Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School Chief Instructor Kenny Rumball is joining the Irish Sailing Instructor Training Panel, and to get the ball rolling, the school has scheduled a series of Pre-Entry Dinghy Assessments this August.

The assessments are in response to a demand from candidates this Summer for additional opportunities, and the school and Kenny Rumball are only too happy to oblige, with assessments taking place on the following dates:

• Friday 18th August (9 am-5 pm)
• Monday 21st August (9 am-5 pm)
• Friday 25th August (9 am-5 pm)

The school’s booking team are available to chat about the requirements for these assessments and assist in any way they can. Full information on these programmes can be found here.

Assisting with Training and Pre-Requisite Qualifications

The Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School are ambitious in seeking to provide assistance to prospective instructor candidates with a variety of courses within the Irish Sailing framework. Operations Manager Glyn Williams discusses the school’s plan “We’re recognised to provide training that aspiring instructors need, from the National Powerboat Certificate to First Aid and Coastal Navigation for Small Boats as well as for advanced and senior instructors including Safety Boat Courses. Over the next six months we’ll be launching a dedicated training portal to assist candidates and parents”.

This enhanced assistance will include scheduling courses more in line with Irish Sailing’s drive to get Pre-Entry Assessments completed in August/September when candidates' sailing skills are at their best. For now, the school have a range of National Powerboat Certificate courses running mid-week before the end of the Summer, as well as a schedule of Coastal Navigation for Small Boats Courses in September and October. To assist currently aspiring advanced instructor and senior instructor candidates the school have added a Safety Boat Certificate Course on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th August.

Dinghy Instructor Courses

The school are also calling for interested candidates for the 5-day Irish Sailing Dinghy Instructor courses to get in touch. Although they’ve not got courses scheduled yet, they plan a programme at Halloween and again during the February Mid-Term break.

The Junior Club - Saturday Sailing at the Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School is back on Saturday, the 4th of February, for children aged 7-17 years.

The programme runs over nine Saturdays up to the Easter break, with participants choosing from either the morning 10 am-1 pm slot or the afternoon 2-5 pm slot.

The team are looking forward to welcoming back sailors who were participating before Christmas, as well as sailors from their Summer courses who want to get back into the sport ahead of this year’s school holidays. They’re also delighted to say that they have a specific programme for new sailors, tailored to those who have not sailed before, or have not sailed in a while, within each age grouping; 7-10 years, 11-14 years and 15-17 years.

Some of the team outline what they’ve got planned for each of their groups.

7-10 Years Age Group – Lead Instructor Cian Fay

Cian reflects on the last term, where the students developed their sailing skills from theory to practical application.

“They started the term off by concentrating and perfecting the basics, quickly moving on to upwind downwind, follow the leader and speed control drills. They also spent time doing shallow triangle courses and triangular courses, as well as manoeuvres such as coming alongside which was a new and exciting experience and to prepare them with skills that will be necessary as they move on to the older age groups.

This coming term, we’ll reinforce the basics, improve ropework and develop the students' understanding of theory. The students are particularly excited to try new manoeuvres and further their sailing abilities in the upcoming term.”

The 7-10 years Sailing Group of the INSS Junior Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour

11-14 Years Age Group – Lead Instructor Dairine McCabe

This term’s focus is to keep participants’ skill levels up while introducing them to new boats like the RS Zest and RS Feva. There’s also plenty planned for this group on the school’s new J80 keelboat fleet.

“The Junior Club last year was overflowing with joy and learning. We were delighted to have such attentive, enthusiastic students with us endeavouring to develop their skills and understanding. We held special events for both Halloween and Christmas last year and we hope to create something just as special for St. Patrick’s Day this year. We’ve planned lots of sailing time and practice of manoeuvres in our fleet of dinghies, and applications of the rope work we teach. On top of this, we tailor each session to the group themselves and what they would like to do, or what they need to get signed off in their logbooks. This creates a personal learning environment for our students that I have found most effective. We can’t wait to get started!”

