Sailor of the year Anthony O'Leary will defend his Irish Sailing Association (ISA) All Ireland Sailing title against 15 other invitees at the National Yacht Club later this month in the ISA's own J80 keelboat fleet.

In a boost for north Dublin sailing, five of the 16 invitees hail from Howth Yacht Club and there are four are drawn from the ranks of the ICRA cruiser–racing divisions but there is no ICRA Zero invitee on the list. The RS400s are sending Alex Barry of Monkstown, the Flying fifteens are fielding David Gorman who will race from his home club. From the clinker classes the Shannon One Designs will be represented by Frank Browne of Lough Ree, the Mermaids by Patrick Dillon of Rush Sailing Club and the IDRA 14s by Alan Henry of Sutton DC. Michael O'Connor will race for the SB20s. (See invitee list below)

David Gorman (left) and Chris Doorly will represent the Flying Fifteens

The ISA published its invitation list last Friday and says its selection process for the event is 'in full swing'. So far though there appears to be no representation from a number of one design classes including: J24, Dragon, 1720, J109, Sigma 33, Puppeteer or Fireball dinghy classes or any of the Olympic team. The ISA notes it 'did not receive valid nominations from any of the other Class Associations'. Class Associations, it says, were 'asked to provide their nominations for their best sailor', and the previous year's champion is asked to return to defend the title. 

Michael O'Connor (left) represents the SB20s at the All Ireland Sailing Championships on October 3 at the National YC

As Afloat previously reported the ISA All Ireland's take place from 3-4 October. The closing dates for nominations was September 21st 2015. 

No wild card entries have been published so far. 

The ISA has issued an explanation on the selection process for this year's event as follows:
The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) received nominations from sailing classes across the Nation. Last year's champion Anthony O'Leary received an automatic place, and the remaining places were selected from the 22 classes that submitted a valid nomination. The three largest dinghy classes and the three largest keelboat classes receive six places, and the next six largest classes on the list receive the next six places. The steering group decided to continue down the list of classes in order of fleet size at their respective National Championships. All classes invited accepted, with the exception of the laser radial nominee who was not available, so the next on the list was ICRA 3 who accepted, and completed the lineup.