#mirror – Lough Derg Yacht Club in Dromineer, North Tipperary, will host the Mirror World Sailing Championship, the first world sailing championship to be held on the inland waters of Ireland. As well as identifying the Club's facilities and central location, this honour significantly recognises the achievement of the Club in hosting sailing competitions of this calibre in the past; the Club staged the European Mirror Sailing Championship in 2004.
Simon Coveney, Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, will officially open the Championship on Sunday evening July 28. As a former Mirror Dinghy Champion, Minister Coveney maintains a keen interest in the sport. The Mirror World Sailing Championships in association with IPB Insurance and Waterways Ireland, will be one of the leading sporting Gathering events for the Tipperary Region.
The championships are held every two years, in 2011 they were held in Australia, and in 2015 they will be held in South Africa. It is anticipated that eighty boats will compete with sailors travelling from the UK, Australia, the Philippines, South Africa, Canada, Denmark, and all parts of Ireland.
Lough Derg Yacht Club has a long association with the Mirror Class; Club members Peter Bayly and his cousin William Atkinson won the Mirror World Championships held at Howth in 2001. Ireland has won the Mirror Worlds in South Africa in 1999, in Tasmania in 2003, and in 2011 Ross Kearney and his crew Max Odell from the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club, won the World Championship in Australia, having achieved the European title the same year.
In 2011 LDYC sailors Alfie Wisdom and his crew Sam Warren won the Mirror Nationals, and with his Australian crew Harry Sutcliffe-Woelders, Alfie finished 24th in the World Championship in Australia earlier that year.
Our current Olympian sailor, Annalise Murphy, competed in the Waterways Ireland Mirror European Championships when they were held here on Lough Derg in 2004, Ms. Murphy's father, Con Murphy, is the Principal Race Officer for this championship. Lough Derg, a fresh water, non-tidal lake, will provide competitive and challenging racing, on courses set by Mr. Murphy and his Racing Committee.
Ian Roberts, and his team on the event committee, have been working hard for the past eighteen months organizing a championship that is hoped competitors and their families will find memorable, both on and off the water.
The packed social calendar begins at the launch of the Championship, Sunday July 28, where visitors will hear pipe Major Joe Barry of the Thomas McDonagh Pipe Band, (the band celebrates its Golden Jubilee this year). Dedicated volunteers are even selecting and picking the best elderflower from the hedgerows to make elderflower cordial for the opening ceremony, wine will also be available.
In addition to its reputation for providing racing in a beautiful setting, Lough Derg Yacht Club is renown for the care and hospitality it extends to its visitors: brewed coffee and home baked scones will be served in the clubhouse each morning and there will be bring your own BBQs in the evenings. An Irish Dancing night, a Céilí Mór, has been organized, where we hope to teach our visitors a few steps. The social calendar will conclude with our Nations Night where all the visiting teams will take a turn to perform for the host nation.
Our guests will also have the opportunity to experience A taste of Tipperary, where local produce, from hog roast to the best of Tipperary Beef, and other such gastronomic delights, will be showcased.
The classic boat, the Shannon One Design, an 18ft clinker built wooden vessel, is the emblematic dinghy sailed at Lough Derg since 1922, and we will provide our visitors an opportunity to race in these dinghies whilst they are here.
The Ku-ee-tu Water Bus, (an original liferaft to the QE11), helmed by Teddy Knight, a former commodore of Lough Derg Yacht Club, will be available each day to bring spectators out to the race area and if the wind fails us, will have a rounders pitch in the field.
So that visitors are fully aware of the attractions to sight see in the region, we will have a tourist office on site throughout the Championship. Birr Castle is offering a two for one concession on visits to their world famous gardens and new Tree house.
As well as seeing the historic sites in the region, we will be encouraging our visitors to visit Nenagh, an active market town that offers great shopping, located only eight kilometres from Dromineer.
