Cork Institute of Technology to Student Yachting World Cup

Cork Institute of Technology Sailing Club will represent Ireland at the forthcoming Student Yachting World Cup © Donagh Glavin

On Wednesday 1st of October, AIB-Cork City Region hosted a reception in the boardroom to present a substantial sponsorship cheque to the Cork Institute of Technology Sailing Club who have qualified to represent Ireland at the forthcoming Student Yachting World Cup.

Formerly the 'Course de l'Europe', the Student Yachting World Cup is an ISAF sanctioned annual regatta organised by the Ecole Polytechnique. Each year teams are selected from all across Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia.

Last November CIT had the honour of representing Ireland for the first time at the Student World Sailing Championships at La Rochelle. Joint leaders with Switzerland after 12 races, it was unlucky 13 on the second last day when gear failure (the main sheet jammer ripped from the deck) forced them to retire when in a winning position. CIT's dreams of the world title were dashed by this devastating blow.

However CIT showed tremendous spirit and heart and on the final day's racing, finished in a blaze of glory - overall winners Switzerland finished second to CIT. Title holders, Trinity College Dublin, finished sixth overall. Finishing second on the world stage was a remarkable achievement.

However CIT weren't finished yet!

On the 5th of April, the Sailing Club again came up trumps & were crowned Irish Student Yachting Champions, and for a second year running Irish University Sailing Association Champions. All this means that the students of CIT sailing club consisting of Nicholas O'Leary, George Kenefick, Joseph Bruen, Grahame Durcan, Aoife English, Silvia Phelan, Cian Twomey, David Barnett and Adam McCarthy, qualify to return to France to take on the world once again.

Miriam Deasy, Sports Officer at CIT said- "I know our sailors are relishing the opportunity to put the nightmare of gear failure behind them and with the backing of AIB-Cork their aim is to improve on their finish of second place last year. This year's Student Yachting Worlds take place in La Trinite from Oct 25th to Nov 2nd. We wish our students well & hope that the experience of last year will help them go one step further this year! Special mention to one of our students Nicholas O'Leary who has done trojan work to set up todays sponsorship deal. To AIB-Cork City Region I say a sincere thank you - events of this magnitude cost a lot and AIB-Cork's financial support is invaluable to the success of this venture. I have no doubt that this partnership will be a winning one and that the sailors of CIT will do themselves, their families, CIT and AIB in Corkproud".

Speakers at the reception included John Daly, Head of Business Banking AIB Cork, Glynis Casey, Services and Operations Manager AIB Cork City Region and Dr Brendan Murphy President of CIT. Also present at the reception were John Slattery of AIB, Miriam Deasy-CIT Sports Officer, the successful CIT team and coach, each proud parent.