The ISORA “Penmaen Plate” is a a trophy dedicated to a past Chairman of ISORA, Anthony Jones, and award to a  member that has most exhibited the “Spirit of ISORA”.

Read the History of the Trophy here in Afloat by WM Nixon

The trophy was originally presented to Pwllheli Sailing Club by N V Smith as an annual award for outstanding seamanshipand. However, the trophy was rededicated to past Chairman of ISORA, Anthony Jones, of Penmaen Pwllheli and in recent years has been awarded by ISORA to persons who have best displayed the spirit of ISORA

Recent winners are as follows (but see the link below for a full list of winners dating back to 1966):

The 'Penmaen Plate' presented by Owena Jones to Kuba for the Spirit of ISORA 2013 

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1966 C D Yapp Nida III
1967 E A Burnham Vreny
1968 R M Seal Allegro
1970 H J Hart NBN* (No Boat Name)
1972 I&A Holton Eastwind
1973 J C Wallwork I’m Alone
1975 A J M Jones Mererid O Lyn
1976 G J Hickton A La Carte
1978 P&G Watson Pathfinder II
1979 R Fitzgerald Ella Trout II
1980 A W H Cowper Stargazer
1981 I J Poole Feanor
1983 G R E Evans She Of Lleyn
1984 JH&HS Morris Grenade
1985 D&N Maguire Demelza
1986 C M Hill Banga Wanga
1987 F F Wilson Impulsif
1989 BJ Cox& J Morris NBN*
1990 BJ Cox&J Morris Greased Lightning
1991 D Hughes Shy of Lleyn
1992 H S Morris Grenade
1993 U Taylor Megalopolis
1994 C Foley Stormbird
1995 A Hall Jack Hammer
1996 D Cummaford Converting Machine
1997 HS & CS Morris Grenade
1998 J T Little Keep on Smiling
1999 D Cummaford Converting Machine
2000 A Hall Jack Hammer
2003 D Cronin White Rooster
2005 Julian & Sue Wells Storm Force
2006 Matt Tucker Crazy Puffin
2007 M Craddock NBN*
2008 Liam Coyne Tyred Dreamin
2009 J Roberts Quite Correct
2010 R Mossop Yahtzee
2011 J Roberts Quite Correct
2012 M Creedon Sarnia
2013 K Szymanski Polished Manx
2014 L Coyne & B Flahive Lula Belle
2015 Simon Byrne Yahtzee
2016 D Matthews Pleione of Dee
2017 C Howard (AJ) Wanderlust
2018 D Hughes Maybird
2019 Brendan Coughlan
2020 Not awarded - Pandemic
2021 Not awarded - Pandemic
2022 Mark Thompson

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Read the full article here in Afloat by WM Nixon

The Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association has a long and varied history extending back to the 1930s writes W M Nixon. For although ISORA, as we know it today, was inaugurated as recently as 1972, it is directly descended from the North West Offshore Association, which in turn emerged from the Mersey & North Wales Joint Offshore Committee. That, in turn, was spun out of club groupings which ran events like Tranmere SC’s annual Midnight Race to the Isle of Man from the Mersey, and cross-channel races – traditionally at Whitsun – from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead or the Isle of Man run by the Irish Cruising Club.

As the new organisations developed from the old, they either inherited existing trophies for long-established events, or else new trophies were donated. Either way, over the years it has been vitally important that the inscriptions on the trophies are kept up-to-date for the annual prize-giving, because it is surprising how often written records can go missing, and so the trophies themselves become integral to knowledge of the history of the Association.

Thus it came about that at the recent ISORA 2018 Prize Giving in the National Yacht Club, Darryl Hughes – owner, skipper and restorer of the immaculate and keenly-sailed 1937 Tyrrell 43ft gaff ketch Maybird – was surprised to be called up to the stage to receive ISORA’s Penmaen Plate. For although Maybird had gallantly participated in several ISORA events – including the historic Midnight Race – she and her enthusiastic crew had not knowingly won anything under even the most benign imaginable corrected time system, and for good measure, their season was to include setting the longest time ever for a finisher in the Round Ireland Race.

