700 International Dignitaries Descend on Dun Laoghaire for Sailing Conference

On the 1st of November the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) will welcome over 700 of the international sailing fraternity's key decision makers from around the globe to Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin for the 2012 International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Annual Conference. Having secured the privilege of hosting the conference four years ago through a tendering process, the ISA will run the event from the 1st to the 11th of November in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire with support from the Dun Laoghaire sailing clubs.

The culmination of an outstanding year of sailing for Ireland will see hundreds of delegates and observers from 120 nations attend meetings over the 10 day period. Those in attendance will discuss, debate, make recommendations and form decisions on the issues and policies that will take sailing forward into 2013 including choosing the equipment and events for both the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 and the 2020 Games. With such high profile dignitaries in attendance, including King Constantine of Greece, the eyes of world sailing will be firmly fixed on Ireland.

Also taking place during the conference will be the 2012 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards which will be hosted in the Mansion House on Tuesday the 6th of November and will be televised live. Among the sailors vying for the coveted and prestigious awards will be Tلmara Echegoyen, ءngela Pumariega and Sofia Toro (Spain), Helena Lucas (UK), Saskia Sills (UK) and Lijia Xu (China) in the female category and Ben Ainslie (UK), Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page (Australia), Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (Australia), Loick Peyron (France) and Tom Slingsby (Australia) in the men's category.

ISA Chief Executive Harry Hermon remarked "The ISA is truly delighted to welcome such influential dignitaries to our shores and continue to showcase Ireland as an exceptional event destination. This year we hosted the ISAF Youth World Sailing Championships in Dun Laoghaire, where we won silver, and Annalise Murphy came agonisingly close to the podium at the London Games so it feels very fitting that we end what has been an outstanding year for Irish sailing by welcoming the world of sailing here to Ireland".