#allirelandsailing – 16 national sailing class champions have been invited to compete at the Howth Yacht Club hosted All Ireland Sailing Championships on the 6th and 7th of September. The championship, which began in 1947, will be sailed in the ISA's fleet of J80 keelboats where some of the nation's top sailors will battle it out for the coveted Helmsman's Trophy.  Scroll down for invitee list.

From its invite list published yesterday the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has opted not to invite some of the strongest Irish dinghy and one design keelboat classes. For example there is no Flying fifteen invite despite a proud showing of 29–boats for its championships on Strangford Lough last weekend. Neither is there an invitation (invitation list below) for the Laser, Fireball, Dragon, National 18 or Puppeteer classes. Nor are there invitations extended to the Olympic squad such as Annalise Murphy, winner of the women's Moth World Championships. 

Mirror, Topper and 420 class invitees are also missing from the list but these may yet appear on the Junior Helmsmans invitee list as these classes are mainly sailed by youth sailors in Ireland.

Among the invited competitors is recent Commodore's Cup winner and 1720 national champion Anthony O'Leary. O'Leary has competed at the All Irelands numerous times and although sons Peter and Nicholas have won the championship a combined five times, Anthony himself has yet to bring the title back to Cork. There are three Cruiser Racer invitees for ICRA division winners.

Defending All Ireland Sailing Champion Ben Duncan will face some stiff competition next week as he fights to retain his title. Earning a nomination from the GP14 class is Olympic veteran Ger Owens who competed at the Games in Athens, Beijing and most recently in London. Owens is no stranger to the ISA championship having won it in 2000. He will also line up against the 2007 victor Stefan Hyde.

The 16 boats will compete in two fleets of eight on Saturday, each scheduled for three races.

From there the top three boats from each fleet will progress to Sunday's final four-race series with two additional places remaining for the top two boats from a two-race repechage on Sunday morning.

2014 invites