Irish Sailing and Malahide Yacht Club are delighted to announce that the Irish Sailing Watersports Inclusion Games will be held at Malahide Yacht Club, Co. Dublin on the 5th and 6th of July in 2025.
The Watersports Inclusion Games, now in its seventh year, is an award-winning multi-watersports event for all abilities/disabilities from the physical, intellectual, sensory, and learning spectrums and those who experience barriers accessing mainstream sport. The Games are free of charge for all participants. Organised by Irish Sailing in association with Canoeing Ireland and other sporting bodies and funded by the Sport Ireland Dormant Accounts Sports Inclusion Fund.
Margaret Fay, Commodore of Malahide Yacht Club said of the announcement,
“We are delighted to be hosting an event as wonderful as the Watersport Inclusion Games. Inclusion is such an important aspect of Malahide Yacht Club and this event reflects our commitment to celebrating and welcoming diversity and creating a space where everyone feels valued and empowered to thrive.”
The Games will take place on the sheltered waters of the Malahide estuary, an ideal venue to accommodate all spectrums of activity. In fact, it was Malahide YC Committee member Sean Walsh who was instrumental in the first coordinated disabled sailing project in 1981 with the Challenger Trimaran Project. This introduced wheelchair users to sailing and grew into an extremely successful programme of inclusive sailing.
John Twomey, 11-time Paralympian, former Malahide Challenger sailor and President of Irish Sailing said,
“Malahide Yacht Club is the perfect setting for the Watersports Inclusion Games and we are thrilled to have them on board, we have no doubt Margaret and her team will do an amazing job. This event has always been a highlight of our calendar as it gives people with disabilities and their families the chance to experience sports that they may not have known were accessible to them. It illustrates just how inclusive watersports in Ireland really can be.”
To learn more about the event and for booking information visit sailing.ie/watersportsinclusiongames