HRH The Princess Royal presents RYA Medal to Jeff Manning

Jeff Manning receiving his RYA Lifetime Commitment medal from HRH The Princess Royal © RYA

Henley Sailing Club's Hon. Secretary Jeff Manning has been honoured by the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) for many years service to the sport of sailing and was presented with his award by HRH The Princess Royal at a prestigious event in London on 29 November. Jeff received the RYA Lifetime Commitment medal, an official certificate and an entry in the RYA book of award citations.

The RYA regarded Jeff's 32 years of continuous service to sailing on the Thames at Henley Sailing Club as exemplary and extolled his roles as Commodore, Flag Officer and latterly as Hon Secretary as the backbone of club life for the sailors both past and present who have enjoyed Jeff's stewardship over many years. Jeff is still sharing his knowledge of the river and its unusual configurations of wind and currents with new and old members alike and is actively sailing his Phantom class boat. Jeff has been archiving and collecting the club's records and memorabilia and has boxed up every item from the earliest documents available at the start of the club's existence in 1896 to the present day. Many of these stunning sepia photographs show a long disappeared river Thames social life of Victorian and Edwardian sailors at leisure on the river between Reading and Henley. Jeff is also quite happy to discard the white archivist's gloves and get dirty stripping down the club's old BMW diesel engine in its aged launch or indeed any job that needs to be done and was last seen up a ladder putting up security lighting.

A clearly delighted Jeff said of meeting the Princess Royal "She was genuinely very nice, talked to everyone in the room (all 150 of us) and had individual words with each award recipient on the stage asking some questions and had a smile and light touch for each award winner".

Commodore Tim Saunders said "Without Jeff and people like him working voluntarily in small sailing clubs like ours here on the Thames there would be less local life and far less achievement in the sport of sailing. Every Olympic gold medal champion started sailing in circumstances similar to these and those who keep the fabric of clubs like ours in good order are rarely lauded. It is wonderful that the RYA has recognised Jeff's previously unsung achievements and everyone at the club is immensely proud of him".

For further details see www.henleysailingclub.org.uk and if you want to join in please see the website for instructions of how to get to the club at Willow Lane, Wargrave for Sunday racing when the 2012 sailing season commences in March.