Greg Bertish to Keynote World Sailing Symposium in Dun Laoghaire

21st October 2025

Afloat.ie Team

Greg Bertish, sailor and founder of The Little Optimist Trust, will deliver a keynote on optimism and resilience at the 2025 World Sailing Development Symposium in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland.

Sailing advocate and philanthropist Greg Bertish has been announced as a keynote speaker for the World Sailing Development Symposium.

The session, titled “My Hero: Optimism, the Ocean, and the Power of Sailing”, will take place on Tuesday, 4 November 2025, from 08:30 to 10:00 at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire, Ireland.

Bertish is the founder of The Little Optimist Trust and The Little Optimist Sailing Academy in South Africa. He is widely recognised for promoting sailing as a tool for empowerment and social good.

After surviving two open-heart surgeries and spending more than 200 days in hospital fighting a rare tropical bacteria, Bertish made headlines in 2016 by sailing an 8-foot children’s dinghy around the Cape of Storms.

The voyage raised over €100,000 for the Red Cross Children’s Hospital and inspired the documentary Optimist.

Organisers say the keynote will “celebrate the spirit of sailing as a force for good,” highlighting resilience, purpose, and community.

Registration for the 2025 World Sailing Annual Conference closes on Thursday, 23 October.

Published in World Sailing, Optimist

Published in World Sailing

Tagged under

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...

World Sailing Information

World Sailing is the world governing body for the sport of sailing, officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

Founded in 1907, World Sailing's vision is for a world in which millions more people fall in love with sailing; inspired by the unique relationship between sport, technology and the forces of nature; we all work to protect the waters of the world.

World Sailing is made up of 144 Member National Authorities, the national governing bodies for sailing around the world and 117 World Sailing Class Associations.