Clubs: Royal Cork Yacht Club; Baltimore Sailing Club.

David was previously on the board of Irish Sailing from 2012-2017.

Sailing Experience: David began sailing in his early twenties and spent over 20 years racing on cruisers, mostly with Ted Crosbie. On occasions he raced Lasers to a modest and unsuccessful standard (his own words!), and crewed on National 18 dinghies, when they were stuck! 

He served on various committees of Royal Cork Yacht Club over many years as Admiral, Vice Admiral, Rear Admiral, Junior Organiser and Honorary Treasurer and Secretary. In addition, he spent a number of years on the committee of Baltimore Sailing Club.

A Certified National Race Officer, his involvement with Race Management dates from the early 1990’s, and is now his main practical activity within the sport. His experience ranges from numerous Cork Week regattas, Cruiser Leagues; events for 1720s, Impalas, and SB3s; to championships for Mirrors, Lasers, Laser 11, Optimists, Fireballs, National 18s, Heir Island Sloops, 420s, Fevas, and Multi-hulls; to the Irish Sailing Junior and Senior All Ireland Championships; to Inter-Club and Intervarsity Team Racing. In addition to many events in his own two clubs, he has officiated in Kinsale, Dun Laoghaire, Glandore, Crookhaven, and Mayo.

David presently owns a Merry Fisher 605 which gives great flexibility in Cork Harbour and when in Baltimore provides easy access to the islands and beaches around West Cork

Work Experience: With a financial background, David’s career included manufacturing, accounts consultancy, and general management. He retired from his role as CEO of a large healthcare charity in Cork in October 2018.

Clubs: Baltimore Sailing Club
Sailing Experience: Fiona started sailing as an adult in the Glen class in Dun Laoghaire and crewing on cruisers. Her three children all sailed Optimists, Lasers and 420s and two have progressed to instructor level with one on the way. Fiona’s sailing highlight was helming Ericsson 3 with Torben Grael out of Galway Bay in the Volvo Ocean Race in May 2009.
Work Experience: Fiona is CEO of Spinal Injuries Ireland, the only support agency in Ireland for people who have suffered a life changing injury. Prior to this she ran her own communications company for 20 years specialising in travel, sailing and luxury. Clients included; Sunsail, Sunway, Christina O, TP52 Patches (Siemens) which won the TP52 Rolex Global Championship 2006, Green Dragon, VOR 2008-09, Galway Volvo Ocean Race 2009, Cork in the Clipper Round the World Race 2010, Tall Ships Dublin 2012, Laser World Championships Dun Laoghaire 2013, IFDS World Championships, Kinsale 2013, and Irish Sailing Providence Team IRL (2012-2014).

Club : Sligo Yacht Club
Sailing Experience: Growing up in Sligo, sailing featured in Nikki’s life from an early age. She started sailing at about 11 yrs in Mirrors. She starting crewing first, served her apprenticeship and moved into helming! She then moved onto GP 14s as a crew before leaving Sligo to head to college and travels further afield.
For a short period of time in Dublin she crewed on a Mermaid but sailing then took a back seat as family commitments took over. She has now returned to Sligo after 30 yrs away and her children are now involved in the sport. She has recently taken over as Centre Principal in the club and is an active member of the committee.

Club: Galway Bay Sailing Club
Sailing Experience: Vera started sailing at the age of 10 in a mirror and then a laser on Lough Derg and spent many years cruising with her parents in Ireland, France and Scotland. She participated in the Sydney to Hobart Race in 1988, on-board Asgard II and in 2004 she fulfilled a lifelong ambition to skipper a yacht across the North Atlantic. In 2019/20 Vera fulfilled another ambition a 14-month Atlantic circuit sailing adventure with her family. She is an active member of Galway bay Sailing Club and previously held the position of RC Training as part of the GBSC committee.  Vera is involved in all aspects of cruising through both the Irish Cruising Club and the Ocean Cruising Club
Professional/Business Experience: Vera studied a BSc in Marine Science and Hydrography at Liverpool John Moores University and followed a career in deep water 3D seismic exploration 1993 to 2006. In 2006 she began work at the Marine Institute of Ireland in Galway and concurrently was awarded an MSc in Coastal Zone management.  She is currently working as a marine scientist on INFOMAR, Ireland’s seabed mapping program.

