From its foundation in 1985, there was always something of a ‘pop-up’ nature about Glandore Harbour Yacht Club in West Cork which would see craft and operations arrive and thrive from early summer to disappear again in September.
This began to change with the purchase and opening of a clubhouse in 2013; gone was the shipping container HQ. The sailing was, however, still confined mainly to summer.
In 2018, club members Kevin Percy, Warren Browne and Tim Forde held a meeting which led to the establishment of Autumn and Spring Dinghy Leagues. It was imagined that it might involve a fleet of five or six dinghies each Sunday. Ronan Daly Jermyn (RDJ) sponsored a perpetual trophy and they were off.
What was intended as a league for young sailors, with a welcome for the not so young, has seen Lasers being dusted off, bought and borrowed by parents and club members in the Masters and Grand Masters age categories, with a member in the Great Grand Master age range showing how it’s done at the front of the fleet.
To reflect and welcome this reality, the club split the prizes into an overall result and U18s result. The recent league also saw the club’s first foray into digital race management by local race officers John Williams and Tim Forde with race management being run and scored from a tablet on the water, the data file being emailed ashore for entry on Sailwave and website publication.
The league has become a very social Sunday event in the clubhouse, with catering by a great team of volunteers and even swimming by the hardiest competitors.
The growth in the league has exceeded all expectations, with 30 boats registered for the recent series, again generously sponsored by RDJ.
The Autumn League closed out last Sunday 20 October with Squib sailor Sean Thompson overall winner and Dragon sailor Peter Hayes winning at U18 — and all the talk was, ‘When are we starting again?’
