To be recognized as Canada’s Sailor of the Year by the sport’s national governing body is a profound honour, according to Salt Spring’s Richard Clarke.
And to receive the nod from Sail Canada twice, 25 years apart?
“I am so fortunate,” said Clarke, who caught up with the Driftwood in the scant few days he spent on-island last week.
“It’s a blast, at 57, to still be relevant and in-demand.”
Clarke was home fresh from an awards ceremony in Toronto where he was named 2025’s Sailor of the Year — an award presented to sailors each year who bring global recognition to Canadian sailing and who are “renowned leaders that have attained high levels of excellence with significant results and accomplishments in world events or activities,” according to Sail Canada.
It absolutely tracks. Clarke represented Canada in five Olympic Games — 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2012 — won four world championship medals and one gold at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg.
He was a crew member in the 2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race, winning the 2019 Rolex Transatlantic Race, the 2019 Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) Rolex Fastnet Race, the 2022 Newport-Bermuda Race, the 2019 and 2023 RORC Caribbean 600. He and his crew recently took first spot in the 2025 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and finished fourth in the 2022 event.
He also contributed to breaking the world 24-hour sailing distance record four times, with the current record standing at 618 nautical miles set aboard Comanche in 2015, as well as holding records for both the Transatlantic and Transpac races.
And he’s hardly done. Just in 2024 he tallied wins in the RORC Transatlantic Race, the Storm Trysail Club (STC) Round Block Island Race, the STC Newport to Bermuda Race — for the third time in a row — the Etchells Christmas Cup Regatta, and the Bayview Mackinac Race, while taking the third position in the RORC Caribbean 600 race.
Reached last week, he was barely unpacked, leaving for Australia just a day or two later.
“I have a world championship that’s going to be in May in San Diego,” said Clarke. “It’s a smaller boat, 25 feet long, there’s three crew members. We’re training for that with an event in Australia, just to prepare and hone our skills — and race craft — as a team.”
Being away from home much of the year has been part of Clarke’s experience of sailing almost from the beginning, he said — making time spent with his wife Andria Scanlan, daughter Zoe and friends on Salt Spring all the more precious.
“You think of it as a North American summer sport, but if I were to have an ‘off season’ it would be around November and October,” he said. “Besides that, it’s just full on — you’ve got the southern hemisphere sailing, the Caribbean sailing, the Florida and southern U.S. winter series. It doesn’t really stop.”
He laughed. “One of the benefits of the job is that they don’t send me to too many cold and unpleasant places!”
The Sailor of the Year award recognizes accomplishment, but also sportsmanship; winners are chosen in part based on the respect of their fellow sailors. Clarke — twice, now — joins a rarefied list of elite competitors in a sport he said can be tough for Canadians to even break into. As popular as sailing is, the Canadian sport centres on local clubs and amateur racing, he said — he estimates there are less than a half dozen Canadians who can call professional sailing their career.
“I joke that I’m still deciding what to be when I grow up,” he said. “But I’m fortunate, my clients are pretty ambitious and with deep pockets; they allow people like me to put together good programs with modern boats and great teams, and that allows me to continue to perform at the top of the game on the world stage.”
When Clarke was first honoured by Sail Canada in 1999, he was coming off his success racing solo in the Finn class while campaigning for his third Olympics; now, racing large boats as part of a team, it’s more about longevity and consistency in the sport, and what he called a “constant gnawing” to be better.
Success, he said, breeds on success. He said he tells young people aspiring to the life of a professional sailor to make the most of opportunities that come their way — because they come pretty infrequently.
“I’m fortunate to have been able to make the most of what came,” said Clarke. “And if you’re successful, you get to stay in the spotlight and at the forefront of the sport.”
He also expressed a lot of gratitude for the patience of his family — “The way my schedule goes, I’m not home many weekends,” he said. Indeed, between near-land and offshore racing — he also earned the 2025 Gerry Roufs trophy — he’s often kept away 150 to 200 days each year.
“There was a long time where I had to pick up the phone, get on email and solicit to try to get on programs,” said Clarke. “Now I’m blessed with trying to say ‘no’ more often, just so I can be at home a bit more.”
His focus for the moment remains a win in San Diego. Clarke said his next call was to a sail-maker, looking for materials and designs to help get any possible edge in the upcoming race.
But before he leaves there are some critical Salt Spring duties, Clarke said, travelling the world and crossing oceans notwithstanding.
“I’ve got a pile of wood to split,” he chuckled.
