After two very successful years, Ian Purkis retired as Commodore of the Solway Yacht Club at the AGM on 17th November. He “handed the helm” to Lindsay Tosh, himself a longstanding and highly experienced sailor and member of the Club Committee.
Summarizing his time in office, Ian said how he’s been particularly pleased to have worked with the local community in bringing more awareness of our seafaring heritage and the modern sport of sailing to a wider audience, in particular the young children of the new Dalbeattie Learning Campus. “The Everest Skye play-boat, once an Olympic Laser class racing dinghy, is a great introduction and we hope many of those in the playground today will be the sailors of tomorrow”
Lindsay echoed the comments when accepting his election as the incoming Commodore, keen to develop these links further with the Club’s increasing involvement the the local “Active Schools” programme.
As if anyone needed reminding, the Club has been enjoying much success in recent years and expanding its activities in training, racing, sail cruising off shore and power boating. So much so that the Club was nominated for “Club of the Year” in the 2018 Annual Awards run by the sport’s governing body, RYA Scotland. Marc Turner from RYAS was able to congratulate the Committee with the news that the Solway Yacht Club has made the shortlist, the winner to be announced at a special event in January.
More good news followed for Jock Wishart who was originally from Kirkcudbright, and, in his youth, a former Solway Yacht Club Cadet Captain. Over the years he has achieved great success not only in yachting but as an expedition leader with several polar adventures to his name. He had also been nominated and shortlisted for the RYAS 2018 “Performance of the Year” Award. Earlier in the year, he put together and led the winning, all-Scottish team in sailing’s prestigious “Commodores Cup”; he was particularly proud of the fact that the international competition was held in English sailing’s home waters, in and around the Solent. “Jock’s Celtic Team” not only won, they won handsomely with the Netherlands team a distant second.
One partner. No competitors. Visible across local sport.
