Ireland will host the the 2017 Landsailing European Championships on Bettystown beach in County Meath.
Ireland's bid by the IPKSA to hold the 2017 European Sandyacht Championship for three of the International Landsailing classes was made with the support of Meath County Council and Boyne Valley Tourism. Ireland last hosted the FISLY European Landsailing Championship in 1983 held in Newcastle, County Down.
The event will be held in September 2017 on the expansive beaches of Laytown & Bettystown where over 100 of the best land sailors in Europe will race over a five day period on Irelands East Coast.
The Meath coastline has always been a popular venue for national and visiting land sailors and is no stranger to this type of sailing as the Irish Power Kite and Sandyacht Association (IPKSA) regularly hold events there.
The Standart Class Sandyacht which will compete in Ireland in 2017 is a popular International Monotype in which Irish sailors have participated for a number of years. The Miniyacht Class is just that, mini sand yachts that are agile and fast and this is probably the fastest growing class of sand yacht world wide, these craft are sailed for fun and competitively by land sailors of all ages. In the last IPKSA event three generations of one family competed in miniyacht class.
The third class which will be competing in the 2017 European Championships in Ireland is the Class Promo, these are a class of sand yacht with a 5.5 sqm sail that are extremely popular across Europe and the Americas amongst youth clubs and land sailing schools.
According to promoter Alan Watson, opportunities exist for interested sailors to get involved in sailing and possibly competing in EC17 as the IPKSA wish to assemble teams to participate in all three classes and will provide training for new members who may be interested in the challenge.
Arrangements are also being made with the French Federation for training camps to be held in France where, say organisers, over 200,000 people each year participate in landsailing, places will be available for younger Irish landsailing pilots with an eye on future European titles and to assist fast track high performance land sailing
