Annie Hill wrote:If we are talking in the spirit of Jester and Blondie Hasler, I would feel that the award should go to unassisted voyages, with minimal engine use.  At the risk of being too closely associated with award winners, I'd be very much inclined to nominate my ex-skipper, Trevor Robertson, who has made some stunning single-handed passages, including 2 passages across the southern South Pacific and a non-stop passage from the Falkland Is to Trinidad.  He would be unable to be interviewed, however, due to the fact that he is presently aboard Iron Bark, frozen in somewhere in Greenland.

Yes, I''d already  mentioned Trevor to the Powers That Be, and pointed them towards his blog. He'd be my idea of someone who has demonstrated a high level of attainment at single handed sailing, too. It's just a pity that he can't be persuaded that he could do it all a lot more easily under junk rig :-)

^ would be the other way 'round for us, the missus never gets seasick (doesnt know what it is..), I do though.

Colin Jarman wrote:As the one who nominated Roger Taylor for the 2009 Jester Medal, I can assure you that membership of the OCC is not a prerequisite. Nor is it necessary to be of any particular nationality. I suspect, however, that the Medal is unlikely to be awarded posthumously.

It's Jenny, the OCC Commodore's Lady, that I'm in contact with. She's been given the job of sorting this out. She and John are doing a good job of revitalising the OCC, but there still seem to be a few muddles, behind the scenes, that they have to see to. 

I don't know if Bill King was an OCC member, and of course he's no longer with us, but wouldn't he make a good candidate?

It seems to me that someone could nominate a certain David Tyler, especially if he would promise to write a bit more about his voyages and singlehanded procedures.  David's voyaging has been both bold and competent, though nobody outside of the JRA is likely to be aware of him since he is not the self-promoting type.  Then there is Alan from Zebedee whose engineless voyaging over more than a decade was largely singlehanded until recently, but likewise he is unknown outside of the JRA. There other potential candidates of course outside of the junk-rigged community, such as Miles Hordern, who has written two books and numerous articles to date about his singlehanded voyages in his Twister 28, Gordian.  One image that is indelibly etched in my mind is of Gordian running downwind under bare poes in the Southern Ocean, with the boat self steering and Miles sitting on the engine box, throwing darts at a dartboard on the bulkhead.  If awards were given posthumously, which I doubt, I would also nominate John Sowden, who circumnavigated solo three times between 1966 and 1986 in a Robert Clark designed Yachting World 5 tonner, Tarmin, mostly without a working engine.  His logs were published by his sister after his death in 1990.