Dominican Republic
February 28, 2009

Hello Everyone,

I just got to the Dominican Republic from NYC where I was presented with the Rolex Yachtswoman and Yachtsman of the Year award. As announced earlier in the year, I was selected for the yachtswoman award and Terry Hutchinson from Annapolis, MD on the Yachtsman of the year award. It was a fantastic event put on by Rolex and hosted by the New York Yacht Club. The event started at 11am with a cocktail hour before we sat for lunch and the trophy presentation. Around 12:15 Gary Jobson gave a couple of introductions, and then played a video and showed pictures of each recipient. I was first up and apparently my parents had gone through my early childhood pictures and found some emabarssing pictures and video and given it to Gary to put in his presentation. But it was a great video in the end and showed a lot of where I had come from. Charlie Leighton, from US Sailing, introduced me and with the help of Peter Nicholson of Rolex presented me my award. At that point I gave my speech, and managed to hold off the tears until the end.

I was accompanied up there by my husband Brad Funk, my parents, my in-laws, and my coaches Mitch Brindley and Luther Carpenter. It was a great opportunity to recognize the success I had had this year, but more importantly, everyone that had played a role in the success, however big or small. You can watch the presentation on jobsonsailing.com here.

Thanks again, for everyone’s support over the year, and I am really looking forward to the years to come.

Anna