Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon continues to be the top Irish performer after another big day on the water at the 2021 Youth Sailing World Championships om Oman.

With 11 events due to be decided by the end of this Friday, 17 December, the 433 sailors from 59 nations already find themselves close to the halfway stage of the competition.

McMahon, who won the youth radial world title in Italy in August, is lying sixth after four races sailed so far in the girl's radial (ILCA6) division from 46 starters.

Her Irish team-mate Jonathan O'Shaughnessy is not fairing as well in the 50-boat boys ILCA 6 division and lies 34th overall.

In the boy's 29er skiff, Ben O'Shaughnessy and James Dwyer have dropped to 13th overall after six races sailed in their 24-boat fleet.

Female Skiff 29er

Emily Mueller (GBR) was having that very conversation with her 29er crew Florence Brellisford. "By the time we’re dropping the kite at the leeward gate in our next race, we’ll be half way through our regatta," said Mueller. "It feels like we’ve only just started!" It was a very good day for the British 29er team, scoring 1,3,1 in 6 to 10 knot conditions that Mueller described as ‘snakes and ladders’. "We finally learned how to start," smiled Brellisford, trying to pinpoint what made the difference on day two. "A good start makes life a lot easier, rather than having to fight your way through from the back. But it never felt easy. It was super shifty out there, really hard to read the wind."

The British girls are enjoying the competition and using one of the many supplied equipment boats that they didn’t have to bring themselves. "The boats are really good," said Mueller. "They feel fast, everything is new. But you’re not allowed to change anything, all the rope and control lengths are set, you can only add bungee. It’s the same for everybody so it’s very fair racing."

Four points behind the British crew are Charlie Leigh and Sophie Fisher (USA), who scored two fourth places but then fell foul of the Black Flag Disqualification for starting too soon in the last race of the session.

Meanwhile, life at the Barceló Mussanah Resort is good, with the sailors enjoying the swimming pool and the balmy weather either in the morning or during the afternoon. When you get your break depends on when your racing is scheduled for the day.

Male Skiff 29er

As soon as the girls had completed three races they sailed their 29ers to the beach near the pool, at which point their male team mates took over the boats for their afternoon session. Revil & Devaux (FRA) haven’t won a race but then they haven’t finished outside of the top five either. No other team has kept all their scores inside the top 10, so the French are on a breakaway in the 29er fleet. First day leaders, the Codoñer Alemany brothers (ESP) are in second, although the race wins for the day went to Italy, Finland and Argentina.

Mixed Two Person Multihull Nacra 15

Kay Brunsvold and Cooper Delbridge (USA) had the best day in the Nacra 15 multihull. Delbridge attributed this to the decision to have more fun. "We were doing a lot of contemplation last night about our rig and the way we're positioning ourselves through the waves. And we decided we’re just going to enjoy the racing today and see how things go. Worked out pretty well!" Where most of the skippers in the Nacra fleet are boys, Brunsvold is one of the few girls steering. Asked why boys tend to make up the majority of helms in the fleet, Brunsvold joked: "Males can be a little bit more stubborn and like to choose where the boat goes. But that's the way I am too." Delbridge laughed and agreed that his helm is probably the most stubborn of the two of them. "But we don’t really have disagreements either. When things go wrong we tend to laugh about it!"

Although the Americans have closed the gap to the leaders it’s still Thomas Proust and Eloïse Clabon (FRA) who hold the overall lead just one point ahead of Olivier Jaquet and Femme Rixt Rijk (NED).

Female One Person Dinghy ILCA 6

Biggest mover of the day in the girls’ ILCA 6 singlehander was Sara Savelli (ITA). After a disastrous opening day when the Italian was penalised for a Rule 42 kinetics infringement, and scores of 39 and 14, the resilient sailor bounced back with a first and a second place today, lifting Italy to within a point of the lead. Ahead of Savelli, however, are three sailors tied on 16 points at the top of the leaderboard - Anja von Allmen (SUI), Florencia Chiarella (PER) and Marie Jacobsen Lepperöd (NOR). 

Male One Person Dinghy ILCA 6

Ukraine’s Oskar Madonich (UKR) continues to lead the boys’ ILCA 6 fleet with Przemyslaw Machowski (POL) rising to second place ahead of José Gomes Saraiva Mendes (POR) in third. 

Female Two Person Dinghy 420

Neus Ballester Bover and Andrea Perello Mora (ESP) have seen their lead reduced to just a point ahead of Manon Pennaneac'h and Victoire Lerat (FRA). Vanessa Lahrkamp and Katherine McNamara (USA) are only a point behind the French in third.

Male/Mixed Two Person Dinghy 420

Ian Clive Walker March sailing with Finn Dicke (ESP) continue to lead for Spain, but closely chased by Roi Levy and Ariel Gal (ISR) and Florian Krauss and Jannis Summchen (GER).