Club: Kinsale Yacht Club
Professional/Business Experience: Has worked as self-employed accountant FCPA since 1978.
Sailing Experience: John Twomey is an Irish Paralympic athlete and sailor. He has represented Ireland at 11 consecutive Paralympic games winning medals at three of them. Starting off as a track and field athlete, he moved from athletics to sailing in 1996.
He has been the helmsman in the Mixed Three Person Sonar, a 23-foot two sail keelboat in the 2000 Sydney Games, 2004 Athens Games, 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio Games and the Mixed Two Person SKUD18 in 2008 Beijing Games.
At the 2015 ISAF World Championships in Weymouth, he teamed with Ian Costelloe and Austin O’Carroll to win the bronze medal in the Sonar Class. They finished sixth in the Miami event.
Twomey was elected President of the International Association for Disabled Sailing in 2012.

Club: Baltimore Sailing Club

Sailing Experience: Niall began sailing in his early 20s and over the past 30 years has owned and raced boats in the 1720, J24 and Cruiser Classes in Dublin Bay, Baltimore, Wicklow, and Lough Derg. He has also cruised in both Irish and Mediterranean waters. He currently has a 1720 (his third) which after an absence of several years he hopes to have back racing in 2021. Niall was Commodore of Baltimore Sailing Club in 2018 and 2019 and served as Vice Commodore, Sailing Secretary and General Committee of the club over several years. He is a past member of the Royal Irish Yacht Club, National Yacht Club and Wicklow Sailing Club.

Professional/Business Experience: Niall recently retired after a 35-year business career spent predominantly in Human Resource Management (HRM) across a variety of organisation types and sectors. He is currently involved in several private business ventures and divides his time between West Cork and Dublin.

Club: Howth Yacht Club

Sailing Experience:  Richard started his sailing life in Mirror dinghies on Datchet reservoir.  He has successfully campaigned cruiser racing boats in several classes.   He began this journey in an Albin Express Relativity in Class 3, moved on to win several National Championships in his co-owned Corby 25’s Kinetic and Fusion in class 2,  and can be now be found campaigning his co-owned J109 OutraJeous in Class 1.

Professional/Business Experience:  Richard is CEO of polling and market research company RED C.  He founded RED C Research in 2003, and the company has grown to become the largest full service, market research and polling agency in Ireland.  He is also Vice President of WIN International Research group, a former Chairman of AIMRO the body that represents the market research industry in Ireland and also represents Ireland at ESOMAR, the European association for the market research industry.  He is a frequent media contributor and commentator on consumer trends and politics in Ireland and worldwide.

Area of Responsibility:  Richard was elected Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Commodore in November 2018, and cruiser racing is his area of responsibility on board.

Club: Kinsale Yacht Club and Irish Cruising Club
Sailing Experience: James started sailing Mirrors & Lasers as a junior in RCYC; he’s been involved in cruiser racing for over 25 years and particularly enjoys offshore racing, competing in the Round Ireland, Fastnet and Middle Sea races as frequently as he can. James also cruises extensively, primarily around the Irish Coast and occasionally further afield. James served as a member of Irish Sailings Training Policy Group for 4 years.
Professional/Business Experience: James is a social entrepreneur and experienced sail training professional, he is Co-founder/General Manager of Sailing Into Wellness and Managing Director of Sovereign Sailing.  James has been safely teaching and guiding new sailors along Ireland’s Atlantic coast for over 20 years. He is a Cruising Instructor Trainer and Yachtmaster Instructor/Examiner.
Area of Responsibility on the Board. Training

Clubs - Royal Irish Yacht Club and Irish Cruising Club

Sailing Experience  - Andrew started sailing aged 5 tied to the stern of Arandora, a Dublin Bay 24, his father’s idea of babysitting. He was raised around boats and developed his love of sailing in Mirror Dinghies. Today he owns Chinook, a Beneteau 21, and races regularly in Dublin Bay. Andrew is an annual visitor to the Mediterranean, where the Croatian coastline is his favourite place to sail.

Professional Experience: Andrew is an entrepreneur in the Irish design sector having successfully built his own design management and brand strategy consultancy, Bradley Brand. He is is a Director of the Institute of Designers in Ireland. In 2017 he was a ministerial appointment to the Board of the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland. He also Chairman of Design Skillnet, a Government of Ireland initiate for enterprise led training.

Sue Concannon has spent over 30 years stock broking/related market areas and has been an independent Non Executive Director of Euroclear UK & Ireland since 2011 where she also chairs the nominations, remuneration and governance committee and is a member of the audit committee.  Prior to this, Sue was CEO of a retail stockbroking subsidiary of the UK Bank HBOS, a role she held for 13 years.  Previous roles were as Business Development Director of ShareLink and a number of years in operations management for a computer company.

Sue lives near Killaloe with her husband Kieron, having made a long held dream a reality when they moved to Ireland from the UK in 2014.   They started sailing rather later in life on sailing cruisers and transitioned to dinghies when they joined Killaloe Sailing Club in 2014.  Sue has been active member of the club’s committee for a number of years and is currently the Rear Commodore and Chair of the Development Committee.