Royal Cork Yacht Club recently celebrated 300 years of history and now celebrates their first woman Vice Admiral ... the next step in the committee voluntary career for Annamarie is Admiral of Royal Cork Yacht Club. 

Annamarie Fegan has been involved in the club for 25 years and her daughters, Molly 21 and Mia 20, and her husband Denis Murphy are active sailors within the club and onboard their competitive racing boat Nieulargo.

Annamarie and crew won the 2021 ICRA Boat of the Year with Nieulargo and are a force to be reckoned within offshore racing - https://www.sailing.ie/News/id/4649/icra-boat-of-the-year-2021

Annamarie Fegan’s Nieulargo, Celine McGrath’s Big Mac and Mary O’Keeffe’s Tux came in with top combined scores at the 2021 Irish Sailing Women at the Helm and won the Roy Family Club prize for the most successful club team on the day.

Leaders like Annamarie are vital to inspiring other women to step up. In 2019 Irish Sailing introduced the Sailing 'Take the Helm' program, encouraging and supporting women to the helm in many different roles within our industry, not only onboard the boat but throughout committees and Race Official roles. The first Women in Sailing Menteeship programme with Pamela Lee was launched in 2021. Sailors have also joined the Women in Leadership program with Swim Ireland and a funding opportunity for clubs, classes and centres is available to support and encourage women taking on leadership roles in coaching, eventing and training.

All these elements combine to create more opportunities for women and make Women at the Helm the norm and one day we won't be writing articles like this!

Picture: CORC/Rick Tomlinson

We met up with Annamaria and crew on board Nieulargo, as they came in off the water after Sunday racing in 2021 to chat about sailing opportunities.

The Irish Sailing Women at the Helm 3rd event is at National Yacht Club 27 & 28 August 2022. Find out more HERE.