The 2025 Irish Sailor of the Year shortlist offers a revealing snapshot of where Irish sailing talent, effort and success are currently concentrated.
Details of each sailor are in Afloat's article 'Choosing the Irish Sailor of the Year for 2025', by WM Nixon.
Dublin Bay and Cork Harbour dominate the list, accounting for the majority of monthly award winners across the year.
Dublin holds a narrow numerical edge, driven by strength in Olympic classes, offshore racing and services to sailing.
Cork counters with a high proportion of international titles, including world and European championships in dinghies, keelboats and team racing.
At club level, a small group emerges as consistent performers. Howth Yacht Club leads overall appearances, followed closely by Royal Cork Yacht Club, the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club.
These clubs feature repeatedly across disciplines rather than specialising in one area, suggesting depth of fleets, coaching and year-round activity.
Offshore racing is the most prominent performance category on the list, with Irish sailors achieving major results in transatlantic races, the Fastnet and ISORA events.
Olympic and international dinghy sailing also feature strongly, underlining the effectiveness of Ireland’s high-performance pathways.
Youth and junior sailors make a notable impact, with multiple awards reflecting success at world, European and national level.
The spread of youth winners across east, south and north coasts points to a healthy and competitive development pipeline.
Cruising and services to sailing awards complete the picture, recognising long-term commitment alongside elite performance.
Taken together, the 2025 shortlist shows no single narrative of success, but a broad-based sailing landscape built on strong clubs, regional balance and international ambition.
Public voting for the overall Irish Sailor of the Year opened from February 2nd to February 16th.
Sailor of the Year: Voting 2025
As in previous years, the boating public and maritime community can have their say to help guide judges in deciding who should be crowned Ireland's Sailor of the Year for 2024 by using our online poll The judges welcome the traditional massive level of public interest in helping them make their decision but firmly retain their right to make the ultimate decision for the final choice while taking voting trends into account.
Please note: One vote per person. Your vote DOES NOT necessarily determine the overall winner.
The national award is specially designed to salute the achievements of Ireland's sailing elite. After more than 25 years, the awards have developed into a premier ceremony for water sports.
The overall national award will be presented to the person who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most notable results in, or made the most significant contribution to, Irish sailing during 2025.
By supporting your favourite nominee, you are creating additional awareness of their nomination and highlighting their success.
CLICK THE LINK ON EACH SAILOR'S NAME TO READ THEIR ACHIEVEMENT FROM 2025 AND VOTE FOR YOUR SAILOR in the right-hand column (on desktop machines) and below on tablet and mobile
Voting
Voting online is open to public view from Monday, February 2nd until Monday, February 16th 2026.
The Award will be announced in March this year.
ABOUT THE IRISH SAILOR OF THE YEAR AWARD
Created in 1996, the Afloat Irish Sailor of the Year Awards represent all that is praiseworthy, innovative and groundbreaking in the Irish sailing and boating scene.
Since it began over 28 years ago, the awards have recognised nearly 900 monthly award winners in the pages of Ireland's sailing magazine Afloat, and these have been made to both amateur and professional sailors.
The first-ever sailor of the year was dinghy sailor Mark Lyttle, a race winner at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The judges' decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
