February 2011 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 9. CRUISING CLUB OF AMERICA ANNOUNCES AWARDS
CCA to Present 2010 Far Horizons Award to William E. Cook
New York, N.Y. – The Cruising Club of America (CCA) will award The 2010 Far Ho- rizons Award to William E. Cook for a series of commendable voyages to the far north of the globe including cruises to Greenland and the Baffin Island (Canada). This award is given to a member of the CCA “for a particu- larly meritorious cruise or series of cruises that exemplify the objectives of the Club.” The award will be presented on March 4, 2011 by CCA Commodore Sheila McCurdy during the club’s annual Awards Dinner at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan.
After receiving a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D from Harvard, Cook went on to teach English for five years but longed for a change in scenery and decided it was time to explore more of the world both mentally and geo- graphically. In the early summer of 1972 he set out on a cruise of the North Atlantic Circle with his wife Toni on their 60-foot (18.3- meter) Sparkman & Stephens ketch, EN- DEAVOUR. The two spent the summer sail- ing through Scotland, England, France, Italy and Spain and by the fall, ENDEAVOUR was in the heart of the Mediterranean Ocean. When winter came, Cook had made it past the Canary Islands, the Cape Verdes Islands and was headed for the Caribbean. By the spring of 1973, Cook and his wife had completed their first journey and began the cruise home to New England.
After Cook’s excursion, he became en- amored with the art of yacht design and decided to further his knowledge of the sub- ject through courses at Westlawn School of Yacht Design and Stephens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. By 1977, Bill Cook had opened Cook Yacht Design in Hyannis, MA. Since then, he has been designing racing and cruising sail- boats that range from 10-85 feet. After Cook had sold ENDEAVOUR in mid-1970, he began cruising with friends and visited many new places including Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador. He also partook in a number of Southern Ocean Rac- ing Circuits including three Newport to Ber- muda Races, the Annapolis to Newport Race and the Marblehead to Halifax.
In 2000, Cook bought the sailboat RESO- LUTION, a 56-foot (17-meter) Bristol Sloop. Since that time he has cruised extensively in the Canadian Maritimes and the Canadian Arctic including the Labrador Coast, and in 2007, he visited Leaf Basin in Hudson Strait. His most recent cruise was in 2010 when he visited Greenland for the second time to ex- plore the southern end of the country. (Cook’s first trip was in 2003 when he ven- tured through the western end into Disko Bay.)
When he is not exploring the seas, Cook participates in a number of extracurricular activities. He is a past Commodore of the Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, CT and has been a Trustee at Mystic Seaport Museum since 1982. He served as Board Chairman from 1995 to 2001 and is currently the Rear Commodore of the Cruising Club of America’s Boston Station.
CCA to Present 2010 Rod Stephens Trophy to Alessandro Di Benedetto The CCA will award The 2010 Rod Stephens Trophy for Outstanding Seaman- ship to Alessandro Di Benedetto for his sea- manship in jury rigging a mast after being dismasted near Cape Horn on his solo, non- stop circumnavigation on the 21-foot (6.5- meter) monohull FINDOMESTIC. This award is given “for an act of seamanship which significantly contributes to the safety of a yacht, or one or more individuals at sea.” The award will be presented on March 4, 2011 by CCA Commodore Sheila McCurdy during the club’s annual Awards Dinner at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan.
Di Benedetto was born in Rome, Italy in 1971 and began sailing at the age of eight. He quickly moved into Lasers and then sport catamarans and later a 41-foot (12.6- meter) yawl, which he sailed with his father Frederico Di Benedetto. Di Benedetto com- pleted his studies at University of Palermo (Sicily) and holds a Doctorate in Geology and a Professional Diver Degree in Underwater Archaeology.
In 1992, he sailed with his father from Italy and arrived November 27 at the Cape Verde Islands on a 20.4-foot (6.3-meter) sport catamaran. On December 28, the two left the Cape Verde Islands and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Martinique in the French Caribbean Islands in 16 days.
