Irish Sailing and Malahide Yacht Club have announced today 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 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.
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.
“Malahide Yacht Club is the perfect setting for the Watersports Inclusion Games and we are thrilled to have them on board,” said John Twomey, 11-time Paralympian, former Malahide Challenger sailor and President of Irish Sailing.
“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.”
“We are delighted to be hosting an event as wonderful as the Watersport Inclusion Games,” added Margaret Fay, Commodore of Malahide Yacht Club.
“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.”
SPORT FOR BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
Creating a hero event like this is important as a way of shining a light on the work that goes in at club level up and down the country on making sport as inclusive as possible.
WHAT’S UP NEXT?
The event will take place in Malahide on 5th and 6th of July.
MEMBERSHIP AND EVENTS
Irish Sailing is one of the more than 300 full active members that make up the Sport for Business community. Allianz are our partners in Inclusion and with whom we will host the Annual Sport for Business Sport for Social Good Showcase event in October 2025.
The Sport for Business Membership comprises nearly 300 organisations, including all the leading sports and sponsors, as well as commercial and state agencies.
