World Championship Sailing

Mercury Event Management have been selected to co-ordinate the opening & closing ceremonies for the 2008 Laser SB3 World Championships taking place in the National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire. As the country's largest single class sailing event taking place this year, the National Yacht Club will host close to 150 SB3 Sportboat yachts and their crew along with their supporters, families, sponsors and more from September 21st to 26th 2008.

With responsibility for managing the pivotal opening & closing ceremonies, Mercury Events can draw on their experience to co-ordinate the many sponsors, competitors, digniteries, local councillors and of course the guest of honour invited to open the event, Minister of Family & Social Affairs, Mary Hanafin, TD.

Speaking on the event, Mercury Events MD, Killian Byrne commented "The SB3 Worlds will be one of the country's largest sailing events to take place this year. Our event management team are both delighted and honoured to be selected to co ordinate the opening & closing ceremonies for this prestigeous event. With more than 700 competitors, sponsors, officials and guests involved, not to mention the formal speeches, flag raising formalities and anthems planned, the event will be a special one for our team"

At the launch of the event, National Yacht Club Commodore, Con Murphy noted that "The SB3 is an out and out racing boat which has had explosive growth since the first models were made in 2000. There are now 400 boats worldwide, raced by many national champions and Olympic sailors. This is the hottest boat in international racing and we are delighted to be the first country and club to host their world championships. We are amazed at how quickly the entry list is being filled this far out of the event. We already have entries from Australia, New Zealand, USA, South Africa, France, Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and the Ukraine amongst others, not to mention big Irish and UK fleets. This event will be the biggest ever single make keelboat championship to be held in Ireland and I believe it will be a great platform for us to show just how good a venue Dublin Bay is for big world class events. I know we will have sensational racing to show.

The SB3 is a sportsboat that can carry a crew of up to 4 persons. further details on the event can be found on www.sb3worlds2008.com or by calling Killian Byrne, Mercury Events on (+353 1) 4957963.