RAINER HOLTORFF NAMED AS THE RYA
YACHTMASTER® OF THE YEAR 2012
Rainer Holtorff from Germany has been
named the RYA Yachtmaster of the Year 2012. Rainer was presented
with the RYA Yachtmaster of the Year Trophy by HRH The Princess
Royal today (16 January) at the Tullett Prebon London International
Boat Show.
Richard Falk RYA Training Manager said “This
is the first time that the RYA Yachtmaster of the Year has been
awarded to someone outside the UK, which demonstrates the truly
global significance of the RYA Yachtmaster qualification”.
Speaking after the presentation Rainer said
“It was a real honour to receive the award and quite surreal to be
receiving it as a German. Although I have the highest German
sailing qualifications I wanted to take the RYA Yachtmaster exam
because it is widely acknowledged around the world and means that I
can now work in places like the Caribbean. I would recommend the
RYA Yachtmaster to anyone because it is very practical and really
tests your competency on the water”.
Rainer’s examiner, Nigel Rennie said:
“Rainer’s scratch crew had no experience of the boat prior to the
exam and he treated the day like a corporate experience event. It
was wet with poor visibility and working in a foreign language he
had his work cut out. His eye for detail had reefs set and shaken
out to match the squalls, proactively trimming sails and coaching
the helm. Boat handling looked easy with man-overboard under sail
completed in 90 seconds from 13kts to stopped alongside”.
Rainer started sailing on Fjords near the
Baltic Sea. Whilst studying in Hamburg he bought an old yacht which
he sailed either single handed or with a small crew on the North
Sea, the Baltic and the River Elbe. Rainer went on to skipper
yachts around the European coast and across the Atlantic. In 2009
he founded the yacht delivery company Sailworkteam, and is
currently skippering an ocean yacht JV53 ‘Tognum’.
Rainer describes offshore sailing as
“physical, you are working with the airflow so you need your
senses, your instincts and your technical skills. A skipper has to
be able to communicate, understand the influences of changes in
weather and be able to understand the boat technically and so I
know my learning will never come to an end and I appreciate
that!”
Candidates for the 2012 RYA Yachtmaster award
were entered by the RYA’s worldwide team of Yachtmaster examiners.
The RYA Yachtmaster of the Year Trophy was donated by the Royal
Institute of Navigation.
To find out more about the RYA Yachtmaster
exam visit www.rya.org.uk/coursestraining/exams
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