75 Lower Parriwi Road, The Spit, Mosman NSW 2088
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MHYC Youth Club Captain Ben Crafoord Recipient of FLYAS Award

 

Ben started his sailing career at MHYC, age 4. In a special category of Tackers classes for the very young. It was all about having fun, forming relationships, as well as learning the basis of sailing.

Ben progressed through our club’s Discover Sailing Tackers programs. He joined the Opti Squad at age 9 and is now competing at the top level of the Open Fleet. Last year he raced in a number of local and interstate regattas and was placed:

  • 8th in the Australian at the Opti Nationals (230+ entries)
     
  • A member of MHYC’s first Open Opti Teams Racing Squad. The team of 4 won the NSW Teams Racing Championships, now proudly displayed in the Youth Sailing Office.
     
  • Overall second in the U15 SailGP Inspire Sydney 2020 on a RS Cat14. They achieved 3 bullets, but we narrowly beaten by one point.
     
  • Ben was selected for the Australian Optimist Sailing Team in Tallinn Estonia in June 2020 – but we all know what happened to that.

Like many of our top sailors, Ben was planning to compete in a number of regattas around Australia and overseas this year, sadly we know that is not going to happen for a while. In the meantime he is being coached by Rob Brewer and will enter all available regattas. His parents, Carl and Bettina follow him with a great interest and are keen volunteers with our youth sailing program.

We have watched Ben grow into a remarkable young adult. Recently elected as Youth Sailing Captain of MHYC, he has been a great ambassador for our club, speaking at functions and writing reports. Ben is inspired to share his knowledge, experience, and excitement of sailing to help build our youth sailing.

There have been many disappointments for all of us this year, especially for Ben.  As a member of the Scots College Scottish Band, Ben was supposed to perform at the Edinburgh Tattoo this year. He is a very talented drummer in this school band.

We hope this award will help his with his Opti and coaching expenses and perhaps in the future, his racing program.

 

 


About the FLYAS

FLYAS, formerly the Frank Likely Trust has now been incorporated into the MHYC Foundation, however its aims are still the same.

Frank Likely was a pioneer and driving force behind MHYC’s junior sailing and safety programs. Although Frank is no longer with us, his spirit is still alive in the form of the FLYAS. The original Trust was formed by sailing and army mates from the war to:

  1. To perpetuate the memory of Frank Likely in view of his many years of outstanding voluntary service to yachting and Middle Harbour Yacht Club.
     
  2. To assist Middle Harbour Yacht Club members and young sailors selected at the discretion of the Committee to compete in yacht and dinghy racing.
     
  3. To make awards to outstanding persons who have contributed valuable services to the Middle Harbour Yacht Club and Australian Yachting in the Frank Likely Spirit.

The award has been granted to a wide variety of recipients from supporting young sailing learning to sail, those who want to enter in ocean racing and to those that needed support in higher level competitions. In recent years it has also provided run Fundraisers to support our Youth Sailing Program.