Once Di Benedetto had experienced open ocean sailing it became a hunger he couldn’t satiate. In 2001, he logged 1700 miles in a single-handed, non-stop journey begin- ning in Italy and finishing in the Canary Islands, and in 2002, Di Benedetto became a record breaker when he sailed single-handed across the Atlantic in his sport catamaran. Another world record was broken in 2006 when he became the first person to do a single-handed, non-stop transpacific cross- ing from Yokohama, Japan to San Francisco on a 19.4-foot (5.9-meter) catamaran that had no shelter or cabin.
Di Benedetto’s most recent and memo- rable journey was in 2009 when he departed on October 26 from Les Sables d’Olonne, France in a 21-foot (6.5-meter) sailboat that he himself had rebuilt and customized in prepa- ration for his solo, non-stop, 24,000 mile voy- age around the world. As he came to the last leg of the journey and began approaching
Cape Horn (the most treacherous part of the voyage) he was dismasted, causing him to choose between getting help on land or jury rigging the mast. He decided to carry on with the jury rig. On July 22, 2010, after 268 days, 19 hours, 36 minutes and 12 seconds at sea, Di Benedetto had completed his around-the- world voyage and set the record for smallest boat to complete a solo nonstop circumnavi- gation in that time.
CCA to Present 2010 Blue Water Medal to Alex Whitworth
The CCA will award its prestigious 2010 Blue Water Medal to Australian Alex Whitworth for a circumnavigation of the world via the Northwest Passage West to East. The first Blue Water Medal was awarded in 1923 and it is given “for a most meritorious example of seamanship, the re- cipient to be selected from among the ama- teurs of all the nations.” The award will be presented on March 4, 2011 by CCA Commo- dore Sheila McCurdy during the CCA’s an- nual Awards Dinner at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan.
Whitworth was born in an air raid shelter on the island of Malta (Southern Europe) in 1942 and spent most of his childhood near Manchester, England or wherever his father was stationed at the time. His father, Alexander Whitworth, a Royal Navy pilot, taught him to sail at a young age. At nineteen, Whitworth also joined the Royal Navy and became an Observer on carrier-based Sea Vixen aircraft until 1965.
In 1966, Whitworth emigrated to Austra- lia and joined Adastra Aerial Surveys where he worked both full and part time until 1975. In 1974, he received a B.A. (Honors) in Politi- cal Science from Melbourne University and in 1982 a M.B.A. from the University of New South Wales.
Waterfront News
In 1993, Whitworth and his partner Hi- lary Yerbury purchased the sailboat BERRIMILLA, a Brolga 33 designed by Aus- tralian Peter Joubert. Since the purchase, Whitworth has circumnavigated the world twice with BERRIMILLA. The first time be- gan in 2004 when Whitworth sailed to the U.K. via Cape Horn. On the way, BERRIMILLA was in frequent contact with Astronaut Leroy Chiao, Commander of the International Space Station (ISS) and for much of the time, Chiao was Whitworth’s nearest neighbor when the ISS orbit crossed her track. When Whitworth arrived in the U.K., BERRIMILLA competed in the 2005 Rolex Fastnet Race, finishing 11th
overall and
second in the double-handed division. After the Fastnet, BERRIMILLA returned to Sydney, Australia via the Cape of Good Hope, arriving just in time to sail in the 2005 Rolex Sydney-Hobart race.
The second circumnavigation began in 2008 when as a result of BERRIMILLA’s encounter with the ISS, Whitworth was in- vited by NASA scientists to rendezvous at Beechy Island in the Canadian Arctic. The plan was to view the solar eclipse on August 1, 2008, so Whitworth set out on April 10, 2008, sailing directly from Sydney to the Aleutians Islands off Alaska and then through the Northwest Passage. Due to dangerous ice conditions, BERRIMILLA bypassed Beechey Island and arrived in Falmouth, England in September. That winter, the boat was stored in the U.K. and then competed in the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race. After the race, BERRIMILLA sailed home to Australia via the Cape of Good Hope and the Kerguelen Islands and arrived in Sydney on March 2010 having completed her second circumnavigation of the globe.
Continued on Page 10.
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