Sarah Douglas named 2019 Rolex Sailor of the Year!

Sarah Douglas Rolex Sailor of the Year

Mar 12, 2020

Sarah Douglas receives her award and an exquisite watch from Maxim Lamarre of Rolex Canada

Photo by: Luka Bartulovic

Last Friday at the Carlu in Toronto, Sarah Douglas from Ashbridges Bay Yacht Club was honoured with the most prestigious national sailing award of the year.

Over the last year, Sarah has pushed milestones, with a 7th place finish at the Ready Steady Tokyo Olympic Test event, winning a Gold Medal for Canada at the 2019 Pan Am Games, and qualifying the country for a spot in the Radial class at Tokyo 2020.

Her hard work both on the water shows as she consistently finds herself ranked amongst the best Radial sailors in the world. She continues to push herself to be the best athlete she can be all while paving a path for women in sailing. 

“I’m shocked! I’m not sure how to feel but I am very grateful to receive this award tonight. It definitely motivates me to continue the work that I’ve done and to push even harder to improve Canadian sailing all around.” 

Sarah was presented with an exquisite watch by Maxim Lamarre of Rolex Canada.

Also finalists for the award were Alex Heinzemann and Justin Barnes and Luke Ramsay 

Other winners

Other awards and winners presented at the event were:

Gallagher Skippers’ Plan Female Athlete/Team – Sarah Douglas

Gallagher Skippers’ Plan Male Athlete/Team – Luke Ramsay

Bill Burk Male – Ryan Anderson

Bill Burk Female – Hunter Dejean

Marvin McDill – Clara Gravely

Gerry Roufs – Richard Clarke

Nathan Cowan  – James Juhasz

Instructor – Braden Gray

Coach – Erik Vanderpol

William Abbott Sr. Sail Training Program of the Year – Glenmore Sailing School

Volunteer  – Nollind van Bryce

Regatta – Shelburne Yacht Club; Albacore International Championship and Kingston Yacht Club; Blind Sailing Worlds

Chisolm – CORK; 4.7 and Radial Youth Worlds

Recreation event – Coupe Femina

Rolex AwardsKudos to Shelburne

Receiving the City of Kingston Regatta of the Year Award was Shelburne Yacht Club for hosting the 2019 Albacore International Championship.

Shelburne is a small town of only 1800 in Nova Scotia and this was their first international regatta, jointly run between the Club and the Town. In total, there were 47 teams competing from Canada, the United States, and Europe.

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