This was the Golden Jubilee year of the New Zealand Yachting Awards where 3 Tauranga Sailors were awarded with honors because of their extra-ordinary performances in the field of yachting. Awards were presented to sailors like Jason Saunders Peter Burling and Molly Meech. The presentation ceremony was followed by an international season. M. Meech grabbed the award for youth performance award.
It happened for the first time in the history of yachting that the New Zealand sailors are facilitated for their outstanding performances. Only one award is left to be presented on the 29th of November this year and that is the Sir Bernard Fergusson Trophy. This trophy will be presented to the deserving performers at the 2013 Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards held in the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland. Long back in the year of 1963, this award was presented to the designer of the iconic P-Class yacht. The other categories of awards that will be revealed on 29th November are the Volvo Young Sailor of the year, Orbit Corporate Travel sailor of the Year, B&G Coach/ Official of the year and the President’s awards. Another category of award that has been included this year is the Partridge Jewelers Diamond Anniversary Prize that marks the celebration of the 50th year.
The judges panel had to spend a tough time to choose the winners because according to the rules in both service and performance sections no more than 10 winners can be presented with the awards. Ten performance awards, seven youth performance awards nine service awards and also the winner of the 2013 Emerging Talent Awards had been announced yesterday.
Some of the names of the performers who received the 2013 YNZ performance awards are Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie who were the 2013 Women’s 470 World Champions. Molly Meech and Alexandra Maloney were also awarded for the 2013 49ex FX World Championship.
Among the youth performance award winners, two of them were Zak Merton and Sam Barnett who came fifth in the Men’s 420 at the ISAF Youth 2013 World Championships.