Tasmanian Sailing Awards 2018: Winners announced
by Peter Campbell 4 Aug 2018 23:14 PDT
4 August 2018
Tasmanian Sailing Award 2018 winnners at the Derwent Sailing Squadron last evening © Peter Campbell
Young woman sailor Joanna Breen has achieved a unique double in the 2018 Tasmanian Sailing Awards, last evening named as joint Female Sailor of the Year and winning the Bennetto Medal as Offshore Sailor of the Year.
Breen, 29, skippered her yacht Morning Star into second place in this year's two-handed Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race, a distance of 5,500 nautical miles from Australia to Japan.
Breen, Vice-Commodore of the Tamar Yacht Club, shared the Bennetto Medal with her crewman, Peter Brooks, a member of Port Dalrymple Yacht Club.
She is a very versatile sailor, a 'Cape Horner' in a cruise to the Antarctic, a Sydney Hobart Race division winning navigator and a highly regarded crew/helmsperson in the high performance SB20 sports boat class on Hobart's River Derwent.
Breen shared the Female Sailor of the Year Award with youth sailors Jasmin Galbraith and Chloe Fisher, from Sandy Bay Sailing Club, who won the bronze medal at the 2017 Youth Worlds in the 29er girl's class.
The young women, who also won the Outstanding Youth Achievement award, have since moved into the Olympic women's class skiff, the 49erFX. Galbraith is an Hobartian but Fisher began her sailing at the Tamar Yacht Club at Beauty Point.
Breen, Galbraith and Fisher were unable to accept their awards, Breen currently competing in the Brisbane to Great Keppell Island offshore race and Galbraith and Fisher about to have their first race in the 49erFX Olympic class at the World Sailing Championships in Denmark. However, recorded video messages from all three were played last evening.
The Tasmanian Sailing Awards were announced at the Derwent Sailing Squadron last evening, with 43 individual and crew/team nominations for the 11 annual awards.
The Tasmanian Male Sailor of the Year saw six finalists, the winner being Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania member Michael Cooper, who skippered Export Roo into a close second in the 2017 SB20 World Championship at Cowes, UK.
Disabled Sailor of the Year is Wynyard Yacht Club's Chris Symonds, silver medallist in the Hansa 303 dinghy class at the 2017 Para World Sailing Championship.
Steve Catchpool, the SB20 class Australian president, was named Yachting Personality of Year for his critical role in Hobart's successful bid to host the SB20 World Championship 2018.
His wife, Jane Austin, was among four winners of the Volunteer of the Year award, for her media role in Hobart being awarded the SB20 Worlds.
Other Volunteer of the Year recipients were Paul Gray at Sandy Bay Sailing Club; Ken Gourlay, organiser of the Tamar Yacht Club's Tasmanian Boat and Caravan Show; and Wynyard Yacht Club's Sailability volunteer group.
Port Dalrymple Yacht Club at Beauty Point was named Club of the Year, William ('Bill') Brown as Administrator of the Year as secretary of Sailability Tasmania, Elliott Noye (RYCT) as Coach of the Year, while Josh Rag (RYCT) and Mike Darby (WYC) shared the Instructor of the Year award.
Two inductees into the Tasmanian Yachting Hall of Fame were also announced: Roger Jackman (RYCT) and the late Graeme 'Frizzle' Freeman.