Lough Derg Yacht Club in County Tipperary plays host to two hundred and eight sailors from ten countries in this week's five-day, ten-race Optimist National and Open Championships.
Today's opening ceremony took place at Dromineer. Led by pipers from the Thomas McDonagh Pipe Band, sailors, their families and event volunteers marched from the square in Dromineer to the clubhouse under their national banners. They were greeted there by Niamh McCutcheon, event organiser, and David Meredith, Commodore of LDYC. Cllr. Dr. Phill Bugler, Cathaoirleach of Nenagh Municipal District formally opened the Championship.
In her opening remarks, Dr. Bugler recalled that LDYC was founded in 1835 and is one of the oldest yacht clubs in the world. It has a proud record of having produced the Irish Optimist, Laser and Topper champions and the Mirror World Champions. "The contribution of this event to the local community and economy is immense", she added, " this is a major event for our district and we thank LDYC and its volunteers for all the hard work that made it possible".
Aidan Staunton, Chairperson of IODAI, made a special presentation to Optimist sailor Tom Higgins from the Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dublin who was the first ever Irish sailor to win the British Optimist Championships in Scotland last week.
A presentation was also made to Jill Somerville who has given several years service to the Optimist Class, most recently as Chairperson, and whose contribution epitomises the best of volunteerism, without which amateur sailing in Ireland would be unable to function
