Our editorial team has been awarded the 2016 Ocean Cruising Club Geoff Pack Memorial Trophy, recognizing “the writers who have done the most to foster and encourage ocean cruising in small craft”.

Published 8 years ago, updated 5 years ago

Providing cruising sailors with comprehensive information regarding the necessary formalities, paperwork, and costs for clearing into 197 countries, plus essential marine facilities for over 2200 ports, noonsite.com is relied upon by thousands of sailors worldwide, and our dedicated team is thrilled to be recognized for their contribution to the cruising community.

The website began in 2000 as a culmination of Jimmy Cornell’s books and his work on the global cruising scene, but in the years since the site has grown extensively into the vital ocean-sailors online resource thanks to constant updates from cruisers, extensive research by our editorial team and input from cruising organizations, blogs, and magazines. Rally organizers World Cruising Club support the site financially and maintain it as a free tool for the ocean sailing community; since 2015 noonsite.com has been sponsored by specialist marine logistics provider Peters & May Group.

The noonsite.com research and editorial team – who ensure the accuracy and relevancy of content on the site – is led by myself Sue Richards, working from Galicia in NW Spain. I have been Editor for 8 years and am principally supported by UK-based Site Researcher Val Ellis (who has been with noonsite since it started 17 years ago), and Editorial Assistant Noah Darnell in Arkansas, USA (our newest recruit) – reflecting the true global nature of the site. We all work part-time, balancing our role with family and other work commitments, but are passionate about noonsite and sailing/cruising; in fact, we are all perhaps a little guilty of finding it hard to “close the door” on work for the day. Input from various regional editors around the world keeps the team well balanced and enables us to help cruisers with most queries about over 2000 ports covered by the website.

At its heart, the information on noonsite (covering all things from country clearance requirements to port laundry facilities) is provided and edited by passionate cruising sailors. Undoubtedly noonsite.com’s founders never imagined that 17 years later the site would still be going strong and relied upon by so many in the cruising community. Keeping up with the advances of communications and connections for modern sailors, site updates are now also reported on Twitter (@noonsiteeditor) and by monthly emails to readers who have registered to receive them.

Our team is surprised and grateful for the recognition this award gives the website, however, it should not be overlooked that without the support of the global sailing community feeding back their cruising reports and port and country updates to the noonsite team, the site would have expired a long time ago.

So in our mind, this Trophy has to be shared with the cruising community as a whole, who have unfailingly and wholeheartedly helped the site grow with their words.

Sue Richards

Editor

https://www.noonsite.com/about-us/