Sailing Heroes to be Celebrated at Irish Sailing Awards This Friday

5th February 2018

The Sailor of the Year Award will be made this Friday

There's a last chance to register for the Afloat.ie and Volvo Irish Sailing Awards, taking place at 6.30pm at the RDS Concert Hall, Dublin, this Friday 9 February that will see the presentation of the Afloat.ie Sailor of the Year Award.

This year at the Volvo Irish Sailing Awards we’re celebrating heroism and rescue on the high seas, the young talent storming their way up the ranks, the training centres and instructors setting the standards in teaching, the plethora of people who compete around Ireland and further afield, and the volunteers who make it all happen.

We’re also flying over Santiago Alegre from Spain and Simon Hoffman from Australia. These two young men saved the life of Johnny Durcan, one of the Irish Sailing High Performance sailors last summer in California, and we’ll be talking to them to hear what happened. We’ll also be talking to Jay Stacy, who saved the life of one of his crew when a rogue wave hit their boat off the coast of Wexford.

As well as recognising these heroes and some other very special guests, we’ll have awards for the best youth sailor (under 18), the best training centre, senior instructor, and end with our Afloat.ie Sailor of the Year.

Please register for your free tickets at [email protected]

Published in ISA

Tagged under

sailor of the year

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

You might also want to read...

Irish Sailing

The Irish Sailing Association, also known as Irish Sailing, is the national governing body for sailing, powerboating and windsurfing in Ireland.

Founded in 1945 as the Irish Dinghy Racing Association, it became the Irish Yachting Association in 1964 and the Irish Sailing Association in 1992.

Irish Sailing is a Member National Authority (MNA) of World Sailing and a member of the Olympic Federation of Ireland.

The Association is governed by a volunteer board, elected by the member clubs. Policy Groups provide the link with members and stakeholders while advising the Board on specialist areas. There is a professional administration and performance staff, based at the headquarters in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.

Core functions include the regulation of sailing education, administering racing and selection of Irish sailors for international competition. It is the body recognised by the Olympic Federation of Ireland for nominating Irish qualified sailors to be considered for selection to represent Ireland at the Olympic Games. Irish sailors have medalled twice at the Olympics – David Wilkins and Jamie Wikinson at the 1980 games, and Annalise Murphy at the 2016 games.

The Association, through its network of clubs and centres, offers curriculum-based training in the various sailing, windsurfing and powerboating disciplines. Irish Sailing qualifications are recognised by Irish and European Authorities. Most prominent of these are the Yachtmaster and the International Certificate of Competency.

It runs the annual All-Ireland Championships (formerly the Helmsman’s Championship) for senior and junior sailors.

The Association has been led by leading lights in the sailing and business communities. These include Douglas Heard, Clayton Love Junior, John Burke and Robert Dix.

Close to 100 sailors have represented Ireland at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Membership of Irish Sailing is either by direct application or through membership of an affiliated organisation. The annual membership fee ranges from €75 for families, down to €20 for Seniors and Juniors.