Jacqueline McClelland of infinity Channel Swimming and Piloting Services navigates solo and relay swimmers across the 35 km North Channel on any one of the five infinity escort boats (ĀNANTYA, INFINITY, ÄÄRETÖN, EILÍFÐ, or ÉIGRÍOCH) between Northern Ireland and Scotland.
As one of the few handful of female escort pilots of channel swimmers around the world, her interests in helping others realize their aquatic dreams goes far beyond North Channel. Her interests reach the waters around the British isles and well beyond.
“Together with Ned Denison and Irish Long Distance Swimming Association, we try to keep an updated database which facilitates the ILDSA annual awards,” she explains. “We have an great passion for what we do for community for open water swimmers around the globe offering them opportunities. I travel around the world to support other swims and events, and develop swim series to provide opportunities for people to achieve their dreams and set new goals.
Examples of this growth of our Swim Academy and development of young swimmers include children who learned to swim with our program who are now setting records as the youngest to swim across the North Channel and who have been on many podiums and the aspired to take on marathon swimming challenges of their own.
The community that we have developed offers logistics management registration, partners with water safety support, offers pilots lifeguard jackets, coordinates with harbor authorities, crew for swimmers, and give them warm hugs when they return to shore. We describe the amalgamation of all of this like slices of a pizza where every section has different toppings, but all of them need to be filled for that pizza to be whole.
The growth of the swims from the Dál Riata Channel and the Irish Triple Crown to the Original Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, NEWS Swim Series, Ireland – Isle of Man crossings, and crossings of the Irish Sea and St George’s Channel have captured the eye of numerous international swimmers. This growing list of swims highlights Ireland as one of the top destinations that they want to visit. They can enjoy four seasons in one hour with varying weather and the cooler waters that the Emerald Isle has to offer.“
Her interests go well beyond the Irish shores.
infinity Swim Academy in Nepal
She, Milo McCourt, Pádraig Mallon, and the infinity team have helped establish and build infinity Swim Academy with the Pema Ts’al Sakya Monastic Institute in Pokhara, Nepal.
Closer to Home
Tomorrow morning at 3 am, Andreas Waschburger (38, Germany, MSF bio here, IISA bio here, World Aquatics bio here, @andreaswaschburger) will be escorted by Pádraig Mallon and Jacqueline McClelland, Jonathan Wall (53, Australia, MSF bio here) will be escorted by David Hughes, Brenda Norman (44, Australia, MSF bio here) will be escorted by Jerry McGrady, and Anel Sytdykova (46, Kazakhstan, MSF bio here) will be escorted by Jack Boyle in four separate solo attempts at crossing the 35 km North Channel from The Gobbins in Northern Ireland to Scotland.
Stay tuned here for updates on tomorrow’s four North Channel swimmers.
© 2025 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“
A World Open Water Swimming Federation project.