The 11-14 years Sailing Group of the INSS Junior Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour 

15-17 Years Age Group – Lead Instructor Ben Duffy

“We started off the Autumn Term by getting students comfortable on the water which allowed us to progress quickly to double-handers dinghies such as RS Quests and RS Fevas. Towards the end of the October term, all 15-17 years students were introduced to racing where we held an award ceremony for the winners of the event.

We’ll continue with this progression and continue racing at a high standard. Students will find themselves being introduced to slightly more complicated tactics for race starts and implementing spinnakers to make the racing a bit more realistic!”

The 15-17 years Sailing Group of the INSS Junior Club on a keelboat at Dun Laoghaire Harbour

Junior Club – Senior Instructor Zoe Noonan

“Last year's successful Junior Club saw sailors participating in a wide range of activities, including; dinghy and keelboat sailing, yacht sailing around the bay on one of our 36-foot cruising yachts, Lula Belle, as well as the odd kayaking session in weeks of bad weather.

Zoe also reminds all students to bring their logbooks and keep them up to date, so that the school’s instructors can determine what everyone needs to work on and will be looking out for talented sailors for the school Assistant Instructor Programme in the 15-17 years age group.

Programme Information

The Junior Club term runs from Saturday the 4th of February to Saturday the 1st April (Easter break). Sailors can choose from two times of attendance, 10 am-1 pm or 2-5 pm.

• February: 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th

• March: 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th 

• April: 1st

The fees for this term are €270, including wetsuits and boats.

More Information can be found here

Competition fever has hit the Irish National Sailing and Powerboat School over the last four weeks with so many chances to win big prizes on their Instagram page (@insssailing).

The four-week Christmas giveaway campaign was also a great opportunity for the school to collaborate with other businesses in the sector and in the area, including CH Marine, Pure Magic Kitesurfing, Fad Saoil Saunas and the newly released campaign with McWilliam Bags.

Meet some of the winners so far

Winner of the first week’s competition, Tunde Sipos, was delighted with her early Christmas gifts of a Dinghy Level 1 course with the Irish National Sailing and Powerboat School and 2 Kitesurfing lessons with Pure Magic Kitesurfing.

Week 2 winner, Sarah Hutch, was over the moon to hear that she had won a Keelboat Level 1 course with the Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School and a Group Sauna voucher with Fad Saoil Saunas in Greystones and Salthill – something to look forward to in the New Year!

There’s still time to take part

Week 3 and 4 competitions are still open until the 30th of December. It’s easy to enter – head over to the school’s Instagram page (@insssailing) and don’t miss your chance to win a Level 1 Powerboat Course and a CH Marine voucher worth €169 (Week 3), or a Summer week-long Children’s Sailing Course and 3 personalised McWilliam Bags (Week 4). Best of luck!

Gift Vouchers

There’s still plenty of time to get a unique present – the gift of sailing or powerboating. There’s something for everyone, with shore-based courses for adults, beginner dinghy and keelboat courses and plenty for kids. Gift Vouchers here

Getting involved in Offshore Racing can be tricky if you don't know where to start. There's a fantastic offshore racing programme offered by ISORA, the skippers are very welcoming and everyone aboard had to start at the beginning sometime, so why don’t more sailors join in?

To help, the Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School is teaming up with the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association on Wednesday 6th of April to introduce their yacht course graduates, and other sailors, to ISORA racing, with an opportunity to meet a couple of skippers and ask the burning questions about starting off in offshore racing.

In addition to meeting skippers, there’ll be an introduction to what’s involved in ISORA racing and Kieran Tarbett will speak about his NCB Round the World Racing experiences.

Chief Instructor Kenneth Rumball says “it’s exciting to see the continued interest in offshore racing and this partnership with ISORA creates a route for more people to get involved”. Commenting on the reasoning behind the initiative, Kenneth describes how perceived barriers to getting involved can be broken down “We find that many newer sailors are simply not sure of what steps to take, this initiative lays out a pathway to follow for our graduates, and indeed any sailor interested in offshore racing”.

INSS course graduates and sailors with an interest in joining ISORA crews this year are invited to this event, taking place on Wednesday 6th of April at 8 pm.

