The finals of Star Sailors League which held for 5 days in which 25 elite teams participated finally concluded with the Brazilian crew emerged as victorious. They became the winner of this tournament for the 2nd time in the history of this league. But this time they were not the choice of the bookies.

Legend of Olympic Robert Scheidt and Henry Boening were the first choices of the books and everyone expected them to be the winner. The last four days of rounds of qualifier was dominated by both of them which was held on Bay of Montagu. But on the final day, Pedro Trouche and Jorge Zarif managed to turn the tides and won each and every stage of knock-out rounds to win the title and take it away from the Olympic legends.

Zarif and Trouche are 26 and 27 years old, the former, who is the reigning Champion of Star World and winner of Finn gold cup, 2013 and Trouche, became the first crew less than 40 years of age, to win the annual and final event that is supposed to determine the apex “star” of sailing’s world.

Zarif admitted that “they were surprised by the kind of dominance they had over others because the competition was very tough. We gave our best today and tried to give our 100%, pumping and hiking throughout the competition without any rest definitely made enough difference. We are privileged to be at this position and it is a privilege to beat those world champions.”The event today started under an overcast condition for the top ten spots. They were compelled to move the course inside the bay because of the brisk easterly gusting at many times to around 20 knots.

Boating and sailing clubs in and around Northern Ireland have an opportunity to be rewarded for their dedication and hard work. This is because the RYA Northern Ireland has opened its nominations to present the Club of the Year Award. The annual awards event in association with Sunsail would be organized for the first time and the team is quite excited for the same.

There is no doubt that volunteers have a significant role to play to make the sailing event successful and also to ensure that the overall activities of the club run smoothly and efficiently.

RYA Northern Ireland has affiliated clubs as well as organizations and to sustain boating, the organization recognizes and promotes the best efforts and hard work undertaken by the club. The Club of the Year is one of the significant titles and the nominations for the same are now open and the award ceremony will take place next year in 15^th of February.

It will be for the first time that the winner of this year will directly qualify as the representative for the RYA national final. There will be 12 finalist clubs that would have public votes and the winner of the whole would be chosen by the member of the RYA. The announcement of the UK National winner will be made at the RYA Dinghy Show held in 2019. However, the nominations for the same should be received by 24^th of September.

As far as the winner of RYA Northern Ireland Club of the Year of 2017 is concerned, it was Carrickfergus. As per Trevor McCaig, the Past Commodore, it has been a wonderful experience.  He said it’s a good feeling when the volunteers are recognized for the hard work. It helps to encourage them so as to ensure that they put in continuous efforts to make the sailing club grow successfully.