Last Saturday evening (November 8th), the end-of-season Annual Prize Giving Dinner was held at Royal Ulster YC on Belfast Lough. A full house of guests, skippers and crew attended to celebrate the 2025 sailing season. The Rear Commodore Garth Maxwell welcomed everyone to the function and thanked the Sailing Committee and all the Club volunteers who organised the sailing throughout the year.
Garth also thanked our sponsors PeopleAlign for the Spring Series, Rollins Insurance for the NI Offshore and Inshore races, Healthodontic for the Ladies Regatta and Legacy Wealth Management who supported the Thursday evening Club racing throughout the season.
As well as the regular racing prizes, there are a number of special trophies awarded at the dinner each year. One of the most coveted is the Ailsa Craig Race Trophy, won this year by eXcession, an IMX 38 owned by John Harrington, Johnny Mulholland and Ruan O’Tiarnaigh.
The Robin Fielden Memorial Trophy, presented to young members, was won by Leo West-Hurst. Leo has had a stellar year on the water sailing in Toppers and the RS Feva Class both at home and abroad, the trophy was presented to him by Linda Fielden who gifted the trophy to the Club in memory of het late husband Robin.
Linda Fielden presented the Robin Fielden Trophy to Leo West-Hurst
The John Thompson Memorial Trophy for offshore sailing achievement was jointly awarded to Ewan Finlay and Peter Cameron, both of who have sailed extensively in RORC offshore races including this year’s Fastnet.
The Cariad Trophy was awarded to Paul and Emma Prentice’s Sigma 33 Squawk in recognition of great results this year, including a Class win at Dun Laoghaire Regatta.
The Erika Donaghy-Jaggers Trophy was awarded to Dave and Nick Quinn’s Bonanza in recognition of successes this season in the growing fleet of Impala 28s now in Bangor.
The Sharman Crawford Cup was presented to Sinead Byrne who skippered the Pounder’s Caesium to a win with an all-female crew in the Healthodontic Ladies Regatta.
Sinead Byrne collected the Sharman Crawford Cup on behalf of the All Female Crew of Caesium
The formal racing has concluded for Royal Ulster YC this year but there is still a good deal of activity with regular meetings of the Cruising Section and some plans for winter racing for boats being kept afloat in the marina. The Annual General Meeting is being held on Saturday, 29th November.