Attendance is free, but you’re asked to contact the school on [email protected] to let them know you’re coming along.

The Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School reports buoyant interest in training ahead of offshore ventures, including the Round Ireland Yacht Race. To help these crews get afloat, the school has launched two additional courses with the assistance of the chief instructor, and the Offshore Racing Academy’s Kenneth Rumball. There’s now an extra Sea Survival date in Dun Laoghaire, as well as a programme scheduled for Galway.

Speaking about the level of interest, Rumball says “before the pandemic we would have run one, maybe two courses per year, however, by the time we get to Galway it will have been the third full course of a busy pre-Summer season. It’s really encouraging on a personal level that offshore racing is becoming so popular and bodes extremely well for the future of the sport”.

The extra course in Galway will take place on Friday 1st April and Saturday 2nd April, spearheaded by a local crew, with the extra places opened to allow even more to train in time for offshore events this year.

Back in Dublin, national ambitions continue, albeit closer to home. The school is delighted to return to Malahide with a number of powerboat and sailing programmes later this year. Shore-based and advanced programmes will follow. The school say they’ll be able to announce more details very soon, but there’s excitement from the whole team about expanding services and the opportunity to get afloat.

Back in Dun Laoghaire, the school is delighted to announce that the initiative to help offshore racing experience get started is progressing well. “Dun Laoghaire is very fortunate to have an invigorated offshore racing scene thanks to ISORA, and we’re looking forward to announcing a new partnership with ISORA in the coming days,” says Kenneth Rumball.

Summing up the mode Kenneth Rumball describes it succinctly, “We’re Back!”

If you’re interested in the school’s Sea Survival Programmes there’s more information here

Dun Laoghaire based Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School reports a strong demand to get afloat as the country continues to reopen.

There’s such a demand that a new recruitment campaign is underway with watersport and instructor roles for all levels and qualifications. The team at the school are focusing in particular on Dinghy Instructors for their weekday school programmes, powerboat instructors for fully booked weekend courses right up to the end of November and Cruising Instructors for the 2022 season.

Speaking as the recruitment campaign got underway, Chief Instructor Kenneth Rumball describes the schools’ plans for the remainder of 2021 and into 2022 as “shifting from keeping afloat due to COVID-19 towards a busy and fulfilling set of expanded programmes that support the entire marine community through informative and entertaining beginner and intermediate courses”. The school is determined to make the most of a significant increase in interest in watersports and predicts a busy 2022.

The INSS's First 36.7 Lulabelle

Glyn Williams has moved from a communications and marketing role in the school to run the busy operation and describes one of the main objectives as “creating regular employment opportunities for instructors, that fit their schedule and allow us to work as a team to increase sailing and powerboating participation”. Glyn was recently joined in the school office by Vonnie Airey, who heads up the Sales and Administration team following the retirement of Wicklow Sailor Dave Ballasty. The school wanted to publicly put on record their thanks and appreciation to Dave who spent the last few years overhauling administration and sales procedures, as well as significantly expanding the weekday primary and second level school programmes.

Part of the INSS's RIB fleet departing Dun Laoghaire Harbour

To help fulfil their ambitions, there is a recruitment campaign underway currently for Irish Sailing Dinghy Instructors, Irish Sailing Powerboat Instructors and Cruising Instructors.

All roles have the benefit of a full-time admin and operations support team, “allowing instructors to focus on what they do best – the teaching” according to Kenneth Rumball.

Full details on the roles here

The INSS's sailing waters at Dun Laoghaire Harbour 

Ireland's largest sailing school, the Irish National Sailing School on Dublin Bay, has welcomed this week's announcement of new pontoon facilities near its base at the West Pier of Dun Laoghaire Harbour. 

School Principal Alistair Rumball told Afloat "we have long campaigned on safety grounds for the installation of a pontoon to give the school and other users direct access to the harbour waters at the West Pier and it's great to see this now approved".

The new pontoon, to be installed by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Councill will be located at the public steps close to the DMYC at the West Pier. Photo: Google Earth  

The €40,000 pontoon is one of a number of approved harbour works under a €38m government scheme as Afloat reported here. 

