All About August: For sea, spell fun, but also danger. Iva Pocock looks at the issues of safety training with record numbers taking to the water.

'You get a real thrill off sailing," says Jacqui Higgins. A freelance journalist from Dingle, Co Kerry, she took her first dinghy sailing course last summer at her local club, and has been hooked ever since.

"The whole thing of using the wind and the water to get somewhere fast and enjoying it while you're getting there" is, she reckons, worth the rigmarole of donning a wetsuit, windbreaker and lifejacket and rigging the boat.

Before taking the course at Dingle Sailing Club, Jacqui had only been on boats in a "passive way", in contrast to her first experience on a single-handed Topper, a popular class of dinghy.

"I capsized three or four times in one day, but as the Toppers right themselves you loose your fear after you've capsized once." From then on, says Jacqui, it's great craic - "like being a kid again".

But while great fun, sailing is a potentially dangerous sport, as evidenced by the recent shipwrecking of the celebrity ship Cabin Fever. Within metres of Tory Island's shore, a source of public entertainment became a mass of beach debris and human trauma.

Arguably, the only good to come of the wrecking was the high-profile reminder that the sea is dangerous. Safe sailing means never forgetting this reality, as one sailing enthusiast, architect Paul Leech, explains. "You have to have tremendous respect for the sea. It will, and can, kill you if you act the fool."

Therefore safety while sailing is a priority for all sailing schools. In Dublin the Sutton Dinghy Club's motto is: "Sailing is a sport to be enjoyed in a safe, fun and friendly manner."

Hugh Gill, the club's manager, says "the dangers are potentially huge but when properly addressed and factored in they are manageable. They must not be treated lightly, but they must also not be inflated out of all proportion."

As with all teaching establishments approved by the Irish Sailing Association, the Sutton club provides lifejackets for participants, and all instructors are qualified to ISA standards, which include first aid certification.

The importance of buoyancy aids is stressed by the semi-State body Irish Water Safety, whose volunteers run water safety and life-saving courses in many locations all year round.

Other pertinent advice includes ensuring sailors have skills in seamanship and know their limitations, checking the weather forecast, the condition of the craft and safety equipment on board and telling someone ashore where you plan to go. IWC's chief executive Lieut Cdr John FM Leech also warns: "When it comes to water-based activities, alcohol and water simply do not mix."

It is sobering to note that of the 62 people who drowned accidentally last year, 39 lost their lives due to alcohol consumption.

An analysis over five years indicates three lives are lost to drowning every year over the August Bank Holiday.

Gillian Hackett, of the Irish National Sailing School in Dún Laoghaire, says she will only take adults or children who are "comfortable in the water". The school is one of many teaching dinghy sailing, considered an excellent way of learning the skills for safe sailing.

Veteran sailor Sally Starbuck advises anyone interested in enjoying sailing to start in a dinghy. "Every rope is at your hand, and there is nothing so powerful that it'll pull you off."

Sally learned to sail while messing around on a Mirror dinghy on holidays in Angelsey, Wales. It was "coarse" sailing, explains Sally, with "none of the stripey jumpers and G&Ts", but it was a great way to learn to sail.

As a teenager, she spent a wonderful week on board a 72-ft vessel with the British sail training organisation, now called Ocean Youth Trust.

The Irish equivalent, Coiste an Asgard, which offers sail training to anyone over 16 years of age on board the Asgard II, also aims to give young people the confidence and ability to face new challenges through sailing. All berths on board Asgard II are booked for 2003, but there are many places still available with sailing schools throughout Ireland.

Paul Leech, who got hooked on sailing after a one-week course with the Royal Yachting Association in Lough Swilly 28 years ago, recommends beginners take a week-long course with Glenans Irish Sailing Club in either Coliemore, Clew Bay, Co Mayo or Baltimore, Co Cork. An occasional instructor with the school, he says it's "very sociable and has a very nice ethos".

A number of schools offer tuition in yachts where the chances of getting a soaking are reduced. Sovereign Sailing in Kinsale is one such company. Set up by James Lyons (26) just last year, it is offering sailing tuition for beginners upwards. He believes sailing is definitely growing in popularity, with "a lot more people wondering how to get into it".

But while sailing may be exhilarating, graceful, challenging and adventurous, as Paul Leech says, "it's not quite a game for fools".