On 24th February some 85 members and their guests gathered in the Dining Room for the Annual Cruising Dinner and Adjudication of the Cruising Logs covering the 2011 season. Eight logs had been submitted covering a wide rang of cruising exploits.

We were very fortunate to have Frank Smyth as our adjudicator this year and we were delighted that he was accompanied to the Cruising Dinner by his wife Muriel who generously agreed to present the Trophies.

Following a most enjoyable Dinner (our thanks to Brian McMillan, our Head Chef, and all the kitchen and front of house teams) and the various Toasts, the time had arrived when we would find out what Frank had thought of our submissions and who he felt most worthy to receive the trophies.

Frank had spent many hours reading through each log in detail and gave an excellent account of each. He had obviously enjoyed the task and his enthusiasm was infectious as he withdrew many details from each log in a humorous and good natured fashion. Each log was very different and Frank expressed how difficult it had been to make his choice of winners for the various trophies.

His final choices were:

The ‘Longship Trophy’ – Gregg Taylor for his cruise to Brittany on board Blue Squirrel.

The ‘Viscount Bangor Trophy’ – Rosemary Stevenson for her cruise, also to Brittany, on board El Torro.

The ‘Arthur H Crawford Globe’ – Greg Matthews cruising the West Coast of Scotland on board Älgen.

Pat Adair, wife of our Vice Commodore presented Frank with a piece of cut-glass and Muriel with a bouquet of flowers. The formal part of the evening ended with a toast by the Vice Commodore to “Good Cruising in 2012”.