The 2020 Irish Sailing Awards are taking place online, but this year with a much more vibrant format . And while we may not be able to get together in person, there’s still much to celebrate.

MC Justin Cullen of Skerries Sailing Club will steer us through the night, with interviews and chats with nominees and winners. We’ll have the usual categories like Senior Instructor of the Year, along with Training Centre of the Year, and Sailor of the Year. We’ll also be giving the Sustainability Award for those making a difference to the environment, the all-important Inclusion Award to someone pushing innovation and access, and the Youth Sailor Award for the fantastic young sailors who represent Ireland on the international stage.

But we’ll also have a new Leadership Award for someone with a long-term vision, and the re-introduced Volunteer of the Year which received dozens of nominations from everyone around the country. It’s important that this year the Awards focus on the good news that came out of 2020. It was a difficult year for so many, but we want to shine a light on the remarkable stories of people who made a difference – people who achieved extraordinary things despite setbacks, created communities in a time of loneliness, made sure that the more vulnerable in our society were looked after, and those who went the extra mile to make sure many of us got out on the water safely. As they say, not all superheroes wear capes.

The awards present the perfect opportunity to show that despite the Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to return to the water in a variety of different ways, and we hope to mark the end of a strange and difficult year with an optimistic eye on the future.

We'll see you on Thursday 11 February !

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On the night

IMPORTANT

You will need to login to watch the livestream ...

• You can login to the Irish Sailing Awards livestream by following this link.
• https://crowdcomms.com/irishsailingawards
• You will be prompted to enter an email address and then create a password. Simply create any password and you will be taken directly to the awards livestream area.

The awards start at 7PM so we advise you to login a few minutes early to make sure you are ready and sitting comfortably in good time!