Mystic, Conn., September 27, 2021 – Mystic Seaport Museum honored world champion sailor Terry Hutchinson with its 2021 America and the Sea Award. The prestigious award recognizes those individuals and organizations whose extraordinary achievements best exemplify the American character in the scholarship, exploration, adventure, aesthetics, competition, and freedom that the sea inspires. The award was presented at a gala fundraiser at the Metropolitan Club in New York City on September 14.
Hutchinson exemplifies the very pinnacle of competitive sailing through the remarkable leadership, integrity, courage, and humility he has demonstrated throughout his career in both victory and defeat. Mystic Seaport Museum President Peter Armstrong remarked, “His example in competitive sailing is an inspiration to younger generations to join the sport and represent themselves and their teams with dignity.”
Hutchinson’s notable accomplishments in sailing began in college at Old Dominion University, where he developed a reputation as an outstanding sailor and teammate, helping lead his team to four national championships. He went on to celebrate wins in the Key West Race Week, Congressional Cup, National Championship, North American Championship, and sixteen World Championships. With five America’s Cup campaigns under his belt and a sixth in the wings, in true Hutchinson spirit, he continues his quest for the Cup.
Past recipients of the America and the Sea Award include Hall of Fame sailor and President of North Technology Group, Thomas A. Whidden; American businesswoman and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt; groundbreaking America’s Cup sailor Dawn Riley, philanthropist and environmentalist David Rockefeller, Jr.; boat designers Rod and Bob Johnstone and their company J/Boats; author and historian Nathaniel Philbrick; maritime industrialist Charles A. Robertson; Hall of Fame sailor and author Gary Jobson; WoodenBoat Publications founder Jon Wilson; former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman; oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle; America’s Cup sailor William Koch; President and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation, Thomas Crowley; historian David McCullough; and legendary yacht designer Olin J. Stephens, II.
ABOUT MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM:
Mystic Seaport Museum is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929 to gather and preserve the rapidly disappearing artifacts of America’s seafaring past, the Museum has grown to become a national center for research and education with the mission to “inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.”
The Mystic Seaport Museum grounds cover 19 acres on the Mystic River in Mystic, CT, and includes a recreated New England coastal village, a working shipyard, formal exhibit halls, and state-of-the-art artifact storage facilities. The Museum is home to more than 500 historic watercraft, including four National Historic Landmark vessels, most notably the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan, America’s oldest commercial ship still in existence. At Mystic Seaport Museum, we strive to create an environment where visitors not only learn from us, but we learn from them. The concept is called Public History and it allows our visitors to experience history in ways they haven’t before.
