Since beginning to teach the yachting courses in 2015 the Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School has been inundated with requests to charter their vessels. At first this was met by using the downtime of the school’s two training vessels, however, such is demand for teaching that there is no longer sufficient availability to meet all these requests.
It’s fantastic to see such a healthy growth in demand to get out on the water by more and more people, however, the common trend is that they do not have the time to take on the rigours of ownership. Ultimately, sailing in Ireland requires more boat owners, however, there’s no reason why these owners cannot be financially supported in keeping vessels afloat by those who cannot commit in the same way.
The Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School is looking for boat owners who might consider working in partnership to meet the demands of this new emerging market. All the management of bookings, handovers and cleaning of the vessels would be completed by the school, along with certifying that charters have sufficient training, qualifications and experience to operate the yacht or powerboat.
Speaking about the concept, Chief Instructor Kenneth Rumball is encouraged by the opportunity for the sailing and boat owning community to make getting afloat easier. “While many may view this as facilitating participants to reduce their level of commitment, our experience is that those who are given the opportunity to sail regularly go on, in time, to become owners of their own vessels, both dinghies and yachts. Any formula to increase the number of times someone participates can only help the long-term future of sailing in Ireland”.
You can contact Kenneth Rumball by email, [email protected], or call the school’s office on 01 2844195 for more details and a full breakdown of the proposals.
