Wednesday, October 29, 2008
The Canadian Yachting Association is pleased to announce the 2008 Award recipients. The Canadian Yachting Association 2008 Rolex Annual Awards Banquet was held at the Kingston Yacht Club, Kingston Ontario on October 25, 2008.
In advance of the commencement of the evening’s award presentations, the Canadian Yachting Association paid honourable mention to the medallists at this year’s Paralympic Games:
Paul Tingley – 2.4m - Gold Medal
John McRoberts & Stacie Louttit – Skud 18 - Bronze Medal
On behalf of the Canadian Yachting Association, congratulations on your tremendous achievements!
The following awards were presented at the 2008 Rolex Annual Awards Banquet:
Rolex Sailor of the Year Award
The Rolex Sailor of the Year Award, CYA's most prestigious award, is presented annually to a Canadian sailor for bringing recognition to Canadian sailing and the Canadian Yachting Association. The award was first presented in 1986 to America's Cup supporter Paul Phelan, who successfully organized a merger between Canada's top 12-meter syndicates.
The 2008 recipient of the Rolex Sailor of the Year award is Paul Tingley, of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Paul Tingley was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1970. Paul started sailing at the early age of 10 years old, and began his racing career at 25 years. As his skills developed, Paul moved to Victoria BC to join a 3 person Sonar team. The move was a good one, as the team captured the Bronze medal at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics.
Paul returned to Halifax in 2005 and has raced the 1 person Paralympic class boat; 2.4 mR, ever since. His success has continued, as he finished 5th at the World Disabled Championships in 2007. Added to Paul’s successes are a silver medal at the 2008 Qingdao test event and the ultimate achievement of a Gold Medal at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games this summer.
Paul’s success at the 2008 Paralympics is the culmination of a focused effort with the single-minded aim of winning a Medal for himself and Canada at the Games. He is not only a top international athlete but a true ambassador to our sport.
Please see the following link to view Paul’s acceptance speech; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdOEe-9cZhA
CYA Female Athlete of the Year
The Female Athlete of the Year is awarded to an individual athlete or crew with a record of outstanding achievement in national and international competition and who has brought recognition to Canadian competitive sailing.
The 2008 recipient of the CYA Female Athlete of the Year award is Stacie Louttit, of Victoria, BC.
Stacie and her teammate, John McRoberts, took the news of the addition of the Skud 18 class to the 2008 Paralympic Games head-on. Showing absolute devotion and commitment to qualifying for a spot on Canada’s Paralympic team this year, Stacie took a leave of absence from her work at IBM. With her young family’s support to train and travel, Stacie and John’s Paralympic campaign – “Team U Can 2” sailed to 3rd place finish at 2008 Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, and 4th at 2008 Qingdao International Regatta.
The team was fully dedicated to achieving success in Qingdao, and sure enough they brought home the bronze medal!
Stacie’s perseverance in achieving excellence in sailing, and loyalty to our Canadian Paralympic Team is admirable. Congratulations Stacie!
CYA Male Athlete of the Year
The Male Athlete of the Year is awarded to an individual athlete or crew with a record of outstanding achievement in national and international competition and who has brought recognition to Canadian competitive sailing.
The 2008 recipients of the CYA Male Athlete of the Year award are Oskar Johansson of Oakville Ontario and Kevin Stittle of Orangeville, Ontario.
Oskar, has sailed all his life. His competitive sailing career started when he was 14 while racing Lasers out of The Oakville Yacht Squadron. Oskar went to the 2004 Olympics in Athens and finished 15th. He is also a Pan American Games Gold Medalist in the Sunfish and a 5 x Canadian National champion in the Tornado. (02-06).
Kevin started sailing at the age of 4 as a family sport at the cottage and as he says the rest is history. Kevin previously was a high level windsurfer. He has won multiple Canadian titles, represented Canada at the Youth Worlds in the Mistral class, and went to the Pan American Games in the Hobie 16. Kevin made the transition from a National Team carded athlete in the Mistral to a Tornado crew almost effortlessly, evidence of high level of talent.
This Tornado team has had an amazing year including finishing 4th at the Holland Regatta, 2nd at the World Championship and placing 4th at the 2008 Olympic Games.
