On Friday, January 18, a boisterous crowd of nearly 100 CYC members and friends of all ages crammed into the CYC Clubhouse to recognize and celebrate the outstanding sailing performances of CYC sailors and boats in 2012. Performance awards were presented to winners of specific events or race; discretionary awards were awarded to boats and sailors from a group of worthy nominees; and, winners of national or international championships were added to the CYC  Honor Roll of Champions.

Hanne Weaver: 2012 Gary Horder Award for the CYC Junior who enjoyed an active and successful racing program

Cook Rachel again prepared a fantastic dinner for more than 80 hungry people and volunteer bartenders Michelle Rogalin and Derek Vranizan hustled all night to keep the crowd from being too thirsty.

2013 Commodore Bruce Van Deventer welcomed everyone and introduced his co-presenters, Junior Staff Commodore Ken Johnson and Vice-Commodore Brian Watkins.  He thanked Hans Spiller for inscribing the names on the various trophies and noted that each award winner would receive a certificate signed by 2012 Commodore Johnson.  He recognized Jan and Skip Anderson, who donated the Boat of the Year photo that hands near the bar area and provided many of the slides of the nominated boats and people. Bruce Sherman graciously took photos of the award winners. Finally, he recognized and thanked the many people who make our racing possible, including the office staff,  webmasters, protest judges, whaler drivers, scorers and other members of the race committees, and the Principal Race Officers, Charlie Rathkopf and Kevin Cunningham.

Rusty, Haley, Taylor and Barrett Lhamon –  2012 Boating Family of the Year

Commodore Van Deventer noted that the true winners were the nominees – so many people had outstanding performances in 2013 (19 of the top 25 boats in the 48 Degrees North annual compilation of 2012 racing results were CYC boats!).

The CYC Board did have to make difficult decisions, and here are the winners of the awards for 2012 honored at the party.

Honor Roll of Champions

CYC maintains an Honor Roll of Champions, which identified and recognizes the accomplishments of winners of national or international championships or similar awards since the founding of the club in 1947. The 2012 additions to the Honor Roll are:

• Craig Burnell—Thunderbird Internationals Champion
• Mike Johnson–J-24 Canadian Nationals Champion
• Steve Travis – winner of the Queen’s Cup, Cowes Week, England
• Hanne Weaver – US Junior Women’s Singlehanded Champion 

Performance Awards

Performance Award trophies are awarded to individuals or boats who have wone specific races or events. 2012 winners are:

• Kathyrn Meyer and Bill Blodgett on More Cowbell! – Stuarts at Shilshole Trophy for winning the CYC Jack ‘n’ Jill Race
• Graeme Esarey on Kotuku – Blakely Rocks Trophy for winning the Blakely Rocks race on a PHRF basis, and the Werner Ohmes Foghorn Trophy for overall best performance in the Center Sound Races (Sloop Tavern YC)
• Graeme Esarey on Kotuku – Blakely Rocks Trophy for winning the Blakely Rocks race on a PHRF basis, and the Werner Ohmes Foghorn Trophy for overall best performance in the Center Sound Races (Sloop Tavern YC)
• Mel Marshel and Dan Olson on Rubicon – Possession Point Trophy for winning the Schatchet Head race on a PHRF basis
• Derek Campbell on Banshee – Pulley Point Trophy for winning the Three-Tree Point race on a PHRF basis
• Brad Butler on Dos – the Northwest Challenge Cup for best overall performance in Center Sound, PSSR and PSSC (Port Madison YC)
• Julian Martin – the Bill Lieberman Trophy for being the top CYC junior at the US Optimist Dinghy Association Northwest Championships

Discretionary Awards

Contenders for CYC Discretionary are nominated by CYC members and selected by the CYC Board. 2012 winners are:

Owen Timms – the George Spalding Award for most inspirational Junior sailor – for his persistence and consistent progress during 2012.

Hanne Weaver –  the Gary Horder Award for the CYC Junior who enjoyed an active and successful racing program – Hanne won the US Junior Women’s Singlehanded Championships (the Nancy Clagett Memorial Trophy) in Chicago over 50 entrants, and sailed on her Laser Radial in races throughout the US with outstanding success (other nominees were Julian Martin and Jack Toland).

Rusty, Haley, Taylor and Barrett Lhamon – the Boating Family of the Year, for the contributions to CYC and sailing over the years, especially in 2012 for organizing so successfully (Rusty and Haley) and participating in (Taylor and Barrett) the initial USODA Northwest Championships held at CYC in October (other nominees were Suzette Connolly and Paul Baker, Jerry Diercks and Deb Prince, and Gaston, Guillermina, Julian, Nicolas and Mati Martin).

John Hoag: 2012 Sailor of the Year

John Hoag – Sailor of the Year recognizing his success on sailing several boats, all very well, including his Formula 18 catamaran Shrek 3, his ID 35 Shrek, a Hobie 16 catamaran, and his Beneteau First 407 Snake Eyes.  John had a rare double at Whidbey Island Race week, winning both the weekend dinghy race regatta on Shrek 3 and then the weeklong keelboat regatta on Shrek, both in dominating fashion, winning the Northwest Hobie Area Championship on the Hobie 16 with his youngest daughter Jennifer, and winning the Silver Fleet Championship in the first Formula 18’s Worlds held in the US. (Other nominees included two juniors – Julian Martin and Hanne Weaver, as well as Craig Burnell, Jerry Diercks and Steve Travis.)

Noel Morgan – the Hans Otto Giese Award for providing leadership, inspiration and contributions to the promotion, advancement and encouragement of amateur sailing.  Noel was a consistent and excellent volunteer throughout the year to a variety of Club and sailing activities, including the Boat Show, Clubhouse painting project and other repairs and as a J-24 measurer. (Other nominees were Rusty and Haley Lhamon, Brian Watkins and Remmert Wolters.)

Delirium: 2012 Boat of the Year

Jerry Diercks on Delirium – the Boat of the Year for his extensive and highly successful racing record in races sponsored by CYC, SYC, Sloop Tavern and others.  A photo of Delirium and his 2012 sailing record are now posted near by bar at the CYC Clubhouse (other nominees were Charlie Macaulay on Absolutely, Neil Fiske on FreeByrd, Bill Buchan on Sachem and Stuart Burnell on Tantivy).

Bob and Margaret Liston on Tula (J-40) – the Greig Memorial Trophy for the Cruising Boat of the Year for their long CYC career of cruising actively throughout the Northwest (other nominees were Suzette Connolly and Paul Baker on Altair, Lisa and David Todd on Creature, Derek Storm and Cindy Gossett on Outlaw and Ron and Peggy Watt on Solstice).

Absolutely: 2012 Dog House Trophy
(for being absolutely aground in the SYC Blake Island Race)

Charlie Macaulay on Absolutely – the Dog House Trophy for being absolutely aground in the SYC Blake Island Race  (other nominees were Jerry Diercks and Ken Johnson).

At the end of the evening the crowd rose to salute all the nominees and winners and to recount all the events that made sailing so much fun in 2012.