But all became clear when ISORA Chairman Peter Ryan announced that the Penmaen Plate goes to the boat which best expresses the “true spirit of ISORA”. And he added that if you asked the officers and committee to define the spirit of ISORA, they couldn’t do it, but they knew it when they saw it, and they saw it very clearly indeed in the Maybird approach.

However, when you’re dealing with a bunch of canny Dubliners and shrewd Welshmen and hard-headed north of England folk, you don’t get owt for nowt, and Darryl Hughes had no sooner got used to the idea of this unexpected but very welcome honour than Stephen Tudor, ISORA’s Pwllheli-based Hon Sec, suggested that as he’d have the trophy for the winter, they’d be much obliged if he could record the names of all the winners over the years, as they seem to have gone missing in ISORA records, and the Penmaen Plate had been used for several purposes since it first became part of the Irish Sea and St George’s Channel sailing in 1966.

It sounds perfectly simple. But to begin with, nowhere on the trophy does it even say that this is the Penmaen Plate. Originally, it was an anonymous silver salver presented by N V Smith in 1965 to Pwllheli Sailing Club for an annual award for outstanding seamanship, and the early listings reflect this. But in due course it became part of the ISORA lineup, and it was particularly associated with one of the great men of Pwllheli and ISORA sailing, Anthony Jones of the Nich 30 Mererid o Lyn.

The word “convivial” is inadequate to describe Squire Jones. He was a one-man 24-hour party, with the pre- and post-race gatherings at his hospitable manor house of Penmaen in the heart of Pwllheli a long-established part of the ISORA way of life. And when Pwllheli finally acquired its marina in 1993, the Squire was particularly well pleased, with the celebrations that night at Penmaen becoming epic regardless of the fact that we’d all to race back to Howth next day in what was also an RORC Race.

Squire Jones’s convivial abode – Penmaen House in Pwllheli was the setting for some of ISORA’s greatest parties.

Such days are now long gone, but they were great days while they lasted. When Anthony Jones died, the salver became the Penmaen Plate in honour of his memory, and in recent years instead of being for a specific race or set of results, it for this intangible yet very real “Spirit of ISORA”.

The names of the winners from the racing times, and the awardees under the new regime, will ring bells a-plenty for old Irish Sea racing hands. If only Cass Smullen were still with us to give us the full lowdown on the stories of all these people and their boats…….

PENMAEN PLATE

1966 C D Yapp Nida III
1967 E A Burnham Vreny
1968 R M Seal Allegro
1970 H J Hart NBN* (No Boat Name)
1972 I&A Holton Eastwind
1973 J C Wallwork I’m Alone
1975 A J M Jones Mererid O Lyn
1976 G J Hickton A La Carte
1978 P&G Watson Pathfinder II
1979 R Fitzgerald Ella Trout II
1980 A W H Cowper Stargazer
1981 I J Poole Feanor
1983 G R E Evans She Of Lleyn
1984 JH&HS Morris Grenade
1985 D&N Maguire Demelza
1986 C M Hill Banga Wanga
1987 F F Wilson Impulsif
1989 BJ Cox& J Morris NBN*
1990 BJ Cox&J Morris Greased Lightning
1991 D Hughes Shy of Lleyn
1992 H S Morris Grenade
1993 U Taylor Megalopolis
1994 C Foley Stormbird
1995 A Hall Jack Hammer
1996 D Cummaford Converting Machine
1997 HS & CS Morris Grenade
1998 J T Little Keep on Smiling
1999 D Cummaford Converting Machine
2000 A Hall Jack Hammer
2003 D Cronin White Rooster
2005 Julian & Sue Wells Storm Force
2006 Matt Tucker Crazy Puffin
2007 M Craddock NBN*
2008 Liam Coyne Tyred Dreamin
2009 J Roberts Quite Correct
2010 R Mossop Yahtzee
2011 J Roberts Quite Correct
2012 M Creedon Sarnia
2013 K Szymanski Polished Manx
2014 L Coyne & B Flahive Lula Belle
2015 Simon Byrne Yahtzee
2016 D Matthews Pleione of Dee
2017 C Howard (AJ) Wanderlust
2018 D Hughes Maybird
2019 Brendan Coughlan
2020 Not awarded - Pandemic
2021 Not awarded - Pandemic
2022 Mark Thompson

From the days when it was still a racing award, we note that the first Irish winner in 1978 was sailmaker Philip Watson, who raced with business partner Kieran Jameson in the J/24 Pathfinder II in the days before the Fastnet storm disaster of 1979 - with its subsequent increase in stability requirements - made J/24s ineligible for offshore races.

