Scottish sailors recognised at RYA Scotland Annual Awards Dinner

by Claire Caffrey, RYA Scotland 6 Feb 2014 14:23 GMT 1 February 2014

RYA Scotland hosted their annual awards dinner at the weekend (Saturday 1st February) at the Glasgow Science Centre to recognise and reward the fantastic work and contribution to the sport of sailing from coaches, instructors, volunteers and clubs throughout Scotland.

As many as 140 guests attended the awards dinner from all over Scotland to help celebrate the hard work and commitment of the shortlists and winners of the awards. The outstanding achievements of some of Scotland best young sailors were also recognised through the presentation of the RYA Scotland National Rankings. The evening was a great success with many of the sailors in attendance especially inspired by Gerry Hughes who recently became the first deaf sailor to sail around the world singlehandedly including the five capes.

The National Ranking awards were announced at the start of the evening and medals were handed over to some of the young sailors from the Chair of the RYA Scotland Performance Committee, Callum MacDonald. The winners were as follows:

• Laser Radial: Jack Aitken from Helenburgh
• 420: Callum Airlie from Gordon and his English sailing partner Jo Butterworth
• 29er: Gillies Munro and Daniel Harris both from Forres
• Topper boys: Calum Rosie from Rhu, Helensburgh
• Topper girls: Anna Sturrock from Forfar
• Optimist boys: Hamish Taylor from Lenzie, Glasgow
• Optimist girls: Rebecca Coles from Lockerbie

There were six annual awards presented at the end of the evening. The first to be presented was the RYA Scotland Coach of the Year award which went to Anna Bird. Anna is the Scottish windsurfing coach and, despite living in London, travels to coach the young windsurfers at all their training camps at the sportscotland National Centre Cumbrae whilst also supporting them at events.

"It is really nice! I didn't expect it to happen so I'm really excited. My windsurfers have done really well over this season. We had two 7.8 sailors in the UK junior squad and one 6.8 sailor in the UK junior squad. In the transitional training squad we have Dean Hargreaves and Holly McPhail so this year has been phenomenal for us. We have just had an amazing year and everyone has both sailed and trained amazingly well. I couldn't have asked for anything better", said Anna of her win.

The next winner to be announced was Angie Fraser who was named as RYA Scotland Instructor of the Year. An incredibly popular figure in the sailing community in Aberdeenshire, Angie has a passion for sailing that seems to be contagious. The nominations for Angie gave huge praise for her work and commitment to the sport and also recognised her ability to get everyone of all ages and abilities on the water and enjoying themselves. Many people will not be surprised to hear Angie was announced as the winner but it certainly came as a surprise to her when she found out.

"It's a big surprise to receive this. As I had won two awards just 3 years ago, I thought this time it was for certain for someone else. I was not expecting this. I love going sailing and racing in particular myself - always have, always will. There is always something new to learn or something you can do better than before. It's great to see others discovering this", commented Angie.

Robyn Dougall, 15 from Edinburgh, was shortlisted for two awards on the evening, RYA Scotland Young Volunteer of the Year award and also the Elizabeth Mackay award. Robyn was delighted to come away as winner of the Young Volunteer award sponsored by Honda and was presented with her glass trophy by Iain Botwood from Honda.

When asked what she had been up to in 2013 that helped her to clinch the award Robyn told us:

"Last season I was involved with a lot of rescues and I did the Honda Youth RIB championship which I won and then travelled to Southampton to represent Scotland in the finals so that was good fun. Next season I am looking forward to doing the Honda Youth RIB championship again and this is my last year so I am sure it will be fun. It is a shame it is my last year but I will give it my best. The voluntary rescue cover on the Forth is a good achievement. It is nice being able to help people and keeping an eye on them. The speed of the RIB is great too!"

The winner of the Elizabeth Mackay award was another Edinburgh based sailor, Jane Campbell Morrison. Jane worked for RYA Scotland for over 16 years but recently moved on during the summer to become Chief Executive of Snowsport Scotland, another sport close to her heart. She has always gone above and beyond to help develop the sport and support the many volunteers all over Scotland - much of this work done in her own time. She coaches, organises events and now hopefully will have some free time to get back out on the water and do some sailing herself. Sailing in The City was probably Jane's biggest achievement. It was a project which brought sailing to the masses and was a hugely rewarding project for everyone who was part of it.

When asked how she felt about winning the award and the awards dinner, Jane had the following to say:

"The evening has been fantastic and it has been really lovely to catch up with lots of people. To have won an award, which was wholly unexpected, has been great but more importantly it has been lovely to see all the achievements from last year; from the performance sailors but also to hear from Gerry Hughes."

The Volunteer of the Year Award was sponsored by Virgin Atlantic this year and it was Denise Logan from Loch Tummel Sailing Club who was announced as the winner. Denise was unable to attend the dinner but was extremely surprised to hear that she was in fact not only shortlisted but actually the winner of the award. "Can't believe I have won this!" was her initial reaction. Nominated for being the kind of person a sailing club just can't do without, she is down at the club every weekend to help in any way she can. The club will be delighted to see Denise's contributions recognised by RYA Scotland.

Virgin Atlantic was also running a competition on the night to win free flights from Scotland down to London. The lucky winner picked out by Jennifer, an air hostess for Virgin Atlantic, was David Williams from Dalgety Bay Sailing Club.

The final award to be presented on the evening was Club of Year which was sponsored by Clyde Challenger. Glenn Porter from Clyde Challenger took to the stage to award the winners plaque and it was Loch Venachar Sailing Club who was the deserving recipients. Commodore Judy Warburton was quite stunned and had the following to say at the end of the evening:

"It has been a lovely evening, really nice. We didn't expect to win so it has been a really lovely evening. We have had a busy year. It is a great club but it is all down to the volunteers because without them we would just be somewhere nice to sail."

RYA Scotland would like to thank everyone who nominated for the awards and also the judging panel who selected the shortlists and winners. It also wouldn't be possible to an awards dinner such as this without the support of the sponsors; Virgin Atlantic, Honda and Clyde Challenger. A huge thank you also goes to Gerry Hughes for giving such an inspiring talk and taking the time to share some of his wonderful stories with everyone. RYA Scotland is extremely grateful for their support in helping recognise the achievements and commitment from the volunteers and upcoming sailors in Scotland.

For more information about RYA Scotland or sailing in Scotland please visit www.ryascotland.org.uk. You can also join RYA Scotland on Facebook and follow them on Twitter, @RYAScotland.