Tinaroo Sailing Club is proud to announce that Angus MacGregor has been selected as a finalist in Yachting Australia’s Sailor of the Year with a Disability. This highly prestigious award will see Angus travel to the awards ceremony on the 16th of October at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne. This gala event will see some of the best yachtsmen and yachtswomen from across the nation recognised in a number of categories.
Fourteen-year-old Angus was born with cerebral palsy and has a disability described as hemiplegia. This means that his right arm and leg do not function correctly.
The 2009 Australian Yachting Awards recognises outstanding achievement in sailing over the period of March 2008 through to July 2009.
During this period Angus can boast the following outstanding achievements:
March 2008 – won the Access 2.3 National Championships in Canberra
April 2008 – won a Bronze medal in the NQ Games in Townsville (sailed in Pacers)
October 2008 – was part of the crew that won the NQ J24 Championships, in Cairns
January 2009 – finished 2nd in the Silver Fleet of the IFDS World Championships held in Auckland NZ
March 2009 – finished a very close 2nd in the Access 2.3 National Championships in Southport
June 2009 – won the Yokohama AA Regatta sailing in an Access 2.3 in Yokohama, Japan
July 2009 – won the Queensland State O’pen Bic Championships at Tinaroo NQ.
Although a lot of Angus’s success has been achieved in the Access classes that espouse the catchcry of “Sailing for All”, he has some very significant results in open competition against able-bodied opposition.
Angus is up against some formidable opponents for the award. He is the only individual of the three finalists. Paralympic Silver medalists Daniel Fitzgibbon and Rachael Cox, and Paralympic Bronze medalists Colin Harrison, Graeme Martin and Russell Boaden are also nominated.