Top 2025 Voyaging Honors including Blue Water Medal presented by Cruising Club of America
by Cruising Club of America 10 Mar 16:32 UTC
Blue Water Medal awardee Pete Hill and partner Linda Crew-Gee receive the honor from the incoming CCA Commodore Chace Anderson, left, and outgoing CCA Commodore Jay Gowell © Guy Gurney
The 2025 Cruising Club of America (CCA) awards ceremony was held at the New York Yacht Club on Friday, March 6, highlighted by the presentation of the Blue Water Medal to longtime no-frills voyager Pete Hill.
The prestigious award, established to honor exceptional seamanship and adventure by amateur sailors, was first awarded by the CCA at the Club's first annual meeting in 1923.
The recognition of Hill and other intrepid individuals who have overcome numerous challenges at sea and on land took place as part of a formal CCA dinner following the club's annual meeting at the 44th St. clubhouse.
Hill, of the United Kingdom, received the honor from CCA Commodore Jay Gowell in recognition of a half-century of long-distance voyaging in the world's oceans aboard a variety of yachts he built or modified to the simplified junk rig. Proving their seaworthiness has been inspirational to a yachting community of minimalists who find it most important to be at sea or with a community of like-minded sailors.
With this honor—the highest CCA award—Hill, 75, follows in the wake of other remarkable sailors including Bill Tilman, Bernard Moitessier, Eric and Susan Hiscock, and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. His independent philosophy of design and construction has allowed him to sail the same seas as these icons of yachting without the burden of sophisticated and expensive systems.
"The Blue Water Medal is the most prestigious sailing award in the field and I'm truly honored," Hill told the audience. "I've had a very fortunate life: I discovered sailing as a teenager and became passionate about sailing and boats. I devoured old cruising books. I would rather go sailing than maintain complex systems and work to pay for them. I'm always learning every time I enter a new anchorage."
Tamara Klink, 28, of São Paulo, Brazil, is the winner of the CCA Young Voyager Award. The award recognizes a young sailor who has made one or more exceptional voyages, demonstrating exceptional skills and courage.
Klink set sail alone at the age of 22 aboard Sardinha, her 26-foot sailboat, crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Norway to Brazil, a voyage of more than 7,000 miles in 90 days. This was just the beginning of her solo sailing career. In 2023 she sailed from France to Greenland in her 34-foot sailboat, Sardinha-2, and then overwintered in Greenland in the sea ice, becoming the first female sailor to overwinter in the Arctic alone. In the process of completing that voyage, Klink also became the first Latin American to solo sail the Northwest Passage.
Like a very small number of other adventurous voyagers, Klink's accomplishments have attracted one of the largest social media audiences in the sailing world; some 200,000 users followed the real-time tracking of Sardinha-2 and read journal entries she posted.
Philip "Greg" Velez, of Saginaw, Michigan, accepted the 2025 Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy for rescuing a sailor who fell off a competitor's boat in trying conditions during the 101st Bayview Mackinac Race.
The CCA annually awards the Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy to a sailor for an act of seamanship which significantly contributes to the safety of a yacht, or one or more individuals at sea.
After close to an hourlong search in high winds and building seas in response to a mayday call, Velez and crew aboard Amante2, his Farr 49, were successful in finding and saving Pete Pryce, 72, who had fallen from Trident, a Santa Cruz 70.
CCA members who were awarded honors included:
Christopher and Molly Barnes of Alta, Utah, who won the Far Horizons Award for 2025. The premier sailing honor for a CCA member, this award recognizes the sailing achievements of an individual or couple who have embarked upon a cruise or series of cruises that demonstrate the broader objectives of the Club, including the adventurous use of the sea.
A three-year, 36,000 nautical mile cruise undertaken by the Barnes family from 2013 to 2016 included a circumnavigation of South America and rounding of Cape Horn, with stops at Easter Island, Chile; South Georgia Island in the sub-Antarctic Ocean; Arctic Norway, and a wintertime crossing of France's notorious Bay of Biscay. Their crew comprised their sons, Porter and Rabbit, ages 10 and 9 when they started.
Peter Willauer of Falmouth, Maine, who received the 2025 Diana Russell Award. This award goes to a club member in recognition of innovation in sailing design, methodology, education, training, safety, and the adventurous use of the sea.
Willauer, who was 90 when he was informed of the honor before he passed away November 6, 2025, was a key innovator in experiential education over several decades. Perhaps his most important contribution has been the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, and the subsequent Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership, whose mission is to "integrate scientific research and education to develop leaders prepared to address environmental issues in a rapidly changing world."
Doug and Dale Bruce, who are the Richard S. Nye Trophy recipients for 2025. Given at the discretion of the Governing Board, The Nye Trophy was established in honor of the late CCA Commodore. It has been awarded since 1978 to a member who has brought distinction to the Club by meritorious service, outstanding seamanship, outstanding performance in long distance cruising or racing, statesmanship in the affairs of international yachting, or any combination of these accomplishments.
The couple's contributions are numerous. Starting in 2009, they rewrote the CCA Cruising Guide to Newfoundland, then in 2010 began a seven-year role at the helm of Voyages, the Club's annual magazine. Doug, elected to membership in 2006, and Dale, elected in 2016, have continuously expanded their roles and contributions. Doug rewrote and revised the Canadian Maritime Cruising Guides, updating valuable cruising sailor resources. He followed with editing and development of the CCA Essentials Passage Guide to the Viking Route. He also envisioned the online CCA Cruising Guide to Maine, which has brought significant timely and in-depth guidance as well as favorable publicity and goodwill to the Club.
Behan and Jamie Gifford, of Bainbridge Island, Washington, who are the recipients of the CCA 2025 Royal Cruising Club Trophy for their six-month cruise through Japan in the summer of 2025. Aboard Totem, their Stevens 47, the Giffords entered Japan in Okinawa and worked their way north up the less-traveled west coast, eventually making their way to Sapporo, Hokkaido, the most northern of the four main Japanese islands.
Gifted to the CCA by the Royal Cruising Club, the trophy is awarded to a CCA member and skipper who has undertaken "the most interesting cruise of singular merit and moderate duration," as judged by the Awards Committee and editors of the CCA's Voyages magazine. It has been awarded annually since 1998.
Peter Gibbons-Neff Jr. of Villanova, Pennsylvania, who is the recipient of the 2025 Charles H. Vilas Literary Prize for "4,050 Miles Alone Across the Atlantic — Reflections on the 2023 Mini Transat and the Next Mission Ahead," published in the 2026 edition of Voyages, the CCA magazine.
The article earned top marks from the Voyages editorial committee, which annually makes the award to the CCA member who has made an outstanding contribution to Voyages, the Club magazine formerly called the Cruising Club News and edited by Vilas for 20 years.
Steve James received a CCA Special Recognition Award for serving 10 years on the Awards Committee, which included six years as its chair.
Read more about the winners and their achievements at the Awards page of the club website.