IPC Country & Leisure Media Ltd, a division of IPC Magazines Ltd, the UK’s largest magazine publishing company, today announced that two of their premier magazines, Yachting World and Motor Boat & Yachting are to sponsor the ‘Sailboat of the Year’ Award and ‘Motorboat of the Year’ Award, to be presented at the BT British Nautical Awards on 7th January 2000.

The Yachting World ‘Sailboat of the Year’ Award, will be presented for the best sailboat of any size that has been placed on the market by a British builder since the beginning of the year. The Motor Boat & Yachting ‘Motorboat of the Year’ title will be awarded to the best motorboat of any size that has been placed on the market by a British builder since the beginning of the year.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Suzanne Russell, a Director of IPC Country & Leisure Media Ltd with publishing responsibility for the yachting and boating portfolio, said: “We are delighted to have made this commitment to these prestigious Awards and look forward to our involvement in promoting both invention and technology in the motorboat and sailboat categories.”

For the first time the BT British Nautical Awards will make the presentation of the ‘BT YJA Yachtsman of the Year’, ‘MDL Young Sailor of the Year’, Yachting World ‘Sailboat of the Year’ Motor Boat & Yachting ‘Motorboat of the Year’ and the other six Category Awards at a high profile ‘Millennium Boat Show Ball’ at the London Hilton, Park Lane in London on Friday 7th January, to coincide with the opening evening of the 2000 London International Boat Show. In addition, an abridged re-presentation ceremony will be staged the following day by the poolside on the main stage of the London International Boat Show.

The new BT British Nautical Awards are an amalgamation of the previously separate Royal Yachting Association (RYA), British Marine Industries Federation (BMIF) and the Yachting Journalists’ Association (YJA) Awards. Awards and industry officials felt that bringing the various award schemes together into one stable would not only enhance their prestige but also strengthen sponsorship opportunities and avoid any possible confusion with the public.

The key objective of Yachting Awards Limited, the company owned by the above three organisations, is that the new awards will represent all that is ‘praiseworthy, innovative and ground-breaking’ in the British boating scene. Nominations for the Awards are welcomed from the general public, any of the 86,000 members of RYA, its affiliated clubs and recognised teaching establishments, the YJA and its members, any of the 1,400 BMIF member companies and Yachting Awards Limited via the boating media.

The Yachtsman of the Year Award, organised for many years by the YJA and sponsored for the last nine years by British Telecom, will continue to be the top award for the most outstanding achievements in the previous year by a British yachtsman or woman. Until 1998, the RYA and BMIF had presented a set of awards that recognised both personal achievement and excellence of products and services in the British marine industry and some of these will now become part of the new BT British Nautical Awards.