Florida award to Kay Brunsvold

Florida Women’s Sailing Association on the west coast of Florida has promoted women in sailing since 1973, which includes their annual Young Woman Sailor of the Year Award which signifies both accomplishment within the sport of sailing as well as a monetary award that helps the sailor continue their sailing career. This year’s award has been given to Kay Brunsvold of Sarasota, FL.

Kay Brunsvold

Brunsvold started her sailing career at Sarasota Youth Sailing and has been competitively sailing since 2013 in many fleets including the Optimist, Club 420, Nacra 15, and F16. But for her to continue in 2019, she had to recover from a debilitating back surgery that kept her off the water for over a year.

She planned and executed a complete personal training program that enabled her to achieve her goal of representing the United States at the 2021 Youth Sailing World Championships.

Brunsvold graduated from Sarasota High School in 2021 and now attends the University of South Florida with a 4.0 GPA in the Mechanical Engineering program. With her crew Cooper Delbridge, they won the Silver Medal during her first freshman semester at USF and she continues to compete n the varsity women’s sailing team.

As stated on her nomination submission, “She is a remarkable young woman who has overcome challenging physical limitations to flourish as one of the best female sailors in Florida.”

About FWSA:
Founded in 1973 to promote and encourage the growth of women’s sailing groups along the West coast of Florida, the FWSA functions to:

• Encourage the sport of women’s interclub yacht racing.
• Foster and encourage social fellowships pertaining to all things nautical between member clubs and similar associations.
• Improve communication between clubs.
• Forward and advance sailing in all its phases through education and sailing clinics.
• Promote and coordinate interclub, match team racing and other sailing events for and between its members under uniform rules.

Currently there are ten member clubs with more than four hundred women racing once a week in their respective sailing clubs on the Florida West Coast. Membership is open and FWSA welcomes additional sailing clubs: www.fwsa.net