Tasmanian Yachting Awards – Matt Bugg instant Male Sailor of the Year

by Peter Campbell on 26 Jun 2016 Matt Bugg yesterday was named 2016 Tasmanian Male Sailor of the Year – just one hour after flying back to Hobart following his final on-the-water training at Rio in preparation for the Paralympic Games.

“Next time I return to Hobart I hope it will be with the gold medal,” Bugg said after receiving the Yachting Tasmania Award from his father, YT president Ron Bugg, at an elite function at Bellerive Yacht Club.

Matt Bugg is currently ranked fourth in the world in the International 2.4mR single-handed keelboat class, one of three sailing classes at the Rio Paralympics, after a string of international successes in Australia last summer and more recently, in Europe.

“I fly to Sydney late next week for the official naming of the sailing team for the Rio Paralympics,” added Bugg, who also was named Tasmanian Disabled Sailor of the Year.

The Yachting Tasmanian Awards 2016 was a great day for Sandy Bay Sailing Club, the small off-the-beach club on Nutgrove Beach at Lower Sandy Bay, being named 2016 Tasmanian Club of the Year and its members winning five individual awards.

In the past 12 months, SBSC’s notable successes in off-the-beach racing have included winning the 2015 International Cadet Worlds, six crews being chosen in the 10 boat team for the 2016 worlds, two 29er crews being selected for Tasmanian Institute of Sport scholarships and four club members selected in the Australian Optimist team.

Jasmin Galbraith and Chloe Fisher, young achievers in the high-performance 29er racing dinghy, were named Tasmanian Female Sailors of the Year while the award for Outstanding Youth Achievement went to Sam Abel and his diminutive crew, Hugo Allison, who won the International Cadet world championship in July 2015.

Longtime Sandy Bay Sailing Club member Stuart Hamilton, a former world dinghy sailing champion with sons following in his wake, was named Volunteer of the Year for his work in instigating innovative coaching programmes.

Coach of the Year Rohan Langford and Instructor of the Year Oliver Burnell both are also deeply involved in the Club’s Optimist and Tacker junior training.

Other Yachting Tasmania award winning announced yesterday were Yachting Personality of the Year: Hughie Lewis (Bellerive Yacht Club), Bennetto Medal for Offshore Sailing: Paul Einoder (Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania); Administrator of the Year: Nick Hutton (RYCT).

RYCT members Greg ‘Enzo’ Prescott and Darren ‘Twirler’ Jones were named as members of Yachting Tasmania’s Hall of Fame.