THE Northern Ireland Youth Championships will return to Ballyholme Yacht Club this year.
Sponsored by John Minnis Estate Agents in partnership with the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) of Northern Ireland, the event will take place at the Bangor club on September 13 and 14.
It is Northern Ireland’s largest multi-class sailing competition, representing the plethora of boat classes and diverse sailing talent within Northern Ireland. Additionally, sailors will have the opportunity to compete for the Schools Cup, which was won by Sullivan Upper School last year.
John Minnis Estate Agents have agreed to sponsor the event for the next three years which will support the growth of the competition and the development of youth and junior sailing within Northern Ireland.
John Minnis said it’s great to get involved with the RYA and the Youth Championships.
“It’s really part of our values as a company because we’ve always supported youth sport. I’m very excited about this partnership,” he said.
“Our biggest value in business is community and this represents our entire community. This is the young people coming through and it’s where the investment needs to be made to develop our young sailors into Olympic sailors.
“The hidden sailing talent within Northern Ireland needs to be exposed. If you can race in the Irish sea and these waters, you can race anywhere. We have some of the very best young sailors in the world.
“We’ve learnt from experience that a partnership needs to have longevity. Here, we can work together with the RYA and build on it, just as we’ve done with the John Minnis Burney Cup in hockey.”
RYA Northern Ireland Racing Officer, Roger Craig, added: “We’re delighted to work with John Minnis. These events don’t happen without sponsors and having John Minnis estate agents on board is really important to us because we want to grow the Youth Championships and make it as big as possible.
“The Youth Championships is a regatta that brings together sailors from all across Northern Ireland and uniquely it brings together the different classes including ILCAs, 29ers, Toppers, Optimists and Fevas.
“We have sailors coming of all different abilities. These could be sailors coming here for their first time to do a regatta, as well as those who have experienced racing all across Ireland and possibly abroad.”
