News
RYA AWARD AND ROYAL PRESENTATION FOR SUNBURY VOLUNTEER - Tony Woods
A sailor and volunteer from Sunbury-on-Thames has been presented with one of the RYA’s most prestigious awards by HRH the Princess Royal, President of the RYA in recognition of his commitment to Queen Mary Sailing Club (QMSC).
Tony Woods received an Outstanding Contribution Award after being nominated by his club and selected as a winner by the RYA Honours and Awards Panel. He was presented at One Great George Street, London on Friday 22 November.
The RYA is boating’s national governing body and the Volunteer Awards are considered the ‘MBEs' of the sport, honouring people throughout the UK for their outstanding contributions across all the disciplines the RYA represents, including sailing, windsurfing, motor cruising, inland waterways and personal watercraft.
Watch a video of the awards here
Tony has been Fleet Captain at QMSC for nine years and organiser of the UK Laser Nationals for two years running. His own mentoring scheme gets the fleet to work together to improve sailing standards, provides support when things don’t go well and gives every Laser sailor at QMSC a sense of being on the same team.
He has introduced training sessions after racing on Sundays as well as professional coaching sessions from top Laser sailors. He initiated the Big Sunday series to get as many Laser sailors on the water as possible and has set up the QM Laser website and Facebook page. As a result, his resurrected QM Laser fleet is now as big as it was in the 1980s.
The UK Laser Association has persuaded Tony to bring his considerable organisational skills and energy to organising the Laser Nationals, and in Plymouth in 2018 he was responsible for creating the whole social programme. His consistent support for Laser sailors locally and nationally is outstanding.
Tony said on receiving his award: “I was both thrilled and honoured to receive the RYA award. Thanks to QMSC for nominating me and for being such a great team to work with! My wife and I enjoyed the awards ceremony very much.”
Nominations are now invited for the 2020 RYA volunteer awards, visit www.rya.org.uk/go/volunteerawards
Laser Masters 2019 Round-Up and 2020 Plan
The Laser Masters have had 5 events this year. We started at Notts County in March, then visited an old favourite at Pevensey who always have the most amazing beach support which makes up for the pebbles! Light winds accompanied the fleet to the Masters Nationals at Royal Torbay where much fun was had in the evening entertainment. Unfortunately, we were only able to complete one race at Hayling Island, due to too much and then too little wind. All those who attended on the Saturday night were able to hear about the adventures of masters sailor ‘Stick Daring’ during his circumnavigation of Britain. The inlands at Rutland finished the season where the race officer and his team did an amazing job to get 4 good races in in challenging conditions.
We are exceptionally lucky within the Masters fleet have sponsorship from some amazing sponsors: Laser Performance, Wildwind, Southeast Sailboats, Fernhurst Books, Minorca Sailing and Merger IT. A big thank you to them for all their support over the last year.
Laser Masters 2020
The Laser Masters fleet are looking forward to a full and exciting year in 2020. We have a range of venues planned from old favourites to new locations. The 2020 Laser Masters programme is:
9/10 May Brightlingsea
13/14 June Parkstone
3/4/5 July Weymouth
5/6 Sept Pevensey
19/20 Sept Draycote
7/8 Nov Chew Valley
As always, a GBR contingent will be heading over to the Laser Masters Worlds. They are being held in Geelong, Australia, in 2020, allowing the sailors to make the most of sunny weather in March! The Laser Masters Europeans will be held in Monaco in April 2020, and I will publish more information on the website and Masters Facebook page as it becomes available.
Late applications are now open so if anyone does fancy sailing down under, check out the ILCA website now. Places and charter boats are still available
You have mentioned the Masters Europeans. As our Nats are part of the EuroMaster series should we not also have a quick mention of that series directing people to:
https://www.eurilca.eu/euromasters/
The Laser Masters are a friendly fleet with good competition on the water with a range of expertise. More importantly, the social side is friendly and fun, and we encourage sailors to come to the events with their partners and families.
Come and join us in 2020 and experience the Laser Masters vibe.
Alison Stevens
Masters Rep