CYA Coach of the Year
The CYA Coach of the Year award was established in 1998 to recognize an instructor/coach who has contributed to the advancement of sailing at the club/school level.
The 2008 recipient of the CYA Coach of the Year award is Steve McBride, of Victoria, BC.
Steve’s joy of sailing and dedication to people, young and old, creates an infectious thrill for the members of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club Race team. He provides motivation and support for each sailor tailored by his sensitivity to each individual’s need. He has been invaluable in transforming the programs at Royal Victoria Yacht Club into professional, exciting and fun times. Under his leadership, participation in the junior race team has nearly doubled and athlete’s results have improved remarkably, with strong performances at the provincial, national and international levels. Steve gives freely of his time and enthusiastically promotes competitive sailing throughout our club membership and the local sailing community. In addition to coaching our junior athletes, Steve also works with our paralympic sailing team, masters Laser team and other local classes. Steve has a visionary capacity to turn people on to sailing and helps them believe in parts of themselves they do not even know exist.
The positive impact of his coaching and management has been felt by all members affiliated with the junior and Instructional Sailing programs.
CYA Volunteer of the Year
The CYA Volunteer of the Year Award was established in 1991 to recognize outstanding contributions by CYA volunteers.
The 2008 recipient of the CYA Volunteer of the Year award is Tracy Terry, of Victoria, British Columbia.
Tracy has dedicated countless years to growing the sport of sailing on a national, provincial and local level. Tracy has been instrumental in the developments of the CYA Training programs.
Tracy was the CYA VP Training from 2003 until 2007. Tracy has been a member of the CYA Learn to Sail Committee since 1997 and the chair since 2002. In her tenure as VP Training she was responsible for the development and implementation of the current Training Policy Handbook and the recertification policy for instructors. In addition, Tracy has been instrumental in the progression of the CBET (Competency Based Education Training) Transition. Tracy has overseen the course development and implementation of the Fundamental Course, the Learn to Race Program and the development and piloting of the new Learn to Sail Coach Course and Program Manager Module.
Tracy has been involved with sailing as both an instructor and racer since the 1980s. Tracy is currently the Regional Cadet Sail Training Program Director for the Regional Cadet Support Unit (Pacific), a position she has held since 1998. She is responsible for all sail and powerboat training program designs, development plans, implementation plans and program evaluations for BC Sea Cadet Corps and a Cadet Summer Training Centre.
Most recently, Tracy has been working on the creation of a boat rescue course and manual geared specifically for sailing.
Tracy is a true ambassador for the sport of sailing.
Bill Burk Memorial Youth Elite Award (Male)
This award was donated to the CYA in 1997 by the Burk family to honor the memory of Bill Burk, their father, an active promoter of youth sailing in the Montreal's West Island region. As of 2003, this award may recognize a top male and female sailor.
The 2008 recipient of the Bill Burk Memorial Youth Elite Award (Male) is Robert Davis, of Kingston, ON.
When Robert transitioned from his development class, the Laser Radial, into the larger more competitive Men’s Olympic Laser class, he took no time to get noticed. Even in his younger days, Robert’s strength was knowledge of the course. Confident with his judgement of tactics and strategies, Robert would always stand out in the fleet as being one of the smarter racers. His attitude and intelligence leads to a very positive outlook, which worked well even in the trickiest conditions, where most sailors would get frustrated, Rob would remain relaxed.
Robert is always up to a challenge. It is rare to see him without a grin, even in the heaviest, hardest winds. Knowing that Rob was off to the windy Denmark for Youth Worlds 2008 made the entire nation of sailors in Canada feel confident in his competence. Placing 5th, Rob arrived back in Kingston very content, and ready to continue his climb to the top of sailors in Canada.
CYA City of Kingston Regatta of the Year
This award recognizes a regatta whereupon all aspects of race management have resulted in an overall organizational success.
The 2008 recipient of the CYA City of Kingston Regatta of the Year is Mobility Cup hosted by Pointe Claire Yacht Club and Association Québécoise de Voile Adaptée.
The Mobility Cup has become a truly international event. Every summer competitors come from across Canada and the United States as well as Europe and as far away as New Zealand. Billed as a "regatta of possibilities" Mobility Cup´s inspiring format brings sailors that may have never sailed before to the start line with Mobility Cup champions that have gone on to represent Canada in the Paralympic Games. The Pointe Claire Yacht and AQVA aimed high in their planning and the event exceeded expectations.