The new pontoon, to be installed by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Councill, will be located at the public steps close to the DMYC at the West Pier.

Local TD Cormac Devlin has also welcomed the new pontoon as part of a number of improvement measures for Dublin Harbours. 

The Irish National Sailing School has produced end of the year summary of its sailing highlights at Dun Laoghaire Harbour in County Dublin, a season like no other due to COVID-19.

"We don't want to forget 2020, the goodwill, support and friendship from staff and customers that can never be diminished", says the centre's Glynn Williams.

Unfortunately, COVID restrictions meant that participation figures fell dramatically in 2020 at the country's biggest sailing school.

The INSS says it has seen around half of the 2019 participation levels of 8,000 students and while that obviously has been a financial challenge, the level of appreciation we have for each of our participants in 2020 is unmeasurable.

The INSS also says it regards itself as 'beyond lucky' because, as an outdoor operator, they’ve been able to safely operate more of our courses and programmes than most would imagine. However, this wouldn’t have been possible without the overwhelming support of all our customers and students, who fully cooperated with every measure, change due to restrictions and direction. Read Williams full report here.

INSS Video

The go-ahead school and club located at the town's West Pier have produced a video again but this year centre Principal Kenny Rumball says the theme of 2020 is on 'giving a huge thank you to the INSS staff, for all the work they have put in, and to the INSS customers for their understanding, cooperation and trust during the COVID-19 pandemic'.

"We're looking forward to getting your afloat in 2021 when its safe to do so" he adds. 

Check out the vid below

2021 Restrictions

Meanwhile, with the extension to Level 5 measures running until the end of January INSS says, unfortunately, it is unable to run quite a number of programmes but is hoping to do in the near future when government guidelines permit it and it is safe to do so.

Ever thought about packing in the Job and heading to sea? Well, that’s just what Dublin Bay sailors Rachel Williamson and Marty O’Leary did last year! Last August, they set sail in Éalú, they first heading south to Spain and on to the Canaries before heading transatlantic to Barbados! After spending some time cruising the Caribbean, with the odd trip for competitive sailing in the Melges 24 class, they had to cut short the experience due to the Coronavirus situation.

Back in Ireland, they’re joining Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School Chief Instructor Kenneth Rumball for a Zoom Q & A on the whole experience, taking in the preparation, what training and experience they had and what it was like. The chat is scheduled for 7 pm on Friday the 15th of May.

There’s a small €10 fee that will be split between Rachel and Marty as well as the school. All those who join the chat will be welcome to submit questions to the pair, making it the perfect opportunity for those thinking of buying a boat and cruising the world once the pandemic concludes!

For anyone thinking of joining in, there’s no need for a camera or microphone, you can simply sit back and enjoy the conversation.

All are welcome to join in and it’s no problem if the whole household wants to join in with each booking, they're most welcome at no extra cost.

More information and booking is available here

In the meantime, for a flavour of the action, you can check out Rachel and Marty’s blog

50% of the fees for the Friday evening course will be donated to the RNLI.

The first in a series of short online courses at the Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School takes place this evening (Thursday) from 7 pm. Chief instructor Kenneth Rumball will be presenting a review of preparing a yacht for cruising or racing.

Next week, Kenneth will run a two-session course, on Tuesday 12th and Thursday 14th May running for two hours each evening covering “Skippering in Tidal Waters”. This course was specifically launched in response to feedback received by the school to their “Attitudes to Yacht Charter in Ireland” survey, where a number of respondents felt that Irish tides would be too much of a challenge compared to relatively easier waters of the Mediterranean.

The popular short course, Dinghy Race Tactics and Strategy, will run in an online format on Tuesday 12th, Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th May for 2 hours each evening. Kenenth will lead the course and audience interaction and questions encouraged. Equally, although a camera or microphone is required to join - you can simply relax, view the slides and listen to the presenter as he explains both rules and strategy, and how it applies to real-life scenarios.

The courses are open to all, and everyone is welcome. Families are encouraged to all join in from one booking and the team at the school are looking forward to seeing everyone, even if only online for now!

Link to courses here