ABERGAVENNY sailor Chris Holt has been awarded with The Royal Yachting Association's Lifetime Commitment Community Award which he will receive at a prestigious function in London later this year.

Holt joined Llangorse Sailing Club some thirty years ago and soon became known for his willingness to help where he could.

He soon became an influential member of the executive committee and has played an important role in the way the club has progressed and what the club has achieved in improving its facilities.

He became Commodore in 1991 having moved up from Rear and Vice Commodore over a period of four years and subsequently became one of the Vice Presidents in 1994 and has been re-elected at every AGM since then.

Since he took retirement in 2004, Holt, who has also been previously awarded a Powys Sports Council Service to Sport Award, has spent much of his time doing innumerable jobs on the club site including painting and decorating, making the Topper storage rack, and in 2004/5 he was very involved in the major re-vamp of the site.

In 2008 he played a crucial role in the off-site fabrication and subsequent positioning of a new jetty to replace the old jetty which had reached its sell-by-date.

More recently he has been involved with the construction of ramps to allow people with disabilities to gain access to the club house and changing rooms.

Besides the enormous amount of physical work and effort Holt has put into the club to improve the infra-structure, as one of the club's sailing instructors, he is very much involved with training, particularly with the club's annual Cadet Week.

Llangorse Sailing Club was a founding member of the Llangorse Lake Users Group and Holt played a vital role on the group in establishing a code of conduct for the use of the lake, encompassing the lake owner, the National Park Authority, The Countryside Council for Wales and the Breconockshire Wild-Life Trust and the lake users.

The group now has a role in monitoring all aspects of the lake and its environment.

When considering all his attributes and the input he has made in enhancing the club, it is impossible to quantify the impact Holt's contributions have made or what he has achieved for the good of the club and its members, but to receive one of sailing's premium awards from the RYA is a true mark of recognition.