WEYMOUTH Sailing Club celebrated another successful year on and off the water at their annual prizegiving at Weymouth’s Hotel Rembrandt.

The sell-out black-tie event was attended by the town’s Mayor Graham Winter and the Coxswain of the Weymouth Lifeboat Andrew Sargent and his wife Helen as guests of honour.

Weymouth Sailing Club, whose headquarters sit next to the lifeboat station is the town’s local sailing charity and promotes sailing as a healthy recreation for residents within our area.

With the room appropriately decorated with colourful spinnakers hanging from the rafters, members and guests were welcomed with a glass of bubbly, and entertained by Julie on her piano.

There was a minute’s silence before sitting down to eat for long serving club member and popular local man Mike Saunders who had recently passed.

After a sumptuous meal and the commodore Stephen Dadd’s summing up of the year which included a section on the importance of volunteering and the raison detre of the charity, to get the citizens of our area out on the water in Weymouth’s Olympic waters.

Class captains, Gary Owens, Jim Mitchell and Gavin Pouloin addressed the membership and presented the trophies for their relevant classes.

Trophies were awarded not just for racing, but for cruising, both for distance sailed and ports visited, plus awards to club members who had been recognised for their contribution to the club.

Richard Woof walked off with a haul of silverware from the cruiser class, although Passion, a Grande Surprise boat owned by Tom Reece who has come up through the club’s youth programme along with his crew, had their fair share of success.

The Squib class had a spread of trophies as is right with a one-design class.

The dinghies had their heroes in Phil Norris.

After the prize giving, the club’s photographer Richard Bowers captured the event in the ‘selfie zone’, an area created by organisers Adele Strachen, Jo Woof, Celiah Rushton, Nick Frampton and Sarah Owens.

Depicting a South Sea island sunset and with appropriate props, members were snapped showing off their silverware.

Entertainment was supplied by local musicians who had the party up and dancing until the early hours.

Membership is open to WSC, which is the only sailing club in the area recognised by the RYA as a training centre.

Full members enjoy reduced-price or free RYA courses to help them develop their skills out on the water.

For more information visit wsc.org.uk

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