But that does not mean it has not come without a lot of hard work and dedication behind the scenes to get to this point.
The experienced sailor has won many national titles in trailer yachts throughout the years, but had never branched out to compete in the Finn, a single-handed dinghy, until last weekend.
Just over a year ago, Hawkins, who is part of the Port Chalmers Yacht Club, decided it was time to tackle what he described as his "long-term project" and started working towards the national Finn championships.
"I’ve always wanted to do it. Time’s ticking on so I thought I better do it before I get too old," Hawkins said.
It did not come without hard work. Hawkins spent the past 12 months working alongside his best friend, Andrew Duncan, who also bought a Finn to train for the event, and lost over 30kg to get in the best physical shape of his life for the competition.
That all paid off at the weekend when Hawkins became the first person from Otago to win the national Finn title at Lyttelton.
He won six of the nine races at the regatta and was rapt to return home with the trophy.
"It was meant to be a long-term project and I managed to pull it off just outside of a year," Hawkins said.
"The conditions that my training partner and I were training in was what we got in Lyttelton, so it worked in our favour, really."
His latest national title added to the four Noelex 25, four Ross 780 and three Noelex 22 titles he won throughout the years.
Sailing had been his passion since he was a child — "it’s the only thing I’m good at", he joked — and he was no closer to slowing down.
He looked forward to welcoming sailors from Christchurch to Port Chalmers in about three weeks for the Southern Chiller event, in which he expected about 10 Finns to compete.
He will continue training alongside Duncan, who finished ninth at the national regatta, in preparation for the national event in Auckland next year.
