Matt Bugg last Sunday was named 2016 Tasmanian Male Sailor of the Year – just one hour after flying back to Hobart following his final on-the-water training at Rio in preparation for the Paralympic Games.
“Next time I return to Hobart I hope it will be with the gold medal,” Bugg said after receiving the Yachting Tasmania Award from his father, YT president Ron Bugg, at an elite function at Bellerive Yacht Club.
Derwent Sailing Squadron member Matt Bugg is currently ranked fourth in the world in the International 2.4mR single-handed keelboat class, one of three sailing classes at the Rio Paralympics, after a string of international successes in Australia last summer and more recently, in Europe.
“I fly to Sydney late next week for the official naming of the sailing team for the Rio Paralympics,” added Bugg, who also was named Tasmanian Disabled Sailor of the Year.
CLub Vice Commodore Felicity Allison accepted the Club of the Year award from Ron Bugg
The Yachting Tasmanian Awards 2016 was a great day for Sandy Bay Sailing Club, being named 2016 Tasmanian Club of the Year and its members winning five individual awards.
Jasmin Galbraith and Chloe Fisher, young achievers in the high-performance 29er racing dinghy, were named Tasmanian Female Sailors of the Year.
The award for Outstanding Youth Achievement went to Sam Abel and his diminutive crew, Hugo Allison, who won the International Cadet world championship in July 2015.
Longtime Sandy Bay Sailing Club member Stuart Hamilton, a former world dinghy sailing champion, with sons following in his wake, was named Volunteer of the Year for his work in instigating innovative coaching programmes.
Coach of the Year Rohan Langford and Instructor of the Year Oliver Burnell both are also deeply involved in the Club’s Optimist and Tacker junior training.
Yachting Tasmanian awards winners for 2016.
Tasmania’s Yachting Personality of the Year, Hughie Lewis, is well-known to all keelboat racers on the Derwent not only as an enthusiastic skipper of Farr 40s and SB20, but for his contribution to Bellerive Yacht Club and the broader sailing community in Tasmania.
Other awards were:
Bennetto Medal for Offshore Sailing: Paul Einoder, who skippered his yacht Off-Piste to first place overall (AMS) in the 2015 Launceston to Hobart and went on to win the AMS and PHS divisions of the King of Derwent.
