Ireland has built a word class Sailing programme on a shoe-string. While this has allowed moments of glory it doesn’t allow us to achieve our true potential.
The financial difficulties faced by our campaign teams results in competition programmes and coaching necessitating some level of compromise. We also know that currently Irish Performance Sailing is funded at 40% of comparable nations. Even with this material disparity it has been consistently proven we have the talent and the knowledge to ensure our athletes succeeds on an international level.
Imagine what could be achieved as we close this gap…
The scaling up of Irish Performance Sailing to ensure each programme is at a world-class level is a 2 step process that currently there is no budget for:
- Step One is to increase the access our sailors have to expert coaching and sports science support - an increase is currently needed across all of our programmes
- Step Two is focussed on capital expenditure which includes upgrading of equipment and ensuring our sailors have a functioning training base by creating a PERFORMANCE HQ which the Foundation were delighted to be able to fully fund and gift to Irish Sailing in March 2019.