Belcher and Ryan look forward to the new year

by Mat Belcher and Will Ryan on 24 Dec 2013 Belcher Ryan 2016. The Australian sailing duo of Mat Belcher and Will Ryan report on what 2013 held for them and look forward to what is to come in the new year.

It is hard to believe that it was only just over a year that we began our first regatta of the new Olympiad in our new partnership 'Belcher Ryan 2016'. With Mat coming off the back of a massive high from Olympic Gold in London it seemed a fairly high pressure situation as we set off towards Race 1 of the 2012 Sail Melbourne World Cup. And dealing with pressure is something that we have had to learn a lot more about as this year has gone on!

It has been an amazing year for our team and we have achieved much more than we had ever set out to do. Results have not been the focus of the past year, but rather to build the foundations in what is a four year project towards the Rio Olympic Games.

2013 has seen our team reach new territory as Mat was named 'Rolex ISAF World Sailor of the Year', and Victor was inducted into the 'Australian Sports Hall of Fame'. It was the first World Championship title for Will, and the team now has an impressive victory run of 10 events - which is only overshadowed by Mat's unbeaten record through 2012 and 2013 stretching to 18 regattas straight! In the social media Mat has even been known as the #BlackCaviaroftheSea.

Thank you to our sponsors, supporters, friends and family! All of you have played an important part in helping us to be as successful as we have!

A huge part of the team's strength this year has been the help of our training partners Matt and Rob Crawford (AUS 5); Angus Galloway and Tim Hannah (AUS 7) ; and Kazu and Kimi of Team Abeam (JPN 11). Thank you to the Australian Sailing Team for their support, and of course to ABeam Consulting and our campaign Godfather Marcus Blackmore.

The recent Sail Melbourne round of the ISAF World Cup has also given us a great opportunity to cement our partnerships going forwards with Audi, Wyndham Harbour, Southport Yacht Club, Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, NRV, 2XU, Maui Jim, Zhik, Nautica, Hamilton Island, Ronstan and last but not least a big thankyou to Jason from Brighton Bay Apartments who as always looked after us very well!

We wish you all a fantastic Christmas and our best wishes for the New Year. We look forward to what 2014 will bring!

Summary of what 2013 delivered

- Australian Institute of Sport Team of the Year
- Yachting Australia Male Sailors of the Year
- Queensland Academy of Sport Athlete of the Year (Mat)
- Queensland Male Sailor of the Year (Mat)

- 2013 World Champion, La Rochelle, France
- 2013 European Champion, Formia, Italy
- 2013 Australian Champion, Port Stephens, NSW
- 2013 ISAF World Cup Winners
- ISAF Ranked World #1

- 2013 Rolex ISAF World Sailor of the Year (Mat)
- Australian Sports Hall of Fame Inductee Belcher Ryan 2016