Prestigious award for rookie yachtsman
BY ADMIN • FEBRUARY 9, 2017 • BREAKING NEWS, HOMEMOSAIC, RACING • COMMENTS (0) • 66
28-year-old Gavin Reid has won the coveted Yachting Journalists Association Yachtsman of the Year award. After an Olympic year the award normally goes to one of Britain’s gold medal winning sailors. By contrast Reid only started sailing two years ago, yet his heroic rescue at sea of a man at the masthead of another yacht was judged to be worthy of joining the names of past winners. These including legendary figures such as Sir Ben Ainslie, Sir Robin Knox Johnston, Tracy Edwards MBE and Dame Ellen McArthur, all of whom were awarded their honours as a result of their sailing successes.
Reid was an amateur crewmember on a Clipper Round the World race yacht when a distress call was picked up off Australia’s New South Wales coast. The other vessel, a yacht returning from the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, had a crewman who had been stuck at the top of the mast for several hours, while the remainder of the crew on board were incapacitated.
Reid, who is profoundly deaf and quit his job as a supply chain coordinator to compete in the race, volunteered to swim between the two yachts in order to board the stricken vessel. Once there he found the four other crew were all incapacitated and unable to help their crewmate who had been tangled in halyards at the top of the mast for several hours. Using the one remaining halyard – for the staysail – he hoisted himself two thirds of the way up the swinging mast, then climbed the rest of the way hand-over-hand, to reach the crewman, untangle the lines and help to lower him to safety.
“To be named boats.com YJA Yachtsman of The Year over some of my absolute heroes of the sport feels like an incredible honour,” Reid said on receiving the award. “If someone had told me two years ago when I was starting my training for the Clipper Race that I would be here today collecting this award, I couldn’t have believed it. I have learned and experienced a huge amount and hope I can inspire others to take up the challenge of ocean racing. It’s been a fantastic adventure.”
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