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The Cruising Club of America couldn't hand out its 2020 awards in person, so the club made it a special event and gathered a pantheon of great sailors on Zoom.

Contact: John Burnham, media@cruisingclub.org, +1-401-835-2686

NEW YORK, March 16, 2021—On the first weekend in March in a normal year, Cruising Club of America members visit the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan for a weekend of meetings featuring an Awards dinner to recognize more than half a dozen worthy sailors as recipients of the club’s major awards. The pomp and circumstance of that event had to be adapted to a virtual space this year, starting with an hour-long presentation, largely pre-recorded, followed by a longer breakout-room segment in which members could converse with the winners in real time.

As it turned out, cruising royalty showed up from all over the globe, including six previous winners of the Blue Water Medal: Jean Luc Van Den Heede (2019), Skip Novak (2014), Jeanne Socrates (2013), Peter Passano (2007), Tony Gooch (2003), and Bob and Beth Lux (1996). They provided a great welcome reception for the 2020 winner Randall Reeves

In accepting his award, Reeves said he had had a great deal of good luck, starting with marrying his wife Joanna, who buoyed him up despite “resounding failures.” He also credited his luck at finding the right vessel for the trip, his 45-foot aluminum cutter Moli, “a boat fast enough and big enough, simple enough that I could handle it and fix what broke, yet strong enough to handle divergent requisites of big seas in the south and ice in the north.” He also credited former owner and Blue Water Medal winner Tony Gooch: “He was my living and breathing owners manual.”

Six-time circumnavigator Van Den Heede, who was unable to receive the 2019 award in person due to health reasons, said, “I started sailing because I read books. The first book I had the pleasure to read was by Alain Gerbault, the first man to get this medal [in 1923].” Van Den Heede said he was honored to follow Gerbault and all the others who received the medal, adding, “these people are legends and I'm surprised to join them.”

2020 Blue Water Medal Winner Randall Reeves (above); 2019 Blue Water Medal Winner Jean-Luc Van Den Heede (below)

2020 Cruising Club of America Award Winners

Randall Reeves—Blue Water Medal

Christian Charalambous—Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy

Calypso Romero/Adrien Koller—Young Voyager Award

Stephen Brown—Far Horizons Medal

Salty Dawg Sailing Association—Special Recognition Award

Simon and Sally Currin—Royal Cruising Club Trophy

Alan K. Forsythe—Charles H. Vilas Literary Prize

Peter L. Chandler—Richard S. Nye Trophy