2015 Tom Larmour Awards

The ‘Sailor of the Year’ award went to Ines Gillard. Sailing Committee had been very impressed with Ines’ progress within the Optimist class and her progress at national regattas. Ines had made a significant contribution with the squad and had represented the Optimist class and sailors through various committee meetings. Unfortunately Ines’ family had already moved back to Europe and she was therefore unable to attend and pick up her Tom Larmour ‘Sailor of the Year’ award at the meeting.

The Commodore advised that the criteria for the next award, for ‘Most Promising Sailor’, were that the candidate should have a very high attendance as a competitor in dinghy races, show great improvement of race results throughout the year and be a keen learner who shows a great commitment to sailing. This award went to Duncan Gregor this year. In previous seasons Duncan had shown signs of great potential but this year his performances had jumped up to a level far beyond previous achievements. Duncan had attended a large number of national and international Optimist events this year, and had won four out of five of HKODA’s ranking regattas in Hong Kong; received 1st under 12 at the Thai Nationals with a 12th Overall; 3rd in the Junior UK Nationals and more recently he came 13th at the IODA Asian Championships and placed 3rd in the under 12 Category. The Tom Larmour ‘Most Promising Sailor’ trophy was then presented to Duncan Gregor.

The Commodore advised that last year the Club felt that the squads had reached the stage where an award should be presented which was purely results-based. This ‘RHKYC Sharks Performance Sailor of the Year’ award went jointly to Calum Gregor and Hugo Christensson again this year. The Commodore reported that Calum and Hugo had had a great year of sailing with some excellent results internationally including a podium finish at the 420 World Championships. Calum and Hugo’s 3rd place at the 2015 420 World Championships was the first podium finish for Hong Kong. They built up to this performance earlier in the year with a 2nd place at the Australian 420 Nationals, 9th place at Kiel Week and 1st place at Hong Kong Race Week. Calum and Hugo’s attitude and approach to sailing was very professional and a great example for the other younger Sharks to follow. Regretfully Hugo’s family had moved back to Europe heralding a temporary end to Calum and Hugo’s 420 partnership. Calum was invited to receive the RHKYC Sharks Performance Sailor of the Year award on behalf of himself and Hugo Christensson.