New sailing season begins

LAST Sunday saw the beginning of the 2018 sailing season at Sligo Yacht Club in Rosses Point with Mirror junior fleet training on the water the first time this season. Sunday also marked the beginning of the J24 Spring series which will run on until early May.

The J24 fleet is relatively new to the club and has seen good growth in fleet numbers over the last couple of years and it’s expected that this will continue this season following the successful J24 nationals hosted as SYC last year. Record numbers attended that event and a Sligo boat helmed by JP McCaldin were crowned overall champions with another Sligo boat helmed by Martin Reilly finishing in third place.

This season also sees a number of the national championships for the dinghy sailing fleets taking place in the North West this Summer with the GP National Championships scheduled for the 19/20/21 of August at SYC and the Mirror Nationals taking place at Mullaghmore sailing club in July. As well as these events SYC will also be hosting the O’Dowd Trophy in July for the national Mirror Junior fleet. Local club sailing and racing will take place on the Tuesday and Thursday evenings as well as Sunday afternoons of each week. If you want to get involved or find out more, just come down to the club on any of these nights and we will see if we can get you out for a sail.

For those interested in taking up the sport or just giving it a try, the annual Adult Sailing Course begins on the 27th of this month and continues into May over five evenings. While booking fast there are still a few places remaining so if you wish to book contact Nancy at 0877766477. For those that want to get their children involved the Junior sailing courses talk place from early July to mid August. For details on both courses go to sligoyachtclub.ie.

This season also sees the introduction of a series of Fun Family Sunday’s throughout the Summer where club members will be available to bring people out on the water to give them a taste of what it’s like to cruse around the beautiful Sligo Bay. Information of these events will be made available through the club’s website and through local media outlets.