In a year in which one of our 'Sailor of the Month' awards went to America’s irrepressible George David for his fabulous overall victory in the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2016 in Rambler 88, we see no reason at all why we shouldn’t extend the same accolade to another overseas sailor who has not only achieved regular success in Irish waters during the past season, but over the years has contributed enormously to the pleasure everyone gets in sailing the Irish Sea.
You don’t get to win the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association Annual Championship without being a steady and regular competitor and a very capable skipper, and Stephen Tudor of Pwllheli has been all of those things for many years, rounding out a busy 2016 season by winning the ISORA Championship in the last race of all with his J/109 Sgrech.
He has done this with a crew drawn from both sides of the Irish Sea. Indeed, it is one of the most attractive features of ISORA that several boats are based on crew panels from the two sides of the channel. The Brotherhood of the Sea is alive and well in ISORA, and when the fleet is racing to or from Pwllheli, they are well aware that in a different shoreside guise, Stephen Tudor has played a key role in transforming the waterfront and marina facilities in that pleasant port on the Snowdon Riviera where he has been a member of the Pwllheli SC since the age of eight, helping to make him a very worthy Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month (Offshore)” for September 2016.
