New Irish Championship for Sailors with Disabilities to Compete in Paralympic and International Classes

‘The Presidents Cup’ in honour of 10-time Paralympian and current President of the IFDS John Twomey

Photo of John Twomey, Ian Costello & Anthony Hegarty at the 2013 IFDS Worlds
credit Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision

Sailability Ireland, in conjunction with the ISA, has launched ‘The Presidents Cup’ - a new championship to encourage sailors with disabilities to compete in the classes sailed at Paralympic and international level.

 ‘The Presidents Cup’ has been named in honour of 10-time Paralympian and current President of the International Disabled Sailing Association, John Twomey from Kinsale Yacht Club. John himself is this week competing at the IDFS World Championships in Canada in the hopes of qualifying for his 11th consecutive Games.

A team of 10 sailors from each of the four Irish provinces will compete in four different classes; the Hansa 303, SKUD 18, Squib and Sonar for this prestigious prize. Kinsale Yacht Club has kindly agreed to host this inaugural event which will be held on 6th and 7th of September. In 2013 the Club hosted the IFDS Disabled World Sailing Championships to incredible success and this event will form part of that legacy.

Six races will be sailed and the team that has the best results in the four classes will be crowned champions. The event is being kindly sponsored by Kingspan, who are a global leader in high performance insulation, building fabric, and solar integrated building envelopes.

Sailability Ireland and the ISA are very excited about this new initiative and are hoping that this will encourage more sailors along the path to international competition.