Simon Allan has won Yachting World magazine’s Musto International Cruising Awards competition for the log and photos of his cruise to Greenland aboard his 30ft gaff yawl Grandgousier.

At a special prizegiving ceremony held at the opening day of the Schroders London Boat Show yesterday at ExCel, Allan was presented with an exclusive Alan Simpson £1,000 watercolour of Grandgousier, £1,500 worth of Musto clothing and a plaque recording the voyage.

Allan, who’s 27-years-old and a professional skipper of a 20m private, luxury yacht currently based in Majorca, sailed the totally restored, 70-year-old gaff yawl with his teammates Kevin Burns and Robin Allan into the iceberg-strewn waters of the world’s largest island. His account of the voyage, which took place last summer, is published today in the February issue of Yachting World.

Allan said: “I was totally surprised to win this award. I didn’t know what sort of entries I’d be up against. I only wrote the log the last three days before the entry to competition closed. I really enjoyed writing it. One thing I didn’t actually write in the log and which was the most scariest points of the trip was when we were on our way back when we got hit by a big wave in the middle of the night in a Force 10. The boat went right over on her side, ripped the missen boom off and took the liferafts away too. We felt really luck we got away with that one.”

The other two finalists, George Whitchurch who cruised his Freeward 30 to Brittany from the East coast with his wife Vivian, and Berckhard Stauch from Germany who, with his wife, circumnavigated the south island of New Zealand in his Moody 456 Penelope, took joint second overall and each received Musto clothing and a plaque.

The February issue of Yachting World is on sale at the Yachting World stand N1687 at the London boat show or click here to take out a subscription.