Nathan Cowan Memorial Fund - CYA
Nathan R. Cowan Memorial Award for Developing Sailors
Friends and family of Nathan Cowan donated this award to the Canadian Yachting Association (CYA) in 2002 to honor the memory of Nathan. This award is given to the top Non-National Team, Non-Youth sailor in Canada who is undergoing a university education and has financial need. Nathan’s friends and family have designed the criteria of this award in order to support athletes like Nathan, and help them through the years of hard work it takes to become a successful sailor. In order to be eligible, the candidate must:
- Have a record of outstanding achievement in national and international competition, have followed a committed training program during the award year, and brought recognition to Canadian competitive sailing.
- Have demonstrated an effort in fundraising through sponsorship and private contributions.
- Be 19 or over as of December 31st in the year of nomination.
- Must not be a member of the Canadian Sailing Team, or be a carded athlete during the award year.
- Have demonstrated leadership and sportsmanship.
- Be a Canadian Citizen or permanent resident of Canada.
The cup that sits on top of this award was the first place trophy at the 2000 Maisa Sloop University Championships. The winning team was Nathan Cowan, Gordon Cook, Oskar Johansson and Bernard Luttmer and the story behind the victory was amusing. In order to participate at the Maisa Sloop Championships, each University Sailing Team was requested to submit a sailing resume with the names and positions of the crew. A year prior, the team of four skippers, had no idea who would take the helm and as a joke submitted the following sailing positions: cook, crows nest, jib cunningham trimmer and first mate. Even though all the athletes were amongst the best in Canada, the selection committee was not amused and did not select them for the championships. The next year, after learning from their mistake, the same team properly filled out the application. They were selected to participate and proved they deserved to be there by winning the championship and bringing it home to Queen's University.
Recipients:
2003 Conners Higgins - Laser Class
2004 Dave Wright - Laser Class
2005 Marc Farmer and Trevor Parekh - 49er Class
2007 Stéphane Locas & Oliver Bone - 470 Class
2008 Lee Parkhill - Laser Class
2009 Robert Davis - Laser Class
2010 Tyler Meyrick - Laser Class
For more information: CYA Nathan Cowan Memorial Award for Developming Sailors