Sailing Ireland have had to cancel their Annual Conference scheduled for tomorrow (March 21st) due to Covid 19, but by innovative use of new technology they will proceed with their Annual Awards ceremony – the last to be hosted by outgoing Sailing Ireland President, our own Jack Roy.
It will be a wholly on line event, accessible on the Sailing Ireland Facebook Page at 18.30 (https://www.facebook.com/IrishSailingAssociation/)
The National YC has three nominees for the Sailor of the Year and the Club itself is a contender for the 2019 Sustainability Awards and the 2019 Inclusion Award.
The Three contenders for Sailor of the Year are:
David Gorman and Chris Doorly, Afloat Sailor of the Month (Senior, July 2019) 
Very few sailors can ever have experienced anything comparable to the elation of discovering that their racing pride-and-joy has been declared “Boat of the Week” from within the 498-boat fleet at Ireland’s biggest regatta.
But this is what happened to David Gorman and Chris Doorly of the National Yacht Club when their clear overall victory in the large Flying Fifteen class was declared the event’s peak of achievement at the marathon prize-giving at the conclusion of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2019, making them unrivaled for the accolade of Afloat.ie “Sailors of the Month (Senior)” for July.
Tom Shanahan, Afloat Sailor of Month 2019
The Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race is now such a significant event that inevitably it attracts the involvement of professional and semi-professional talent. But so many boats sail determinedly within the Corinithian ideal that in effect they created an extra Division within the race. No boat better typified this than NYC’s Shanahan family with their J/109 Ruth, where they deferred to one of the youngest on board – 19-year-old Tom Shanahan – as skipper. He called the shots very well indeed, with Ruth taking over the lead in the J/109s at the Fastnet, and handling the tricky beat from there to the finish so well that they placed a close fourth overall in the total fleet, and clear Corinthian winners.
Finn Lynch, Afloat Sailor of the Month, April 2019 
Dedicated Olympic solo sailor Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) is “Sailor of the Month” for April on the strength of his closely-focused campaign towards qualifying for the 2020 Olympics. In three major international regattas during the first part of the year, he always concluded with an overall placing within the top ten, and in the most recent event at Genoa he was an overall leader at one stage, and a slight turn of fortune would have seen him in the medals. His solid Laser performance has moved him up to 15th in the world rankings.
We also have high hopes for success in two other important categories.
The Sustainability Award
This is led in the NYC by Grainne Ryan who has done great work to support our Clean Seas campaign to reduce use of plastics and minimize energy use.
The Inclusion Award
This is led by Ruth Shanahan in the NYC and we are especially proud to co-host the President’s Cup last August. This was supported generously by local firm Softcat, a partner of HP Enterprises.
