Women on the Water Supper – October 3rd, 2026

 48 women sailors from the Dun Laoghaire met in the National Yacht Club to mark the end of the 2026 Sailing Season on Saturday October 3rd, 2026.

 The end of season supper kicked off with drinks in the bar, before the crews headed to the dining room for a celebratory glass of bubbles. The five tables set out included the Dublin Bay 21 Footers, the DBSC Race Management team, The crew of NYC J80 Slightly Steamy joined by the Flying Fifteens, the crew of NYC J80 Jay-Z joined by the crew of NYC Ruffian Riff Raff, and a table with Commodore Rosemary Cadogan, and WoW supper organiser Ann Kirwan (Ruffian Bandit), joined by representatives from SneakyB (SB20), along with crew members from Cruisers 5, Misfits and Shearwater.

 It was an evening of great camaraderie where the women watched photos of their summer sailing DBSC, the National Regatta, the Women at the Helm Regatta, and their time spent on the water during the 2026 sailing season. A quiz is a regular highlight of the WoW suppers, and although Ann promised this one would be very easy, some of the women disagreed! The quiz was won by the combined team of Slightly Steamy and the Flying 15s with Women at the Helm caps and water bottles presented as prizes. The next WoW supper will be held in early February when we can all look forward to the 2027 sailing season.

National Yacht Club Women on the Water Activities in 2025

Pre-season Shore-Based Sessions – February & March

Prior to the start of the 2025 summer season we organised a number of shore-based sessions to prepare for the racing season. Run in February and March, they covered Dublin Bay Sailing Club’s racing programme, the various classes, the courses, tides, wind, sources of weather forecasts, safety, clothing and equipment, and how to prepare on race day. Basic rules were covered and participants were encouraged to study the relevant sections of RRS 2025-2028.  

J80 Training Weekend – March

We organised a weekend of J80 training in March for improvers and novices to prepare for the summer racing season. 16 women participated over 2 days with 1 male and 1 female coach.

The Summer Racing Season – April to end September

We entered an NYC J80, Jay-Z, in the Dublin Bay Sailing Club summer series running from April to September. 8 novices raced on Jay-Z with a qualified female coach. The group raced in the DBSC Tuesday series with one of the novices taking the helm at all times.  DBSC includes a Women on the Water series on Tuesdays requiring a female  helm and a minimum of 50% female crew. In total 10 boats entered this series, with other women racing in SB20s, J80s, Flying Fifteens, and Ruffians. The Women on the Water trophy will be presented at the DBSC prize-giving in November. Jay-Z finished in joint third place in the 10-boat series.  On the days when racing was cancelled the Jay-Z crew did training sessions on the water and/or theory sessions ashore.

As the group gained more experience, the more competitive racing on Thursdays was added which gave the Jay-Z crew a taste being on a start line and racing against a fleet of 15+ Sportsboats.

Dinghy Coaching – July

In July, we organised a dinghy coaching session in club Fireflies with the focus on improving wind awareness, balance, sail trim, crew positioning, and getting a better feel for taking the helm in a small responsive dinghy.

Women on the Water Dinghy Race Day – August

In August we organised a  Women on the Water dinghy race day which was open to NYC members as well as non-members. The NYC club Fireflies, Toppers and Optimists were used and a series of short races took place within the Harbour on a warm sunny day. The smiles from all 23 who took part was evidence of how much they all enjoyed the day. Following racing the competitors and volunteers retired to the  picnic tables under the club flagpole for refreshments and prize-giving. This included a number of fun prizes presented by race officer Ed Totterdell to much laughter and applause. A number of women who had never sailed single-handed took the helm in Toppers and Optimists and were delighted they did so despite initial misgivings. Some quotes from those who took part: “I felt free”, “when I walked the pier I looked at people sailing single handed and thought, that will never be me, and it was today”, “ I felt empowered”, “I thoroughly enjoyed it – when can we do it again?”, “I haven’t sailed for 30 years and have had the best day – I really want to get back in to sailing”. It was definitely a winning formula and one to be repeated next year.

Autumn Dinghy Training – September to December

Although not exclusively for women, the club runs an autumn dinghy training programme running from September through mid-December. The programme is tailored for levels of experience ranging from novices to improvers and seasoned racers, and is open to both members and non-members.

Adult Sailing Courses – May, June & September

Again, not exclusively for women, and catering for members and non-members, the adult sailing courses continued in September. These courses cater for complete beginners as well as those looking to hone their crewing skills. The September course followed Course 1 in May, and Course 2 in June. Female participants numbered 34 out of the 52 who competed in these courses.

Winter Racing – November & December

We plan to enter a club J80 in the DBSC Turkey Shoot with a mix of novice and improver sailors along with a coach. In addition approximately 4 other NYC boats will be entered by their female owners, including Slightly Steamy, the J80 purchased by the 6 women who have progressed along the NYC Women on the Water pathway to become boat owners this year.

Winter Shore-Based and Social Activities – from October

We plan to organise a number of shore-based sessions to cover various topics including rules, protest scenarios, racing tactics, sail trim, and general winter preparation for next season.

In addition we will round off the summer 2025 sailing season with a Women on the Water End of Season supper in October where we hope to have female sailors from the Water Wags, the Dublin Bay 21 Footers, Dinghies, SB20s, J80s, Flying Fifteens, Ruffians, and cruiser classes, and race management volunteers. In keeping with our other events it will all be open to non-members.

NYC Women on the Water Objectives

The statistics highlight the issue that we are striving to address. At Junior and Instructor level there is a fairly equal gender balance. However, of the 96 women on the NYC WhatsApp group, only 15 are regular racing helms, and whereas 33 are boat owners, less than half of this number are the primary owner, similar to the number of regular racing female helms.

The NYC Women on the Water’s goal is to grow women’s sustained participation in sailing. Our initiatives target all women, whether complete beginners, those looking to improve, those returning to sailing after a break, as well as seasoned cruisers and racers. Our adult sail training programme is accessible to non-members as well as members and has proven very successful in bringing people into the sport . For many women it is the first step in the NYC’s Women on the Water Pathway, shown below.

Looking Ahead to 2026

To summarise, the smiles and positive comments every time the women came off the water said it all. They especially enjoyed the breezy races, flying the spinnaker, learning and getting a taste for the competitive racing on Thursdays. They loved sailing dinghies and we’ll definitely organise more of that next year. We were extremely grateful for the grant from Irish Sailing which helped us to achieve a lot more than we initially planned for 2025. We very much look forward building on the 2025 initiatives next year, and especially to hosting the biennial Women at the Helm Regatta in 2026. We’ll be busily making plans for this event over the winter months.