cadet class, his third world title in 10 years, alongside several other podium finishes. His sailors' achievements were also recognised more broadly, winning the prestigious Lee Troop Award in both 2023 and 2024, and the 2024 VicSport Young Team of the Year.
Whilst immensely proud of individual world championships and the amazing sailors who achieve these, Tony personally takes the greatest pride in promoting a strong team ethos. From a coaching perspective, he is most proud of instilling the “team working together” mantra, highlighted by having six of the top ten boats at the most recent World Championships.
Tony’s tireless dedication to developing not only skilled sailors but also outstanding young people earned him one of RGYC’s highest honours, Life Membership. This prestigious recognition is reserved for individuals who have gone above and beyond for the club over an extended period.
Rafael Trujillo
Last year’s Coach of the Year, Rafael had another massive year in 2025, claiming a national title and coached the Australian ILCA7 Squad to a World Championships podium finish.
Rafael regularly supports athletes outside his immediate squad. He invests in the development of future ILCA6 athletes by making himself available across the pipeline and is widely respected for his depth of knowledge and willingness to share technical and tactical insights.
Rafael leads by example in professionalism, with a clear passion for athlete success across the whole team.
Previous winners:
2023-24 Rafael Trujillo
2022-23 Ben Durham
2021-22 Ben Durham
2020-21 Michael Blackburn
2019-20 Michael Blackburn
2018-19 Michael Blackburn (AST/NSW)
2017-18 Michael Blackburn (AST/NSW)
2015-16 Michael Blackburn (AST/NSW)
2014-15 Tristan Brown (Western Australia)
2013-14 Larry Cargill (NSW)
