Skip Novak has been selected by the Cruising Club of America to receive the Club’s Blue Water Medal for 2014 in recognition of his many years of cruising and exploring the Antarctic. Cruising Club of America’s Commodore, Frederic T. Lhamon, will present the award at the club’s annual awards dinner at the New York Yacht Club in New York on March 6, 2015. The award was established in 1923 by the Club’s Governing Board to recognize examples of meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea by sailors of all nationalities.
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
March 2, 2013, New York. The 2012 Blue Water Medal is presented by CCA Commodore Dan Dyer on the left to David S. Cowper with Awards Chairman Bob Drew on the right. Dan Nerney Photo.
2007 Blue Water Award Press Release
New York, N.Y., USA (January 15, 2008) – Peter M. Passano of Woolwich, Maine was selected by the Cruising Club of America to receive its prestigious Blue Water Medal for 2007. The medal was presented by CCA Commodore Ross E. Sherbrooke of Boston, Mass. at the club's annual Awards Dinner in New York on January 15, 2008.
Press Release (January 16, 2007) (PDF)
Minoru Saito, an admired Japanese solo sailor who at the age of 71 completed his seventh single-handed circumnavigation of the world, was selected by the Cruising Club of America to receive the prestigious Blue Water Medal for 2006. The medal was presented at the Club's annual Awards Dinner in New York on January 16, 2007 by Commodore Edward S. Rowland.
Jarlath Cunnane, retired construction manager, boat builder and adventurer from Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland was selected by the Cruising Club of America to receive the prestigious Blue Water Medal at the Club's annual Awards Dinner in New York on January 17, 2006.