Then in 1985 Neville Maguire with the Club Shamrock Demelza won the Penmaen Plate – the year before, he’d been ISORA overall champion, and had also done well in the Round Ireland race, while his son Gordon became the 1984 Irish National Windsurfing Champion. Busy family, the Maguires….

In 2008 when it was still purely for racing in ISORA, the name of Liam Coyne comes up for the first time. But when it appears again in 2014, it’s the Penmaen Plate in its modern guise, and he and Brian Flahive are awarded it for their storming performance in the gale-wracked Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race with the First 36.7 Lula Belle.

Thus you can be awarded the Penmaen Plate for a diversity of achievements. But as Peter Ryan says, you know the spirit of ISORA when you see it, and Maybird is a worthy winner.

The keenly-campaigned 1937–built 43ft Tyrrell of Arklow ketch Maybird is reckoned to have best represented the “Spirit of ISORA” in 2018

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updated 29th December 2022

This is a list of ISORA winners:

the list will be updated as more information is obtained

ISORA Chairmen

1973       Dr. J. C. Richardson.

1977       Mr. G. R. Haggas.

1982       Dr. A. L. Stead.

1985       Mr. C. M. Hill

1987       Mr. B. J. Cox.

1991       Mr. A. J. M. Jones.

1997       Mr. A. Hall.

2002       Mr. M. P. B. Horgan.

2003       Mr. J. W. Rose.

2007       Mr. P. D. Ryan.

ISORA Hon. Secretaries

This list is not complete additional information awaited.

? - 1972   Frank Drabble

1973-75   Mr Bert Whitehead 

1976-82   Mr David. F. Bradley

1983-91   Miss J Scott (Hon. Assistant Secretary since 1973)

1991-97   Gerry Williams

1997/02   Gwen Williams

2002/03   Rownan Kieran

2003/10   Guy Rose

2010/      Stephen Tudor

ISORA Hon. Treasurers

1976/76  Dr A. L. Stead

1976/82  Mr Peter. H. Gray

1983/85   Mr David. F. Bradley

1986/91   Mr N. J. Thistleton

1991/94   Andrew Hall 

1994/97   Peter Ryan

1997/03   Gerry Williams

2003/08   John Rose

2008/10   Peter Ryan

2010/16   Vincent Farrell

2016/22   StephenTudor

2022/         Grainne Ryan

Follow this link for the History of ISORA

• history

The germ of ISORA started after the war when Irish Sea racing was at an extremely low ebb, although there was a tradition of such races such as the Tranmere Sailing Club’s Midnight Race, run since 1907, and the Llandudno Race run by the Royal Mersey Yacht Club as a feeder race for the Menai Straits Regatta.

In order to revive interest in offshore racing, Peter Brett and Mostyn Vicars formed the “Merseyside and North Wales Joint Offshore Co-ordinating Committee” which laid the foundations of our present organisation. The following extract from the minutes defines its activities and make-up:-

” The purpose of the committee is to assist and encourage clubs in the Merseyside and North Wales area in the sponsoring of offshore races in the Irish Sea under the R.O.R.C. rating and time scale. The Committee, which is composed of representatives of the R.O.R.C. and certain local clubs, does not sponsor races itself. Offers from clubs in the district to sponsor such races will be very welcome, and every possible assistance will be given”.

The statement of intent has been the basis os all our subsequent activities. Originally the races were confined to those offered by the Royal Mersey, Tramere, Royal Welsh, Royal Anglessey and Royal Dee Clubs, but by 1960 the objective of widened interest was being achieved and extra races under the burgee of South Caerarvonshire Yacht Club and Holyhead Sailing Club were included. The Merseyside and North Wales Joint Offshore Co-ordinating Committee continued to provide a central administration for all this activity, which by 1963 increasedto no less than twenty-one races. Such a programme was beyond the scope of the secretariat and it was feared that the original object of fostering interest might well be defeated through inadequate organisation.

