The Smith Trophy shall be awarded annually to a member of the Annisquam Yacht Club for  outstanding achievement in or extraordinary contributions to the sport of sailing. 

Actually, the Smith Trophy is not awarded annually. It is reserved for those sailors who are truly  a cut above.  

As a yacht club, we have lots of sailors, though fewer than we used to, but few of us cruise  anymore and only a very few have ventured offshore to places like the coasts of Labrador and  Norway and in the Pacific Northwest. This member has. 

He has been a member of the AYC since 1977, and longtime member of the CCA. He has raced  and cruised the waters off or Cape Ann for decades, regularly competing in PHRF racing. 

Along with David Murry and two others he rescued 11 people from a vessel that had foundered  off of Point Judith, RI in May 1973. For this, he and David were awarded the City of  Gloucester’s Mariners Medal, which is sparingly awarded for acts of heroism and extraordinary  seamanship on the high sea)  

He is the owner of the beautiful Jezebel, a Sparkman & Stephens design, which hails from Ile au  Haut, Maine, but greatly improves the view from the clubhouse porch when she is in residence here. 

It is an honor to present the Smith Trophy to Mark Standley. 

Appropriately, Mark is off cruising Down East right now, because wouldn’t we all rather be