The 2022 Cruising Club of America (CCA) awards ceremony was held at the New York Yacht Club on March 6 and was highlighted by the presentation of the prestigious Blue Water Medal to Japan’s most famous sailor, octogenarian Kenichi Horie.

Published 1 year ago

Source:  Cruising Club of Amercia

On his way to becoming Japan’s most famous sailor, Horie crossed oceans and circumnavigated in a variety of small boats, beginning in 1962 when he sailed from Japan to San Francisco in a 19-foot plywood sloop.

Sixty years later in 2022, at the age of 83, he sailed a similar-sized boat the other way, from San Francisco to Nishinomiya, Japan . In the years in between, Horie sailed alone around the world multiple times and made other remarkable ocean crossings in boats using solar, wind, and wave power and made of recycled materials.

“I am very much honored and humbled to receive an award with such tradition and prestige,” said Horie through an interpreter. “Receiving the Blue Water Medal is a momentous milestone, I feel my sailing chapter has completed.”

About the Blue Water Medal

The prestigious Blue Water Medal was inaugurated by the Cruising Club of America in 1923 to:

• reward meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea displayed by amateur sailors of all nationalities, that might otherwise go unrecognized.

Blue Water Medallists have included such luminaries of the sailing world as Rod Stephens, Eric and Susan Hiscock, Sir Francis Chichester, Eric Tabarly, Pete Goss, Bernard Moitessier, and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.

The Medal itself was designed by Arthur Sturgis Hildebrand, a member of the Cruising Club of America, who was one of the crew of the yacht Leiv Eiriksson, lost in the Arctic with all hands in September of 1923.

Youngest Award Winner

The youngest winner to be recognized by the CCA was Cal Currier, who earned the Young Voyager Award. As a 16-year-old high-school student from Palo Alto, California, Currier learned to sail early in 2022, bought and prepared a modest 30-foot sailboat and then sailed it alone last summer from Marion, Massachusetts, to Lagos, Portugal, via the Azores. Currier was cited for his impressive initiative and remarkable voyage.

Accepting the award, Currier said he was “floored” to be honored by “some of the best sailors ever.” He credited CCA members Sandy Van Zandt (who sold him his boat) and Frank Bohlen for support without which, he said, “It wouldn’t have happened.” He also said, “I hope it’s not the last time I am in this room; I intend to do much more sailing—the Atlantic was just the beginning.”

Other Award Winners

Kirsten Neuschäfer was named winner of the Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy for playing a pivotal role in the successful Southern Ocean rescue of a fellow 2022-23 Golden Globe Race competitor, Tapio Lehtinen. Neuschäfer did not attend the ceremony as she is still sailing in the South Atlantic, vying to win the race.

Mary Crowley won the Diana Russell Award for innovation in recognition of her founding and directing the Ocean Voyages Institute, as well as her active support for several other non-profits dedicated to the marine environment.

Barbara Watson won the Richard S. Nye Award for service to the CCA including holding positions as a station Rear Commodore and historian, chair of the Events Committee, an editor of Voyages Magazine, and current editor of the CCA Yearbook.

Seth Leonard and Ellen Massey Leonard received the Royal Cruising Club Trophy for their double-handed passage from Rangiroa, Tuamotus to Hilo, Hawaii, in late 2020.

Max Fletcher and Lynnie Bruce received the Charles H. Vilas Literary Prize for their collaboration in writing and editing “Spain to Maine,” an account of their non-stop passage home from Portosin, Spain, which appeared in the club’s annual Voyages magazine.

David Tunick received the Far Horizons Award, which recognizes a CCA member for a particularly meritorious cruise or series of cruises. Tunick completed the second of two solo transatlantic passages last year at age 78, bookending more than two decades of extended cruising and racing through Northern Europe.

Frank Bohlen and Dan Nerney were given Commodore’s Awards for their long service to the Club and to the sport in offering their expertise in oceanography and photography, respectively.

Read more about all that the winners achieved to earn their awards at the Awards page of the Cruising Club of America website.

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Related Links:

• Cruising Club of America
  
• Blue Water Medal Prior Recipients
  

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