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Hello and welcome aboard this weeks edition of your maritime programme Seascapes ...we’ll be hearing about and from recipients of awards at the Irish Sailing Association 7th Annual Awards Ball held in Dun Laoghaire last weekend ....the ISA Sailing achievement of the Year went to Olympian Annalise Murphy ..the award was accepted by her mother Cathy McAleavey we begin with this young lady who was inspired by the aforementioned annalise ...Claire Lambert is from Dublin but training youngsters at Lough Derg Yacht Club – she won ISA Instructor of the Year...

Claire Lambert ISA Instructor of the Year which was supported by Parasol Sun Care – you can read about all the other nominees and categories on the ISA Website and on the Seascapes webpage .....www.rte.ie/radio1/seascapes

One young man who enjoys wearing a tuxedo is a young sailor from the National Yacht Club who won Gold in the Under 17 European Laser Radial Youth Championships and Silver at last summers 4 Star Pizza ISAF Youth Worlds – he is Finn Lynch ....

Finn Lynch – ISA Youth Sailor of the Year – the category supported by Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company ....next here on Seascapes to ISA Training Centre of the Year – supported by Honda Marine – we spoke to Oliver Harte of the Oysterhaven Centre ......

Next to the ISA Mitsubishi Motors Club of the Year –with the award going to the Royal St George Yacht Club we talked to the Commodore of the RSGYC –Martin Byrne ......

Martin Byrne of the RSGYC –we hear next from Gavin Flood Marketing Manager of Mitsubishi Motors Ireland on their support of sailing and their presence at this years awards ball...

A Seascapes listener has been in touch to say that close friends of the late Vincent Wyles, the young West Kerry man who lost his life in a Fishing accident last month, have set up a trust fund for his loving family, Mr Wyles (24) from Aughasla, near Castlegregory was killed on Valentine’s Day while working on board a Dunmore East based fishing vessel off the Cork coast near Kinsale.

Following his death, a number of friends have come together to set up the Vincent Wyles Memorial Trust on behalf of his dependents and are encouraging friends and those who knew him to lend their support.An account has been set up at Permanent TSB in Tralee for those willing to make a donation, The details are the Vincent Wyles Memorial Trust,the account number is 21462170 and the sort code is 99 07 11............all this information will be on the Seascapes webpage......

On Seascapes a few weeks ago we talked to the President of the Disabled Sailing Federation – well this year his home club of Kinsale hosts the Disabled Sailing World Championships – he is a distinguished paralympian and on Saturday night last was recognised by the ISA with their Presidents Award presented by Niamh McCutcheon and the Tainaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamonn Gilmore

he is John Twomey.....

Finally to the ISA Volunteer of the Year supported by A Stitch in Time..... Seascapes talked to the remarkable Eoghan Lavelle who has over sixty years service with Scouting Ireland and has mentored over six thousand scouts since 1966....

Eoghan Lavelle of Scouting Ireland – an extraordinary man..

Next month we’ll be taking a detailed look at Sea Scouts in Ireland

Anyone who had the pleasure of reading 'Ireland from the Sea' and 'Turning Tides, A Voyage around the Irish Sea' will be saddened to hear news of the recent passing of their author, Andrew Phelan.
Andrew Phelan was a lifelong yachtsman and in the words of Dr. John de Courcy Ireland..... "a true seafarer" . He navigated for most of his sailing life with just chart, compass and pencil allowing GPS to become one of the "few concessions to the electronic age".

Andrew completed many Ocean passages and one particularly interesting one being at sea in the Bay of Biscay during 'The Great Storm of 1987'. Andrew, a native of Clonmel, Co. Tipperary skippered his first sail boat on the River Suir at the age of 10 and continued to sail his 32 foot Sloop 'SARAKINIKO' until last Summer just short of his 90th birthday. Andrew was educated at Clongowes Wood College, National University of Ireland and was then awarded a Post Graduate Scholarship to Cambridge. He wrote and broadcast extensively on sailing and Irish history and first published in 1970 'The Law for Small Boats'. He was a Trustee and member of the Royal Cruising Club but his most coveted pastime was bringing his grandchildren on the local dinghy on the river at the end of his garden in Chiswick before he gave them "their promotion" when "seaworthy" to crew aboard SARAKINIKO a thirty two foot Westerly Fulmar .

Andrew Phelan will be fondly remembered and missed by his many crewing companions over the years but none more so than his wife Joan, an accomplished yachtswoman in her own right. SARAKINIKO will continue to sail in West Scotland and the Western Hebrides with his daughter Patricia and her husband Angus Glenny taking the helm. His funeral service takes place next Tuesday, 12th March at St Joseph's Catholic Church, Bolton Road in Chiswick at Noon.

Next Friday night on Seascapes - we’ll have details of a Lecture on the Napoli next month in the Maritime Museum ; we’ll be talking to marine biologist Mark Jessop about our magnificent Puffins and the distances they travel ; and Gerald Butler author of The Lightkeeper on his days with Irish Lights .........all that and much more- until next Friday night here on Seascapes tight lines and fair sailing.”