Ringhaddy sailors raise £1k for cancer charity

Ringhaddy sailors raise £1k for cancer charity

12 December 2018

BIG-HEARTED local sailors have boosted the coffers of a leading cancer charity.

Members of Ringhaddy Cruising Club raised £1,000 for Marie Curie during a raffle at their final barbecue of the season.

Over the past two years the club have lost many members due to cancer, two of the latest being David Murray and Geoff Murdoch who both lost their battles against the disease earlier this year.

David and Geoff were extremely competent, keen and enthusiastic sailors, who were known and highly respected in Strangford Lough and in the wider Northern Ireland sailing fraternity.  

David and Geoff sailed along with their wives, Pauline and Jane, and both owned Westerly yachts. David and Geoff sailed extensively around the north and south of the Irish Sea.

They sailed and navigated enough nautical miles to have circumnavigated the globe — and possibly back. David sailed every area of Scotland and as far north as the Faroe Islands and the Azores.

Geoff and Jane lived permanently aboard their yacht from 2009 to 2012 and cruised the Algarve, around the Mediterranean and the Canaries. They sailed back from Lanzarote to Strangford in 2013, covering 1,250 nautical miles on that crossing alone.    

David and Geoff were also lifelong friends who passionately exchanged nautical and sailing advice to one another and to any other member or acquaintance. They were always keen to give expert help and encouragement to all.

Jane said: “From day one of Geoff and I applying to join Ringhaddy Cruising Club we were made to feel very welcome and at ease. Everyone — especially the then commodore, Gibson Miskelly, and all the committee members — made it feel more like a family than a sailing club.       

“In the four years we have been at RCC Geoff was so well respected and thought of that he was approached by the current commodore, Simon Bamford, after a short time to join the committee. After being vice-commodore Geoff would have been made full commodore in May 2019, had he survived his illness.”

Jane added: “Pauline and I have supported one another and are still members of Ringhaddy Cruising Club. We want to personally thank each and every one of the members who supported us and the Marie Curie charity.

“We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and in our husbands’ memories will proudly sail on.”