A combined HYC cruiser racer classes annual dinner took place on Saturday 26 January in our Clubhouse. Classes 2, 3 and White-Sails were keenly represented among the 127 diners. Class 1 had no takers but that can be understood given that they had virtually no club racing participation in 2018. This will be rectified in 2019, more on this good news later.

Class 2 had tables for the following boats:

Maximus/ Viking / Kodachi Impetuous, Dux/ Fusion, 

No Excuses/ Lambay Rules, Jeneral Lee/ Big Picture

Class 3 had tables for:

Insider/ Turtle/ K Nine/Silver Shamrock

White Sails won on numbers, with biggest tables for:

Sandpiper/ Bite the Bullet/ Arcturus/ Toughnut/ Brazen Hussy/ Baily II/Demelza

Pre-dinner drinks made a convivial atmosphere as many of the crews had not met since the Autumn League if not the last of the summer racing in September. Others have been racing in the Brass Monkey Series up to Christmas. Either way, the buzz was started and it was clearly going to be a celebration of club racing. 

 

As delicious desserts were being served it was already 10pm so the Commodore, Ian Byrne, was invited to speak to members and guests. Ian complimented the class on the decision to hold a combined dinner for the cruiser racers as it obviously makes for a great party and as we saw at Wave regatta, that’s as relevant as the racing. 

HYC has to be a fun place to be whatever you’re doing. We’re blessed with a wonderful location and incredible club facilities that we can all use more. With 460 keelboats, low cost membership and fantastic sailing area, we can focus on events such as the revived Fingal Series and other club and open events to get more keelboats racing in 2019.

On the subject of racing and prizes, he said that the recently adjusted IRC bands for club racing will mean a better spread of prizes across the Class 1 and Class 2 fleets. HPH will be manually adjusted at the beginning of each series to ensure allocation of a fair handicap for all participants.

Ian thanked the classes for his invitation and congratulated the contestants and winners on a great 2018 season and wished all an exciting, successful and busy 2019 season.

 

Class Captain for White-sails, Steffi Ennis (Demelza), took the mic and read out the recipients of the 2017 prizes (as their class dinner had been overlooked last year). This was followed by the 2018 prize giving where each winner was called and invited to collect their prize from the Commodore while photographer Brian Turvey snapped the images.

Enda Mulvihill, Class 3 Captain, was up next. He called on the 2018 winners, series by series, to come up and have themselves photographed receiving their prizes from Ian. He was not in the slightest way embarrassed that his own boat, K-Nine picked up a majority of the fleet silver!

Class 2 Captain, Kevin Darmody (Viking) was next up and started by thanking the boat owners on behalf of the crews and then thanked the crews on behalf of the boat owners, such is their dependency on each other to be able to compete. He listed the club results for 2018 and in reverse order asked each boat to send us as many crew as was required to accept their winnings.

Fergal Noonan, as Cruisers Representative on the Sailing Committee and co-sponsor of the Fingal Series was asked to present prizes. He presented the Commodore’s Cup to Viking and a glass for every entrant. He encouraged a great entry and participation in the series in 2019 as he sees a greater interest in longer coastal day races elsewhere and that it should grow in popularity in Fingal too. He pointed out that it is an ideal event for white-sails racers as it can be more easily contested with fewer crew than round-the-cans competition.

Kevin Darmody wrapped up the speeches by thanking everyone who made the club racing possible as well as those who helped organise the wonderful dinner. He wished good health and fair winds to all present in 2019.

Finally, no cost was spared to get Kevin Burke to be MC for the spot prizes from Classes 2 and 3. You could hear a pin drop when he said that the most beautiful woman in the room would be asked to draw the first ticket. To everyone’s relief, he chose Caroline to do so. In his own inimitable way, KB made every winner feel important when their number was called. After that the music and mixing began and a late night was had by many…

 

Kevin Darmody, Class 2

 

See full gallery here