The 2024 Richard S. Nye Trophy is awarded to William E. “Bill” Cook, recognizing the yacht designer’s many contributions to the Club and to the entire sailing community.

Given at the discretion of the governing board, the Nye Trophy is awarded for bringing distinction to the Club by meritorious service, outstanding seamanship, outstanding performance in cruising and racing, international yachting statesmanship, or any combination of these accomplishments.

Cook has had a distinguished career in yacht design.  His IOR designs have won multiple championships and offshore regattas. His design of the New York 36 resulted in a class of more than 60 boats. Matador 2 was a novel design that won the world maxi championships three years in a row. The 53-foot Whizzbang was a different sort of champion, a pure cruiser in the form of a versatile motorsailer that crossed the Atlantic and back.

The Nye Trophy recognizes Cook’s distinguished accomplishments within the CCA and beyond in the broader sailing community. Cook has served the CCA with distinction as the rear commodore of the Boston Station and also for long terms as chairman of the membership and awards committees, two of the Club’s crucial operating committees. Guidelines he promoted for both committees have been followed long after he has moved on. He has also served as chairman of Mystic Seaport Museum and is a founder of the Cape Cod Maritime Museum.  

Cook’s sailing accomplishments include multiple successful cruises in Europe and high-latitude waters. He received the CCA’s 2003 Royal Cruising Club Trophy for a cruise to Labrador and Greenland, and in 2010 he received the CCA’s Far Horizons Award for nearly 40 years of cruising to Europe, the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, and Labrador.