The sun shone on a crowded Wicklow Sailing Club last night as one of the country’s smallest clubs was celebrated with the presentation of the Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year 2017” award to WSC in recognition of its remarkable achievements during the past year and beyond writes W M Nixon.
These annual (and unique) award ceremonies, and the assessments which precede them, have now been sponsored by Mitsubishi Motors for 31 years. Over the years, the ceremony has developed from being a trophy handover event into a series of thoughtful and entertaining speakers, each of whom provides a considered insight into what makes for a successful sailing club in today’s rapidly-changing world.
We’ll be exploring some of the ideas put forward last night in this weekend’s Sailing on Saturday. But with the considered input from sailors of the calibre of Jack Roy (President of the Irish Sailing Association), Billy Riordan of Mitsubishi Motors (an active sailor and Opty dad), and Denise Cummins, Commodore of Wicklow SC, it was both an entertaining evening, and one with much food for thought.
