North Sails Golf Day raises £7,300 for John Merricks Sailing Trust

by Suzy Hamel on 3 Nov 2009
A bright and sunny morning greeted the 96 golfers who turned out for the 13th North Sails Golf Day on Friday 30th October at Cams Hall in Fareham. John ‘Jonny’ Merricks, the 1996 Olympic 470 Silver Medallist, worked at North Sails and the first Golf Day, organised as it is today with the help of the Seahorse Golf Society, was set up to raise money for a Trust to be started in John’s name, following his untimely death.

Since its inception 13 years ago the Golf Day has raised over £130,000.

This fantastic event always draws the support of former colleagues and friends of John’s, Olympic medallists, Americas Cup sailors, yacht designers and keen amateur sailors who turn out to play a good game of golf whilst remembering John and supporting the charity in his name.

2008 Olympic Gold Sailing Medallist in the Laser class, Paul Goodison, enjoyed some well-deserved downtime with a round of golf with fellow Olympic and International Sailing Stars, Ian Walker, Chris Draper, Guy Salter, Mark Bulkeley, Ed Wright, Chris Mason, Matt Cornwell, Eddie Warden Owen, Andy Green and Ossie Stewart.

Ian Walker, John’s former sailing partner and JMST trustee, who is also a double Olympic silver medallist, America’s Cup Skipper & Helm and Volvo Ocean Race Skipper of Green Dragon in 2008-2009, gave a speech thanking everyone for their continued support of the JMST.

Mark Chisnell, professional sailor and writer, spoke about his recent experience commentating on the Volvo Ocean Race 2008 – 09 and writing 'Spanish Castle to White Night', his new book about the aforementioned race. He also provided some wonderful personal anecdotes about John Merricks.

Neil Mackley from North Sails commented, 'We are very happy with the end result of today’s Golf Day, raising money for charity in the current economic climate is not easy, and I would just like to thank the companies that supported the day and the individuals who hopefully enjoyed a good day out of the office.'

Winner of the day Andy Greenwood scored 42 Stableford points and was presented with the North Sails Trophy. In second place, on countback, was Frank Gerber with 40 Stableford points, whilst third place went to Charlie Sherborne with 40 Stableford points.

Meanwhile Emma Westmacott seized the ladies trophy and Frank Gerber’s team from North Sails walked away with the Team Trophy of four Golf Day branded jackets donated by Craftinsure.

David Dent won this year’s Bandit Trophy – an annual trophy originally presented by Mark Tomson the first Bandit winner. Richard Allen won the Nearest the Pin prize and the Volvo sponsored Longest Drive was achieved by the overall winner of the day, Andy Greenwood, who won a voucher to enter the Volvo Masters Amateur Tour 2010 and two dozen golf balls.

Boats on TV were filming the event and are producing a short film of the action which will be available on the Focus channel of their website for all to view – www. boatson.tv

World-renowned yachting journalist Bob Fisher performed a marvellous job as auctioneer, coaxing a grand total of £2,500 for an array of diverse prizes, from bidders in the auction.

Results
Men’s Winner – Andy Greenwood - North Sails Trophy
2nd – Frank Gerber
3rd – Charlie Sherborne
Ladies Winner – Emma Westmacott – Crystal Putter
Bandit Trophy – David Dent

Photographs taken by Ian Finlay are on display at www.jmst.org.uk. High resolution images can be ordered directly from the JMST for a minimum donation of £10.

Huge thanks go to North Sails for managing the event, Peter Nash of the Seahorse Golf Society and every company and individual who donated prizes and the individual Hole Sponsors:

Volvo; Dimension Polyants; Osmotech; RF Composites; Green Marine; TT Rigging; Boats on TV; Grapefruit Graphics; Craftinsure.

The John Merricks Sailing Trust supports young sailors and junior sailing projects in financial need. It has awarded over £195,000 to individuals or projects that seek to further youth sailing. If you or your project needs help please see www.jmst.org.uk for more details.