John Cox wins Tony Slade Trophy
by David Brecknell 3 Apr 2005 21:50 BST
John Cox wins the Tony Slade Trophy © Laser 2000 class
The Tony Slade Trophy is awarded annually to the person judged by Sue Slade to have made the greatest contribution to the Laser 2000 Class Association over the previous year.
The nominations and citations were passed to Sue Slade and she has judged that the winner of the Tony Slade Trophy for 2004 is Chichester Yacht Club member John Cox.
John took over the task of sailing secretary two years ago and has worked diligently to provide the class associ-ation with the optimum sailing programme for the future. His experience has guided the class to look years into the future to acquire highly sought-after venues for our national and inland championships.
John has personally championed the move of the class to a week-long national championships. He actively and tirelessly liaised between the host club and the competitors to provide the perfect environment for racing and socialising during the Coastal Championships (Mounts Bay) in 2003 and the Nationals (Saundersfoot) in 2004.
Providing such an excellent sailing programme requires many hours of his personal time contacting clubs and attending to the detail nearer the event.
John has also been very active on the association website during the technical debates associated with rule changes for both the Laser 2000 and the Laser 3000 classes.
In addition John and his wife, Pauline, manage a business, which prevents them from attending meetings on a Saturday without closing the business and accepting the subsequent loss of personal income. However, this year they still managed to attend four open meetings and the Coastal and Inland Championships. John is to be commended for his selfless devotion to the class association in the preparation and execution of the sailing programme.