The Cruising Club of America has announced its 2025 awards, led by the presentation of the prestigious Blue Water Medal to UK sailor Pete Hill. Now in its 102nd year, the Blue Water Medal recognises exceptional seamanship and adventure by amateur sailors, and remains the Club’s highest honour.
Blue Water Medal
Hill, 75, is recognised for more than five decades of long distance ocean voyaging, undertaken with a deliberately simple approach to yacht design and equipment. Best known for building and modifying yachts fitted with junk rigs, Hill has demonstrated that modest, robust boats can achieve serious blue water passages without complex systems. His philosophy has influenced generations of sailors who value time at sea over technical excess.
Hill’s early voyaging years were spent alongside his first wife, Annie Hill, whom he later divorced. Together, they built and sailed Badger, a 34 foot double ended plywood dory designed by Jay Benford. Rigged with a two masted junk schooner rig, Badger became the foundation for their extended voyages through the North and South Atlantic, reaching Greenland, Arctic Norway, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and beyond.
A brief digression on Annie Hill
These voyages formed the basis for Annie Hill’s first two books and her influential analysis of the modern junk rig, which played a significant role in its renewed popularity among offshore sailors.
After their divorce in 2001, Annie Hill remarried sailor Trevor Robertson and continued voyaging on her own terms. She later moved to New Zealand, where she is based today and, as last reported, continues to live aboard her junk rigged plywood yacht FanShi.
In 2021, Boating New Zealand contributor Matt Vance wrote The Beauty of Junk, an article exploring how her then recently written book, Voyaging on a Small Income, quietly reshapes ideas about cruising. Set against consumer driven norms, it argues that simplicity enables freedom. Hill’s junk rigged boats, from Badger to FanShi, demonstrate how thoughtful, frugal design and easy handling can support decades of voyaging. The piece reframes junk rigs not as curiosities, but as practical, humane solutions for long term life afloat, and is well worth a read, if only to glimpse the remarkable FanShi.
Her book Voyaging on a Small Income remains a widely referenced study of long term self sufficiency at sea, often cited by sailors looking for alternatives to high cost cruising.
Back to Pete Hill
Pete Hill’s own sailing path diverged but never slowed. He went on to design and build China Moon, a 38 foot junk rigged catamaran, spending years alone in the high southern latitudes, including Cape Horn, the South Shetland Islands, South Georgia, and Tristan da Cunha. His solo delivery of China Moon from Baltimore to Brazil in 41 days, followed by a near 10,000 nautical mile passage to Tasmania via the southern Indian Ocean, reinforced his reputation for endurance and quiet competence.
Later projects included converting a Freedom 33 to junk rig, cruising extensively in Brazil with his second wife, Carly, and contributing a detailed cruising guide to Brazil for the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation. He subsequently built Oryx, another custom catamaran with a mast in each hull, and sailed her from England to Brazil and across the notoriously difficult South Atlantic to Cape Town.
Hill’s life at sea has also known deep personal loss. In 2015, Carly was lost overboard off the coast of South Africa. In the years that followed, Hill returned to solo voyaging, sailing alone across the Indian Ocean to Mauritius and Australia.
During the pandemic, Hill built Kokachin, a junk rigged schooner, with his partner Linda Crew Gee. The vessel’s first voyage took them across the North Atlantic to the Caribbean, north to Nova Scotia, and around Newfoundland. When China Moon unexpectedly came up for sale, Hill bought her back. After refitting the boat in Tasmania, Hill and Linda departed for New Zealand in 2025, enduring a violent Tasman Sea storm that forced six days and nights of continuous hand steering after significant damage. They are now cruising in the Pacific.
Hill was notified of the Blue Water Medal while at sea in New Caledonia. “I am blown away by this,” he said. “This is such an honour.”
Other awards
Alongside Hill, the CCA announced five further awards recognising seamanship, exploration, education, and service to the sailing community.
Young Voyager Award
The 2025 Young Voyager Award goes to Tamara Klink, 28, of Brazil. Klink first crossed the Atlantic solo at 22 in a 26 foot yacht, sailing from Norway to Brazil. In 2023, she sailed from France to Greenland, overwintering alone in the Arctic ice, becoming the first woman to do so. During that voyage she also became the first Latin American sailor to solo the Northwest Passage.
Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy
The Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy is awarded to Philip Greg Velez of Michigan, following the successful rescue of a sailor lost overboard during the 101st Bayview Mackinac Race. After nearly an hour searching in heavy conditions, Velez and his crew recovered the man safely, an act the CCA described as exemplary seamanship under pressure.
Diana Russell Award
The Diana Russell Award is presented posthumously to Peter Willauer, a pioneer of experiential education and a founding figure behind the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School. Willauer, who passed away in November 2025 aged 90, was recognised for decades of work linking sailing, leadership, and environmental understanding.
Far Horizons Award
The Far Horizons Award is shared by Christopher and Molly Barnes, whose family undertook a three year, 36,000 nautical mile voyage including Cape Horn, South Georgia, Arctic Norway, and the Bay of Biscay, sailing with their two young sons.
Richard S. Nye Trophy
Finally, the Richard S. Nye Trophy is awarded to Doug and Dale Bruce for outstanding service to the Club, including major contributions to cruising guides, publications, and communications over more than a decade.
All 2025 award recipients will be formally honoured at a ceremony in New York City in early March.
Learn more
- Six Awards Announced; UK Sailor Pete Hill Named 2025 Blue Water Medal Winner
- Cruising Club of America
