Yeadon Sailing Club coach Neil McInnes has been presented with an award for his dedication by Princess Anne.

The 51-year-old received the prize at the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) Awards ceremony in London following years of service to the club.

His Lifetime Commitment Award is one of the highest RYA accolades given to volunteers.

McInnes – who was among 40 winners on the night – was nominated by the members of Yeadon Sailing Club committee.

A spokesman for the organisation said: “Most of the members, committee members and officers put in many hours for the club.

“However, few can match the sustained effort Neil has shown since joining the club, particularly over the last 18 years.

“His impact on the development of the club and its members has been extremely beneficial.

“His impact on the junior members has been exceptional.”

McInnes joined the club in the early 1980s after moving up to Yorkshire from the south coast to take a civil engineering job at Yorkshire Water.

He said: “I bought my first boat in 1984 and I am now Yeadon’s national 12 fleet captain as well as sailing coach, mainly looking after the training of our junior members.

“The youngsters of the region are the lifeblood of our club and sport and we run lots of informal training courses to persuade them to come and try sailing.

“Once they get the bug, we encourage them to improve and, with the help of other more experienced club members, the youngsters soon become independent and get up to racing standard.

“Of course, we don’t just look after youngsters. Adults can have a go during the summer too.”

Chairman of the RYA Yorkshire and Humberside region Harold Ingleson paid tribute to the work of McInnes.

He said: “We are lucky and always grateful for the dedication shown by people like Neil. You couldn’t buy experience such as his and Neil’s contribution to sailing both at Yeadon and across the region is outstanding.”

RYA chief executive Sarah Treseder added: “The work and voluntary time that all the award winners put into our sport is simply astounding. I am certain that without them, our sport would be immeasurably poorer.”