Dun Laoghaire Harbour played host to the official launch of the 2025 Irish Sailing League, (ISL) on Thursday (February 20th), a team competition that builds on the success of its inaugural event held in April 2024
Scheduled to take place over the weekend of the 10th & 11th of May, the ISL will again be based at the Royal Irish Yacht Club.
As regular Afloat readers know, with Sam Hunt at the helm, Kinsale Yacht Club emerged as the top sailing club in Ireland after two days of 2024 competition on Dublin Bay.
2025 Irish Sailing League launch - Emily Riordan (Royal St George YC), Tim Bourke (CEO, Irish Sailing), Kate O’Connor (Royal St George YC) & Kenneth Rumball (INSS)
The League aims to attract five-person teams of mixed genders from clubs across the country, and the format will be run in the form of umpired fleet racing consisting of a series of up to 30 races over two days. League racing is unique, where races are aimed to be around 15 minutes long with almost no downtime between. Depending on the number of teams, usually one or two teams are ‘resting’ or changing over while the other teams race in a format similar to team racing. This gives great intensity over short racecourses where every result counts.
The Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School’s one-design fleet of J80s will provide the action for the event. This fleet, which has been a one-design fleet from new, is the only truly matched fleet in Ireland, as evidenced by the closeness of the racing in the league last year. The fleet is tuned and fitted out to the exact same specifications to ensure the closeness of racing.
Kenny Rumball of the Irish Sailing League and the INSS.ie said, “I am delighted to see the strong interest in the league so far with the young team from Schull first to log an entry, and I’m really looking forward to running another successful event. We have gathered an exceptionally strong race management team again this year led by Barry O’Neill, who brings exceptional experience, having run league events in Switzerland before.”
Robotic Marks are key to the success of the event and will be in use again this year. They allow minute course changes within milliseconds and are much faster than a traditional mark-laying crew. Given the success last year with the Effeturo Venturi marks, the new improved version is back for this year.
With a number of clubs already signed up to compete, the event will be limited to 10 teams to ensure a high standard of racing is maintained throughout the weekend and maximise the number of races which would be required to ensure a fair competition.
Irish Sailing Racing Manager Stephen O’Shaughnessy added, “The Irish Sailing League is a fantastic event, and Irish Sailing is delighted to support a regatta where inter-club competition is at such a high standard. We look forward to seeing this event evolving into a much sought after fixture in the Irish Sailing Calendar for club teams from around the country.”
All relevant details regarding the event can be found on the link here
