At the risk of sounding like Martyn Lewis, the former BBC newsreader panned for wanting more ‘good news’ broadcast, there seems to me to be some niggardly decisions being made by the scribes who belong to the committee of the Yachting Journalists’ Association.

Here they are the hacks who earn their bread and butter from observing the sailing of others, deliberately consigning the nominations for a teenage solo circumnavigator to receive their annual gong to the re-cycling bin. 

Surely a 17-year-old sailing alone around the world – part of that voyage in the feared Southern Ocean – is worth acknowledging?  I do not know how many of them have sailed around the world single-handed, but this is a mule-headed decision whichever way up you view it.

In an age where teenagers are dying on the streets of Britain from stab wounds, a sound lad like young Mike should be ‘flagged up’ as a beacon of hope to the dysfunctional, the dispossessed and the damned.

Shame on you YJA.

For the full story see Yachting Monthly’s January issue out soon.