The boating community from around Scotland gathered on Saturday evening (28th January 2017) at the Glasgow Science Centre as RYA Scotland recognised the achievements and outstanding commitment of Scotland's volunteers, coaches, instructors, officials, clubs and performance sailors.
The theme throughout the evening returned to the boating 'family' as the support network that enables the vast range of activity represented across the ten award categories.
Among the highlights was the Performance of the Year category which was won by Daniel Smith from West Kilbride, for his result in the Clipper Round the World Race in which he led the crew of Derry~Londonderry~Doire crew to 2nd place overall. His team won a hat trick of back to back wins in the Pacific and remained on the podium 7 times in the 14 race series.
The Performance category demonstrated the wide range of competitive sailing from ocean racing, day boat racing and Olympic sailing who all merited nominations. Luke Patience, double Olympian and Silver Medallist in the 2012 Games spoke later in the evening.
Skye Sailing Club was awarded the RYA Scotland Club of the Year award for their recent investments in the club and commitment to the local island community within the past year.
The Volunteer of the Year Award went to Billy Fortieth of Oban SC for his lifelong dedication to support both the club and the local RNLI.
The Elizabeth Mackay Award for female endeavours in sport went to Bess Homer of Dalgety Bay Sailing Club.
The entire team from Dalgety Bay Sailing Club were nominated in the Instructor of Year awards demonstrating the community within Bess's club but the award went to Team 15 Windsurfing instructor Calum Nicol.
Among the other awards in the training network Alasdair Young originally from Tarbert, Loch Fyne took the coach of the year award for his creative coaching techniques with the Class Academies and in clubs.
The RYA Scotland Official of the Year went to Tom Thurlow. Currently Tom is also an instructor on Cumbrae.
