James Lyons
James is one of Ireland's top sailing instructors with 20 years professional instructing under his belt, throughout out Ireland and abroad. Born from his passion for sailing and instructing, he established Sovereign Sailing in 2002. James gets a great buzz from sharing his love of sailing, he lives in Kinsale with his wife, and their two very active boys. In what is left of his spare time he can be found racing his beloved 1720's.
Barry O'Brien
Barry joined Sovereign Sailing in 2016. He is particularly passionate about increasing our presence as the premier Course provider in Ireland, growing our charter fleet and building our yacht charter Management Scheme. He can also be found skippering private charters and corporate groups and instructing on cruising courses He is a self-confessed 'Sailing Nut', a qualified Yachtmaster Offshore, a regular Offshore Racer, and is partial to deliveries to anywhere sunny. Barry lives in Kinsale with his fur baby, Rua .
Mike Hines
Mike joined the team at Sovereign Sailing in 2009 and is part of the Support Team for Instruction & Skippering. He is a 'veteran sea dog' having been involved in sailing since he was 6 years old, racing since he was in his teens, and landing his first delivery job at 17 years of age! Mike is an accomplished instructor and has taught everything from dingy sailing to water skiing. He is a qualified RYA Yachtmaster Offshore, as well as a Cruising Instructor. Mike has worked all around the world as an instructor, chartered skipper, and even crewing on racing yachts. Mike lives in Cork with his wife and family and in his spare time he loves to hit the road on his bike.
Eoin Keyes
Eoin joined the team at Sovereign Sailing in 2021 having worked for # of seasons in charter companies? in the Med Sailing is a way of life for Eoin and he loves sharing his knowledge and skills with others. He's not short of a story or two from some of his own adventures. Eoin lives on his own boat here in Kinsale and when not sailing or climbing a mast he can be found scaling a climbing wall.
