Canada SailGP Team founder Fred Pye has been selected as winner of this year’s Sail Canada President’s Award.
The Sail Canada President’s Award is a discretionary award, established in 2011, that recognizes individuals or groups who have made outstanding contributions to the sport of sailing and who have brought recognition to Canadian sailing and Sail Canada.
In 2022, Fred Pye founded the Canada SailGP Team - Canada’s first fully professional foiling sailing team. Canada SailGP Team is one of the few independent teams in the ultra-competitive SailGP international sailing league, having joined at the start of season 3 in May 2022.
Mr. Pye is the first winner of this award since 2017, and the eighth recipient since the creation of the award in 2011. He received his award at Canada’s Celebration of Sailing event held Wednesday, October 19 at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
“It’s an incredible honour to receive the Sail Canada President’s Award,” said Fred Pye. “I am so proud of what we, as a team, have accomplished since we announced the team almost a year ago to the day. The Canada SailGP Team has already proven to be a strong competitor on the race course, in the SailGP Impact League and here in Canada, where we are inspiring thousands of youth through the We CAN Foil program. And this is just the beginning!”
"Sail Canada is about supporting all kinds of sailing activities in Canada, and one of the most exciting developments over the past year has been the emergence of the Canada SailGP Team under the leadership of Fred Pye and Driver Phil Robertson and his crew of Canadian sailors," said Sail Canada’s Chair of the Board of Directors, Hugh McGugan.
"Fred's vision to successfully bring high performance foiling to Canada through SailGP and other innovative programs has irrevocably changed the sailing landscape in Canada, in a way that will inspire Canadian sailors, young and old, for many years to come! Congratulations to Fred for making such a huge leap forward in supporting this exciting new kind of sailing in Canada!"
