Irish sailing is to benefit from just under €1 million in Government funding in 2015, a similar sum to 2014, but it has made big gains in the High Performance area. Some €250,000 for equipment for Rio, and €70,000 for Rio preparation were among the bonuses announced by Minister of State for Sport Michael Ring this week, but these headline figures belie a situation not as rosy as it first appears.
Not additional
The Sports Council funding for the extended programme was initially thought to be in addition to figures for 2014, but this has since been included in the 2015 figures. The €70,000 Rio funding was not additional money, but was cash the Government granted to sailing in late 2014 to secure training facilities in Brazil.
The timing of the allocation was, however, crucial and it meant the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) was able to secure a base before the limited space was taken up by bigger teams.
Sailing was in the top 10 of Irish sports in general funding, third in High Performance funding, second in Rio preparation funding and first in the HP equipment funding, but at the same time it is one of the most expensive equipment sports to fund.
There is little doubt the money sailing gets from Government is at very healthy levels when compared to even some of the bigger nations, but the ISA has recruited heavily in recent years and put more youth sailors on its Olympic pathway. This means any grant is shared across the needs of sailors from Optimist youngsters to the Olympic team itself.
The programme now covers 103 sailors. At each stage of the pathway, squads and coaches are in place to help the sailors progress.
Additional resources
“We are very grateful for the ISC support but we still require additional sources of revenue to ensure our sailors have the best chance of success,” said Olympic team manager James O’Callaghan from a training base in Cadiz.
Sailing has been trying to find new ways of financing burgeoning teams. This month it embarked on a philanthropic programme to raise €2.75 million annually.
In Cork, more than 40-entries have been received for this year’s ICRA National Championships at Kinsale. The cruiser-racing championship that will be raced as part of the Sovereign’s Cup in June has attracted some Welsh entries ahead of this weekend’s early-bird entry deadline.
