2017 Tom Larmour Awards

The ‘Sailor of the Year’ award for 2017 went to Jon Crawford. Jon has long been an active youth sailor of RHKYC and not only dedicated a huge amount of time and effort to his own sailing but also to the club and the Sharks Squad. Jon had recently taken on the role of Cadet Captain, leading the Youth Sailing Committee which fed into the Class Secretaries Subcommittee. This has been alongside his final year of A-Level exams during which he had also worked hard to push forward his own performance level in the 29er Class. In his own sailing Jon was second at 2017 Hong Kong Race Week in the 29er Class where he also presented a speech for Sailors for the Sea during the opening ceremony. Once free from school Jon headed to California to compete at the 29er US and World Championships over the summer, where with partner Matthew Clark he placed 81st out of 129 competitors. Jon is currently taking a year away from formal education in order to maximise his sailing time and achieve his best at the 2018 Zhik 29er Worlds to be held in Hong Kong in January 2018. The Tom Larmour ‘Sailor of the Year’ trophy was then presented to Jon Crawford.

The Commodore advised that the criteria for the next award, ‘Most Promising Sailor’, were that the candidate should have a very high attendance as a competitor in dinghy races, show great improvement in race results throughout the year and be a keen learner who shows a great commitment to sailing. This award went to Thorwen Uiterwaal this year. Thorwen has been sailing Lasers for one year. Previously one of Hong Kong’s top Optimist sailors, he is now starting to get to grips with Laser Racing. In the summer of 2017 he placed 46th in the bronze fleet of the ILCA Youth World Championships (183 out of 273). Currently he is leading the Hong Kong selection to represent Hong Kong at the 2017 World Sailing Youth World Championships taking place in Sanya in December. The Tom Larmour ‘Most Promising Sailor’ trophy was then presented to Thorwen Uiterwaal.

The Commodore advised that the purely results-based ‘RHKYC Sharks Performance Sailor of the Year＇award went to Duncan Gregor this year. The Commodore reported that Duncan’s performances surpassed all expectations with the results speaking for themselves. At 13 years old, in the Optimist class (up to age 15) during 2017 he has placed 9th in the World Championships; 1st in the Hong Kong Nationals and Open Championship; 2nd in the UK Nationals and 1st in the 2017 Hong Kong Race Week. The RHKYC Sharks Performance Sailor of the Year award was then presented to Duncan Gregor.