The winners of the Yachting World sponsored Sailboat of the Year category in the British Nautical Awards were tonight announced by editor Andrew Bray as the Laser Vortex and Moody 54.

In order to help differentiate between craft of very different sizes, the Sailboat category had been split into Inshore and Offshore divisions this year. The only runner-up was the Laser Funboat, making it a two-to-one victory for performance dinghies and lean pickings for yachts.

Most popular decision of the evening was the naming of Olympic Sailing Medallists Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy, Shirley Robertson, Ian Walker, Mark Covell, Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocksas joint BT YJA Yachtsmen of the Year.

Although they didn’t claim the same standing ovation, a warm round of applause also greeted 17-year-old Sam Carter and his 13-year-old crew Robert Graves who jointly took the MDL YJA Sailor of the Year. Offshore Yachtsman of the Year went to Adrian Stead.

Former Yachting World editor Dick Johnson scooped the Sealine Marine Media Award for his work on Cowes Week Radio while the Marine Product of the Year went to Pains Wessex for the SOS Precision 406 GPS EPIRB.