Lifetime Achievement award for Bob Ross

by Media Services on 8 Mar 2007 Veteran CYCA member and yachting journalist Bob Ross has received a Life Achievement Award in the 2007 Sydney Harbour Awards announced aboard the barque James Craig at Darling Harbour on Friday evening.

The awards recognise a group or an individual who has encouraged people to care for and share Sydney Harbour by informing, educating or engaging the community, with each of the five recipients this year receiving a replica
of the distinctive red and white Hornby Lighthouse, located at South Head.

Bob has been a member of the CYCA since 1970 and active sailor for most of the near 50 years he has lived and worked in Sydney, contributing in many ways to the sport and to the activities of the Club.

His Sydney Harbour Life Achievement Award citation read:

For almost half a century, Bob - a boating photo/journalist - has dedicated himself to the coverage and promotion of boating on Sydney Harbour.

Bob is without peer in this field and has brought the harbour alive for countless thousands of people across Australia and around the world.

A passionate sailor, from Olympic trials in dinghies to Sydney Hobart races in maxis, Bob has written and photographed boating on the Harbour and covered Sydney sailors at events around the world through his magazine,
newspaper columns, books and electronic media.

Bob Ross was the founding editor of Modern Boating magazine before establishing his own magazine, Australian Sailing. He has retired as editor but is still an active writer for the magazine as editor at large as well as overseas publications.

He is the author of many books on boating in general and sailing in particular and has covered most international events in Australia and overseas over the past 40 years, including the Olympic Games, America's Cup, Admiral's Cup and major ocean races such as the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race and the Rolex Fastnet Race.

He has twice received a Yachting Australia Media Award as well as an Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to yachting as an editor and journalist.

Fellow senior CYCA member and former editor of Offshore Yachting, Peter Campbell today described the Sydney Harbour Week Award to Bob Ross as 'a most fitting recognition of Bob's contribution in promoting the sport and
pastime of boating and sailing on Sydney Harbour over many years as a fine writer and outstanding marine photographer.

'His initiative in going out on his own to publish Australian Sailing was a bold step, with the magazine proving a wonderful educational tool for sailors, young and old, as well as publicising the sport from off-the-beach dinghy sailing to ocean racing, the Olympics and the America's Cup.

'Most importantly, he still enjoys writing about sailing and sailing himself - he was out racing his J24 Stamped Urgent this weekend in the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta.'