A Maine Sailor Recognized for Long Distance Voyaging

The Cruising Club of America reports that Maxwell A. Fletcher, of Orr’s Island, Maine has been awarded the Club’s premier sailing award for a member, the Far Horizons Award for 2023. This award recognizes the sailing achievements of a member who has embarked upon a cruise or series of cruises that demonstrate the broader objectives of the Club including the adventurous use of the sea.

Fletcher has been sailing with his family since childhood, so he has had his eyes set on the horizon from a young age. To date, he has sailed to more than 50 countries, typically requiring adventurous passages. A notable 52-day double-handed voyage was, in 1985, aboard his Westsail 32 when he sailed eastward from New Zealand, around Cape Horn, to the Falkland Islands. Few small yachts had accomplished such a voyage at the time, and it was certainly not an easy trip; it included surviving a knockdown well past horizontal and a 60-hour stretch of hand-steering under bare poles, covering 130 miles per day. Along the way, he sailed over so-called “Point Nemo,” the coordinate at sea that is farthest from any land.

Fletcher, with wife Lynnie, have also sailed across the Atlantic Ocean four times aboard their Nordic 40 and has cruised the Atlantic coastline of Europe, Norway, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean to Turkey, and much more. He has also sailed in the high latitudes reaching Baffin Island, Hudson Strait, and the Antarctic Peninsula, assisting with the adventures of others.

In making the announcement, Steve James, the CCA’s Chairman of Awards said, “Obviously, this award is long overdue.” When informed of the award, Max and Lynnie had just returned from a sail on a Norwegian ketch in the remote and usually icebound Scoresby Sound in northeast Greenland. In his typically polite and unassuming manner, he replied, “I’m thrilled and most appreciative for being honored with this award.”

The CCA will present the 2023 Far Horizons Award to Fletcher on March 1, 2024, in New York City. Award ceremonies have taken place nearly every year since the club was founded in 1923.

Other sailors receiving CCA recognition this year include:

Kirsten Neuschäfer, of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, who received the Blue Water Medal in recognition of the tremendous effort, determination, and skill she exhibited during her 235-day solo circumnavigation in Minnehaha, her Cape George 36 sailboat. Out of 17 starters, she was first among only three finishers of the Golden Globe Race, which is a singlehanded race around the world that limits competitors to using sailboats and technology available when the first race was held, in 1968.

As one example of her determination, while crossing the Southern Ocean, Neuschäfer spent several hours in the water below her boat, scraping sharp, speed-robbing barnacles off the bottom.

Max Campbell, of Falmouth, UK, is the recipient of the Young Voyager Award. The award recognizes “a young sailor who has made one or more exceptional voyages.” Campbell set sail eight years ago, at age 20, on a 22-foot wooden sailboat. Today, despite personal disasters and Covid lockdowns, we find him halfway around the world aboard his 37-foot Swan Elixir—an accomplished sailor, writer, and social media star.

Paul G. Bieker, of Anacortes, Washington, has earned the Diana Russell Award. This award goes to a club member in recognition of innovation in sailing design, methodology, education, training, safety, and the adventurous use of the sea, with a focus on recipients whose accomplishments deserve recognition by the CCA. The award is named for one of the first three women to join the CCA; Russell optimized designs under the IOR handicap rule for Sparkman & Stephens and later became president of the design think tank named WingSystems.

Bieker is a yacht designer and boatbuilder with a degree in naval architecture. He has 30 boat designs to his credit starting with a series of immediately successful International 14 skiffs. His development of small hydrofoils for the 14s led to being recruited to work on foil design and structures in several America’s Cup campaigns optimizing IACC monohulls and semi-foiling and foiling multihulls. His efforts helped win two America’s Cups (2010 and 2013), and he is now recognized as one of the world’s foremost foiling-boat designers. Bieker has developed everything from surfboard foils to International Moth and 14 classes, America’s Cup boat structures and foils, Sail GP’s 50-foot foiling cats, and foiling powerboat and foiling ferryboat projects.

Ralph J. Naranjo, of Annapolis, Maryland, has been selected as the recipient of the Richard S. Nye Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the Cruising Club of America and the international sailing community. The Nye Award, established in honor of the late CCA commodore, is presented annually to an individual who has “brought distinction to the Club by meritorious service, outstanding seamanship, outstanding performance in long distance cruising or racing, or statesmanship in affairs of international yachting…”

Naranjo is well known in the yachting community for his safety-at-sea and seamanship knowledge, instruction, and leadership. He was for many years the Vanderstar Chair, supervising the sailing program for the US Naval Academy midshipmen. He is also a past chair of US Sailing’s Safety and Seamanship Committee and has led countless safety-at-sea seminars.

Naranjo earned his credentials in a variety of ways including sailing around the world (and writing a book about it, Wind Shadow West), and managing a full-service boatyard (another book titled Boatyards & Marinas followed). Naranjo’s best-known book, The Art of Seamanship, was published in 2014 and is a go-to reference on the collective skills required of bluewater sailors.