#royalcork – Last night Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) celebrated its stand out achievement of incredible sailing programmes from high performance events to grass roots initiatives when the Mitsubishi Motors Sailing Club of the Year trophy was brought home to the Crosshaven clubhouse. The award – which was announced in March at the Afloat Sailor of the Year awards in Dublin – was presented to members at a clubhouse party where already early season RCYC achievement from 2015, such as Anthony O'Leary's double success on the Solent, was also toasted.
Afloat's WM Nixon in handing over the Ship's wheel trophy, in a competition that is now 36–years–old, commended Royal Cork organisers of the well-established and highly regarded Volvo Cork Week international racing event, on its adaptation of entry costs and time commitment to make the event more accessible. While the Women's World Match Racing event demonstrated excellent organisation and show cased Ireland and Cork harbour as a desirable World class sailing event destination.
Their members also tasted glory at junior and youth levels with Séafra Guilfoyle's silver medal at the ISAF Youth Worlds in Portugal as one of the standout performances of Irish sailors in 2014. At grass roots RCYC started their ISA Women on the Water Ireland with an entire week of taster sessions in different types of boats at different times of the day, to give local ladies a chance to give a try, then followed up with dedicated coaching for adults to work on their sailing skills.
Their commitment to quality and high standards is second to none and they have a special dedication to fulfilling the needs of their members from organising extra coaching for the keen young members to skippers information nights for the cruising sailors.
There were four nominations for Club of Year and it was a close call between them as each has proven to provide incredible support to Irish sailing in 2014, other nominees were Royal Irish Yacht Club, Baltimore Sailing Club and Galway Bay Sailing Club.
More on this in tomorrow's WM Nixon Sailing on Saturday Blog