Yachting Monthly’s Brian Black Memorial Award celebrates the best written and video storytelling about marine environmental issues as explored by boat.

The Award as created in honour of environmental broadcast journalist Brian Black who was passionate about the marine environment and eloquent in his writing and filmmaking about the crises facing fragile Arctic ecosystems.

He was also a lifelong sailor and contributor to YM. His wife Lesley was a sailor and author in her own right, becoming Northern Ireland’s first female yacht club commodore. Both passed away in recent years.

The Black family, with YM, established a journalism award in their name to celebrate sailing adventures which shed fresh light on marine environmental issues. The judges include round-the-world race winner, multiple world champion Mike Golding OBE, six-time circumnavigator Dee Caffari MBE, TV presenter and marine biologist Monty Halls, conservation expert Dr Robert Brown OBE, marine environmental consultant and daughter of Brian and Lesley Black, Sarah Brown, and the YM team. The award is sponsored by Coppercoat and supported by the Green Blue, the RYA, Imray, the Royal Highland Yacht Club, the Irish Cruising Club, and the Ocean Cruising Club.

The Brian Black Memorial Award is sponsored by Coppercoat, makers of the environmentally responsible multi-season antifoul.

For the last 35 years, Coppercoat has offered an award-winning alternative to self-ablating antifouls that are expensive and time-consuming to apply annually, while also leaching uncontrolled amounts of the toxic biocides into the marine environment. Tests by sailing magazines, commercial operators and for offshore installations have repeatedly found Coppercoat to be the best-performing product with a negligible impact on the waters it is in.

The company constantly works to improve its product, packaging and operations to further reduce its footprint, and is delighted to support this initiative to promote healthy seas.

There are two prizes, each of £2,000 for the best video and for the best written article and images.

In 2024, the theme was ‘Treading lightly’. YM will also be making a donation of £1,000 marine conservation funding charity Sea-Changers.