William Abbott Senior Trophy – Sail Training Program of the Year
In 1991, at the second annual CYA Sail Training Symposium, the Sarnia Yacht Club donated a trophy in honour of William Abbott Senior, who as well as being one of Canada's best known yacht builders, has contributed significantly to sail training at Sarnia Yacht Club. The purpose of the trophy is to recognize the many fine programs run by dedicated volunteers throughout Canada and to share the information among clubs for the improvement of their sail-training programs.
The 2008 recipient of the William Abbott Senior Trophy is Nepean Sailing School, Nepean, Ontario.
The Nepean Sailing School’s Volunteer Instructor Program has been developed to improve the quality of instructional skills of students interested in becoming instructors. They run a sailing for Community Groups program that is designed to introduce students to the basics of water safety and the world of dinghy sailing. The school has been awarded the title of a Learn to Sail and an Adaptive Sail Development training Center by Ontario Sailing.
The first annual O’pen Bic Canadian Cup “un-regatta” was hosted by the Nepean Sailing School. Its purpose was to introduce a new format for youth sailing in a unorthodox and fun way. They are one of the first Canadian Sailing school to adopt the O’Pen Bic into its Learn to Sail Program.
Recreation Event Award
This award was established in 1997 to recognize a club, an organization, an individual or a group that has contributed to the promotion of recreational sailing in Canada.
The 2008 Recreation Event Award is awarded to the Ontario Sailing BOOM Program.
The BOOM Program has been successfully teaching kids and adults how to sail since the mid 1970’s and has trained approximately 30,000 how to sail in its history. The summer of 2008 was very successful teaching 700 kids and adults, able bodied and people with disabilities the CYA White Sail program and bringing sailing to remote communities and a variety of populations across Ontario and Canada. The service area for the BOOM program in 2008 included; communities as far west as Chatham and Kincardine, as far east as Ottawa and Cornwall, as far north as Little Current and New Liskeard and many communities in between. In addition, the Access Boom program partnered with NSYA to offer programming for sailors with a disability in the communities of Mabou and Guysborough in Nova Scotia. Visiting 31 communities traveling 60,000 km and training 700 people with only 10 instructors is no small feat.
In addition to the awards presented in Kingston on October 25th; the following awards will be presented the recipients’ respective Provincial Sailing Association’s Annual General Meeting:
Bill Burk Memorial Youth Elite Award (Female)
This award was donated to the CYA in 1997 by the Burk family to honor the memory of Bill Burk, their father, an active promoter of youth sailing in the Montreal's West Island region. As of 2003, this award may recognize a top male and female sailor.
The 2008 recipient of the Bill Burk Memorial Youth Elite Award (Female) is Isabella Bertold, of Surrey, British Columbia.
Marvin McDill Memorial Award
The Marvin McDill Memorial Award was established to honour the man who returned Canada to the America's Cup Competition in 1983. Also known as the Canadian Sailing Team Rookie of the Year Award, the Marvin McDill Award is presented annually to the athlete/crew with the best results at their first Open World Championship as a member of the Canadian Sailing Team.
The 2008 recipient of the Marvin McDill Memorial Award is Isabella Bertold, of Surrey, British Columbia.
Chisholm Trophy for Excellence in Race Management
This award, donated by the Ontario Sailing Association, was established in 1993. Emblematic of excellence in race management, the Chisholm Trophy recognizes the club or association responsible for the regatta with the best-managed races during the current year.
The 2008 recipient of the Chisholm Trophy for Excellence in Race Management is Lunenburg Yacht Club – Canadian Optimist Championships.
Nathan R. Cowan Memorial Award for Developing Sailors
Friends and family of Nathan Cowan donated this award to CYA in 2002 to honour the memory of Nathan Cowan, a Canadian Sailing Team member, who died tragically in a car accident on February 16, 2002. In 2002, after years of determination and persistence, Nathan finally achieved his goal of making the National Team. Nathan’s friends and family have designed the criteria of this award in order to support athletes like Nathan, and help them through these years of hard work.
The 2008 recipient of the Nathan R. Cowan Memorial award is Lee Parkhill, of Oakville, Ontario.
