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Cruising Club of America’s 2024 award recipients include a New England sailor who sacrificed his prized K. Aage Nielsen-designed sloop to save his crew.
The classic wooden sloop Solution was lost at sea while returning from Bermuda.
Each year, the Cruising Club of America honors sailors who’ve made a lasting mark on the sport and lifestyle. Among the 20024 winners are several notable Americans.
- Carter Bacon from Cambridge, Massachusetts, received the Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy for his, “meritorious handling of the sinking of his classic 50-foot K. Aage Neilsen sloop Solution during the return sail after the 2024 Newport Bermuda Race.” The classic wooden yacht was built in 1963 in East Boothbay, Maine. The July return trip home from Bermuda began peacefully but, after a few days of rough weather, the vessel began taking on water about 200 miles from Cape Cod.
Carter Bacon
Bacon deployed all the pumping equipment he had aboard and notified the U.S. Coast Guard, which deployed an airplane and helicopter.
The plane was first on the scene and dropped an additional pump – but Bacon and his crew could not retrieve it. The helicopter was set to arrive soon after but only had enough flight time to do one of two things: attempt to deliver a second pump or rescue the crew of Solution. Although Bacon had been Solution’s captain and caretaker for more than 20 years, he made the “easy but painful decision” to abandon Solution to keep his crew safe. As a result of this decision, everyone aboard made it to shore safely.
Other American honored by the international club of bluewater sailors include:
- Cole Brauer, 29, received the Young Voyager Award for becoming the first American woman to sail solo and nonstop around the world as a competitor in the 2024 Global Solo Challenge. Brauer, who was featured in the June/July 2024 issue of BoatUS Magazine, finished in second place aboard her Class 40 First Light after 130 days at sea – in a race that more than half the competitors were unable to finish. Along the way, she injured her ribs after being tossed across the cabin during a broach, and had to ration her energy supply as her hydrogenerator kept failing, all while amassing more than a half-million followers on social media, spreading knowledge and enthusiasm for the sport far beyond its traditional limits.
- Finley H. Perry Jr. of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, received the Far Horizons Award, which recognizes a cruise or series of cruises that embody the CCA’s broader objectives, in particular the adventurous use of the sea. Perry spent several decades cruising Maine and Newfoundland in a 1949 Hinckley Sou’wester 34, then sailed an Aage Nielsen 46 from Maine to Denmark, Norway, and other Scandinavian destinations. In 2006, he cruised Greenland, eventually crossing Davis Strait to explore uncharted waters in Hoare Bay, off the eastern end of Baffin Island. Many of these cruising grounds were explored and named in the 16th and 17th centuries by sailors searching for the elusive Northwest Passage but have seen few visitors (aside from Perry) since.
- Nigel Calder won the Diana Russell Award for Innovation in recognition of his lifelong contributions toward the research, development, and production of advanced marine electrical systems. Calder may be best known for his technical publications, such as Boatowner’s Mechanical and Electrical Manual, a hefty bible toted along by many a cruiser. In addition to his books, Calder has also helped set the American Boat and Yacht Council’s (ABYC) standards for marine electrical and propulsion systems and invented the Integral Solutions high-output alternator power system, which CCA says was a driving force behind their decision to bestow this award.
To read more about these and other CCA winners, visit cruisingclub.org.