Dalgety Bay Sailing Club Celebration of 2017
by Keith Bedborough 25 Nov 2017 21:55 GMT
11 November 2017
Seal Pup winner Matilda Franklin during the Dalgety Bay SC Celebration of 2017 © Ruby Panter
The DBSC 2017 Annual Celebration took place on Saturday 11th November and was an opportunity to recognise sailing achievements both within and outwith the club, as well as the huge amount of support from both sailing and non-sailing members without which the club could never function.
This year the event took the format of a retrospective review of the year, and used some great images to illustrate the broad spectrum of activities the club participates in – covering everything from top class dinghy racing, offshore keelboat cruising and bike festivals to amazing kids fun regattas and charity fundraising events. The committee made the brave decision for an earlier start this year and in the first time in living memory the event started on time which caught a few out. However the strategy worked and it was marvellous to see so many of our younger members in attendance. Resident Head Compère and Master of Ceremonies Richard Haydock again did a fantastic job getting through the long list of prizes, and keeping us amused with his dry wit and anecdotes.
Of particular note was the presentation from Jacquie Niven of the charity Chernobyl Kids Lifeline which helps children of underprivileged families who were displaced (to Belarus) following the Chernobyl reactor explosion. Probably their once in a lifetime opportunity to travel, they come for 4 weeks, are hosted by local families who then organise a program of activities for them. We took the kids out in dinghies on a lovely July evening and it was a great success, lots of fun for a most worthwhile cause. The raffle that was run on the celebration night raised 170GBP which was equally split between this charity and the RNLI.
There was also a very interesting presentation from the crew of "Sapphire" who again this year went on a summer cruise to Amsterdam, where the wives joined them. The slide show illustrated the many and varied activities on offer for visiting sailors in Amsterdam (although perhaps not everything as there were many kids in the room).
We also had a presentation from Merrick Yates from Fife Sailability, who are based at the nearby Lochore Meadows. Youth member Alistair Higgins is a regular helper with the group, which gets disabled sailors on the water in Challenger dinghies and Merrick was gracious in his recognition of Alistair's significant contributions.
Congratulations were given to the many members who received racing prizes over the year and it was noted that the club dinghy racing is very healthy - although always room for more on the start line. The annual regatta was once again a great success with 95 boats taking part, in particular the 30 odd RS Teras being made most welcome.
Towards the end of the evening the club special awards were presented including:
- The Seal Pup Trophy for Best Junior which was presented to Matilda Franklin. Matilda has displayed a fantastic attitude all year - with attendance at Tuesdays training, youth events, and demonstrating commitment moving into club racing and travellers. She even participated in the long distance 3 bridges races in a Topper in light winds.
- This year's Burnside Memorial Trophy for outstanding contribution was awarded to Peter Taylor in recognition of many years of effort since he was a junior member (many many years ago – Ed!)
- Finally Gina Angus was presented with a club a special award. Gina was instrumental in the setting up of the clubs highly successful Youth Week which had its 25th anniversary this year. She has been involved ever since and is still a key member of the Youth Week team.
Huge thanks to Richard Haydock and the social team for all the effort behind the scenes, organising the catering and prizes and chasing down the not insignificant number of trophies. Once the presentations were over the younger members of the club took over the disco and treated the oldies to some contemporary popular music aka a great excuse for everyone to head to the bar. Everyone agreed the evening had been a huge success and we're all looking forward to an even bigger and better year in 2018.