O’Rourke Wins Irish Sailor Of The Year Award

A class win in the Sydney Hobart race was rewarded back in Ireland on Thursday when Limerick's Ger O’Rourke (IRL) lifted the Cork Dry Gin Irish Sailor of the Year trophy at the boatshow in the RDS, Dublin. A separate international award was made yesterday to Steve Mulkerrins and Tom Joyce for their adventure in a specially built 47 foot Galway hooker the Naomh Bairbre that sailed from Chicago in a transatlantic voyage to Connemara. O’Rourke won his class in a strong wind outing of the January 2006 Sydney Hobart race in an innovative new boat with a canting keel that proved fast straight out of the box. Ger O’RourkeA dozen separate awards were presented at Thursday's who’s who gathering for Irish sailing at the RDS that included remarkable achievements on home and international waters. Awards were made to hose short listed from sailors who had already earned monthly prizes in the national boating magazine Afloat. O’Rourke and his Western Yacht Club team from the Shannon estuary went on to produce further results as 2006 progressed picking up overall wins in August’s Round Britain and Ireland Race and also victory in September’s Cowes to Cascais sprint.