2012 Tom Larmour Awards

The ‘Sailor of the Year’ award went to Aymeric Gillard. The Commodore stated that Aymeric had been a key member of the 29er Squad and at the 29er World Championships he, together with his helm Henry Salmon, was the highest-ranked RHKYC sailor. Aymeric and Henry finished 2nd overall in the Open Division at the HKSF Festival of Sport Regatta in June 2012 and they continued to show improvement.

Aymeric was arguably the most committed sailor in the 29er Squad with high attendance at training and he was also a versatile sailor, solid on the helm as well as in his current role as crew. In the past two years since he qualified as an Assistant Instructor, Aymeric had been actively working with sail training courses and was always a great asset to the team. Even when he was at Middle Island preparing his own boat for sailing, he would always be willing to step over and help out, whether assisting to launch boats or helping less experienced people to rig. The Tom Larmour ‘Sailor of the Year’ trophy was then presented to Aymeric Gillard.

The next award, for ‘The Most Promising Sailor’, went to Sophie Tulloch this year. The Commodore explained that this was a very tough decision as the Club now saw so many sailors coming through with great potential, particularly in the Optimist fleet. However, looking back over the past season Sophie Tulloch had shown a huge improvement. This was demonstrated when comparing her results at the Asian Sailing Championships in 2011 with those achieved in 2012. Sophie had made great progress in the past year, from being at the back of the fleet in 2011 to finishing inside the top 20 in some of the races at the 2012 event and in fact she won the Inaugural Around Middle Island Race which took place earlier in November 2012. She still needed to work towards consistency but she had demonstrated that she had the drive and motivation to constantly improve. She had also demonstrated her level of skill by the fact that she had sailed a 29er on a few occasions and helmed the boat with ease and confidence. She had also showed a great understanding of strategy and tactics while she raced and was also able to explain this to others. Sophie had been a good role model in Squad Training sessions both with her level of skill and motivation. She was constantly encouraging others around her to improve as well as herself and this was probably what put her ahead of others for this nomination. The Tom Larmour ‘Most Promising Sailor’ trophy was then presented to Sophie Tulloch.