John Hudson meets sailing stalwart Don Cannon at his second home – Cotswold Water Park

O dd how National Service used to have the power to change a man's life – two fleeting late teenage years that could somehow make an impact on the next 70 or 80.

Don Cannon admits that had it not been for the RAF, it would have been extremely unlikely that he would have learned to sail in Iraq, of all places – or anywhere else, for that matter – back in the mid-Fifties.

Yet he enjoyed it so much that years later – when he sometimes felt he was working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as general manager of the Metal Box Company's plastic plant in Swindon – he started casting his eyes north to Cotswold Water Park for any scrap of spare-time activity he could manage.

One of his company's big clients was Pot Noodle, and at the end of some weeks he thought he'd be the potty one, completely off his noodle, if he didn't get out and on the water.

And from there, to put it briefly, Don turned out to be the organised businessman every leisure association craves – one who will happily devote his professional skills and whatever spare time he has to the good of the club and its members.

Sailing will always be a minority sport. But it is also a fashionable one, thanks to the gold- medal success at last year's Olympics of Ben Ainslie, Paul Goodison, Iain Percy, Andrew Simpson and the women's trio of Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson.

And that surely had a big part to play in Don's recent recognition as BBC West's Unsung Hero of 2008. That, and the fact that most of the Olympic golden boys and girls first learned their skills in the tiny Optimist class dinghy which he, more than anybody else, persuaded the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) to adopt as its youth training craft.

As it happened, none of last year's Olympic stars has any connection with Don's Bowmoor Sailing Club in the Cotswold Water Park near Lechlade. But not long ago, the RYA created Bowmoor, the country's first Volvo Champion Club for its efforts in raising the standard of youth training, so watch out for future Olympians from around these parts.

In fact, teenage brother and sister Iain and Sophie McKeeman of Kempsford, Glou- cestershire, are two big talents in with a realistic chance of racing Laser-class dinghies in the 2012 London Olympics. "They're very exciting prospects," says 75-year-old Don, who lives in busy retirement with his wife Nancy in Little Bedwyn near Marlborough.

Born in Wootton Bassett, he embroiled himself in work and family life until 1970, when the half-forgotten joys of boats lured him up to the little Horcott Sailing Club up at the Water Park. "By about 1974, the 80-acre gravel pit we were sailing on was getting weeded up, and we were able to negotiate a move to a new 120-acre lake at Bowmoor Copse between Fairford and Lechlade," he recalls.

"At the same time, the local Clayton Pipe Sailing Club joined us to form the Bowmoor Club, and in a year the RAF Somerford Keynes had also come across, bringing their cedar-wood club house. I became commodore, and I've been on the committee ever since – as president these days."

Bowmoor quickly became a racing club for all the family, as it still is, but from the start, youth training was a priority, as a result of which Don became national Optimist training manager, leading the team to the world youth championships in Portugal in 1980.

Among national stars from Bowmoor at that time were Andrew Peters, who became a Topper world and European champion, Brian Worrall, a British national champion, and Don and Nancy's younger daughter Perri, four times British ladies' champ. Other national champions have come and gone since then, and now all eyes are on the McKeemans.

"One of Don's skills was being able to spot talent," recalls Brian Worrall, now living and sailing in the United States. "If you were good at something and that skill could benefit the club, Don would know about it.

"His energy for all things Bowmoor and an ability to motivate others helped the rapid rise of what would become a nationally known and respected sailing club in just a few years. He was certainly a major influence on my formative years."

His other great project was to mastermind the club's move to a new lake on the western side of the water park, completed in 2005 but years in the making.

"It's a bit smaller than the last one, but it has the great advantage of clear water, with no islands," says Don. "We had three before, and people sailing boats don't like them. It's a bit like having ski slopes in the middle of a motorway."

Eighteen months ago, the opening of a splendid new clubhouse confirmed the relaunch of Bowmoor Sailing Club.

Today, on a sunny Sunday afternoon or Wednesday evening, there might be up to 80 people out on the water ranging in age from eight to 85.

"We're a family-friendly racing club that's open through the year," says Don, who successfully sailed through heart bypass surgery last year.

There's no doubt that his BBC trophy is to some extent a lifetime achievement award. But is he really an unsung hero? Out in the east Cotswolds, thousands of men, women and children – including the 1,500 Bowmoor has taught to sail over the past 33 years – will tell you that Don Cannon's special qualities have for a long time been anything but unsung.