At the annual meeting held at the Royal Mersey Yacht Club on 14th October, 1963 the Merseyside and North Wales Joint Offshore Co-ordinating Committee was dissolved and a new body to be known as the North West Offshore Association (N.W.O.A.) was formed. A committee under the Chairmanship of Michael Tomlinson was elected and they declared their aim:-

” To organise, with the helpo of elected clubs, five offshore races each year. Four of those races were to be in excess of 70 miles, i.e. definitely offshore, and the fifth to be a R.O.R.C. race in excess of 200 miles.

Still based mainly along the Lancashire and North Wales coastline, N.W.O.A. continued along the lines laid down by the founders, although a sixth race – the Tod Trophy, was included at a later date to allow the ever increasing ‘B’ fleet to have racing while their larger sisters were away taking part in the annual R.O.R.C. event. Over the years it has become obvious that as well as good support for our races from the eastern shores of the Irish Sea, an increasing number of entries were from the Dublin Bay area. In 1971 these Irish entries equalled in number those from all other home ports.

It seems that once again the time had come to see if the N.W.O.A. needed bringing up to date, and so in line with tradition, a meeting was called at the Royal Mersey Yacht Club, to which representatives of almost every club around the shores of the Irish Sea were invited. It was suggested that it was time that the N.W.O.A. should widen its sphere of activity to include this whole area and representatives from the Ribble, Mersey, the Menai Straits, Anglesey, Cardigan Bay and the Isle of Man and the whole of Ireland’s east coast agreed that this was a good idea, and an attempt should be made to produce an integrated racing programme over this area.

It was decided to change the name to the “Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association” as the most suitable indication of the area in which the clubs are situated. It was also decided that it would be possible to extend the racing programme to include boats from the Isle of Man, the North of Ireland and the Ribble without seriously changing the traditional races (which had been enjoyed so much over the past few years), by including races which the clubs in these areas had run in the past and in which boats from each area should be asked to travel to starts away from home twice, take part in a R.O.R.C. race (or its small equivalent) as well as starting twice from their home ports. It was also agreed that in 1972 racing should be offered for a third class – namely class ‘C’ entries to which would be restricted to boats that had not got divided underwater profiles.

At the beginning of the 1972 season, Sandy Taggart from the Clyde approached the English part of the asssociation and asked if we would be willing to include certain Clyde races in our programme and this we agreed to do so. Since the early 70′s a week’s offshore regatta has become popular and developed – The Captains Cup in the South of the Irish Sea and the Comet Wheel Series on the Clyde. From these two events the bienniel ISORA Race Week evolved.

However, after reaching it peak in 1984 with an average of 47 boats in each race, the numbers again steadily declined. By 2007, when the average numbers of starters had declined to unsustainable levels, there were plans to dissolve the Association. In an effort to sustain ISORA and offshore racing in the Irish Sea the National Yacht Club undertook to run the Association for the three year trial period. During this time, while working in conjunction with the Royal Alfred Yacht Club and the Lee Overlay Offshore Series, average numbers started again the increase. By 2010, the average numbers of starters were again at sustainable levels and interest in ISORA and offshore racing was revived.

ISORA continues to grow with average number of boat starting each race at in 2012 at 17 boats with a maximum numbers of starters of 22 in the Night Race in 2012.

ISORA’s highest award for the Offshore Champion is the Wolf’s head Trophy.

The Wolf’s Head Trophy was presented by Mr David Pearson in 1977 when he was Commodore of the Royal Dee Yacht Club initially for a one-off race to commemorate the Queens Silver Jubilee, but for use afterwards as an annual trophy presented to the top-performing yacht in ISORA.

The Royal Thames Yacht Club came up with the idea that UK yacht clubs would organise racing to celebrate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. The race in the Irish Sea was held off Holyhead and it is believed that the race followed a format set down by RTYC. It involved going round a number of buoys over a period of time and logging times, etc. It was open to almost any type of cruiser or racer, with or without a proper IOR handicap. A copy of the rules has not survived but participants recall the race being of a strange format and it was not repeated.

David Pearson’s decided that the Wolf’s Head Trophy, after the initial Jubilee Race, would be used for the top dog in the Irish Sea and it has been presented every year thereafter by the Irish Sea Offshore Association (ISORA). 

Follow this link for a list of Wolf's Head Trophy winners

Winkie Nixon article on ISORA 1984