Female Windsurfer Bic Techno 293+

Manon Pianazza (FRA) is in a class of her own, winning all six races. Behind her a close battle for the next places, just three points between CZE, ITA, ESP and GBR. 

Male Windsurfer Bic Techno 293+

Almost as impressive as Pianazza in the girls’ fleet, Federico Alan Pilloni (ITA) has scored all firsts and is discarding a second. Boris Shaw (GBR) is the only sailor to beat Pilloni in a race and holds second overall.

Male Kiteboarding FormulaKite

Mikhail Novikov (RUS) won the first race of the day, then the next two to Max Maeder (SGP). Leader after day one, Riccardo Pianosi (ITA) fought back with a win in the last race of the day, putting the Italian in a tie with Singapore but retaining the leader’s yellow jersey. 

Female Kiteboarding FormulaKite

Gal Zukerman (ISR) continued her perfect scoreline with unbroken victories. Julia Damasiewicz (POL) is second and Héloïse Pégourié (FRA) third. 

Competition continues on Wednesday, December, starting at 1200 hours local time.

After a year’s absence due to COVID, Irish sailors finally have the opportunity to compete at the Youth Sailing World Championships in Oman on Monday. 

As Afloat previously reported, Ireland's team is Eve McMahon in the girl's Laser Radial class, along with Jonathan O’Shaughnessy in the boy's division and Ben O’Shaughnessy and James Dwyer Matthews in the 29er class.

Ireland has had some success in Oman already this winter with eighth place achieved by Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove at the 49er World Championships, and last week a 17th placing by Aoife Hopkins in the Laser Radial World Championships.

Mussanah’s average temperature in December is a balmy 24 degrees, with average winds of 10-17 knots, although extremely light winds have been a feature of the past world championships.

Racing for both Laser Radials and 29er classes begins on Monday 13 December and continues all week to Friday 17 December.

The Irish Laser Coach is Vasilij Zbogar, and 29er coach Thomas Chaix.

Howth Yacht Club's Aoife Hopkins achieved a personal best outcome at the women's Laser Radial (ILCA6) World Championships in Mussanah, Oman today after winning the tenth race of the series.

The Irish solo sailor had gone into the final day holding 20th overall and convincingly won the penultimate race before placing 17th to end the regatta 17th overall.

Hopkins started well and was first boat into the steadier breeze on the course before leading the 63-strong fleet around the first mark. As she has shown all week, her downwind performance was strong and she extended her lead for the remainder of the race for a very solid first place.

Belgium's Emma Plasschaert was crowned the new world champion after continuing the yo-yo battle across the fleet that saw her depose the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion from the overall lead.

Denmark's Anne-Marie Rindom had led the event twice during the six days but ultimately finished just outside the podium in fourth place.

Hopkins is part of Irish Sailing's Senior Squad working towards qualification for Paris 2024 in the women's single-handed event sailed in ILCA6 dinghies (formerly known as the Laser Radial).

Emma Plasschaert of Belgium

Emma Plasschaert of Belgium is the 2021 ILCA 6 Women’s World Champion finishing level on points with Agata Barwinska of Poland. Plasschaert finished ahead of Barwinska in the final race, crossing the line in third, to win gold while Barwinksa claims silver. Viktorija Andrulyte of Lithuania takes the bronze, two points behind. Olympic Champion Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) finished fourth, four points off the podium positions, with Julia Büsselberg (GER) in fifth despite winning the final race. Just seven points separated first and fifth in the end.

ILCA 6 (Radial) 2021 World Championship podium winners

Emma Plasschaert, new women’s World Champion, said, “Today, I went to the last day without any expectation, and just wanted to have three good races. I ended up with two good ones. It is a little bit surreal to come back on shore and not know what the points are. Am obviously super stoked about it and proud to be world champion!”.

“It came to here thinking aiming for top three,” Agata Barwinska (POL) said. “Am having a bit of bitter-sweet moment. I finished with the same points as Emma but am not saying that this is my last Worlds”. She added, “It was a lot of very good athletes like Anne-Marie Rindom who just won an Olympic gold medal. It was great to race against her. For me, it was a lot of light wind throughout the week, which I really like!.”

Julia Büsselberg of Germany, finishing fifth in the women’s race, said, “On the one hand I am very happy with my performance, especially on the last day. On the other, it is just seven points to the title and I had it in my hands in at least three of the races where I made a mistake so I am not one hundred per cent happy at the moment. In my opinion, the level of the competition was very high, nearly everyone has competed at the Olympics and will continue afterwards.”

Howth Yacht Club's Aoife Hopkins holds 20th overall going into the last races of the women's Laser Radial (ILCA6) world championships in Oman on Monday.

Tokyo 2020 Gold medallist Anne-Marie Rindom has regained the overall lead of the championships after nine races sailed with two second places for the day coming after a 13th for the opening race.

Hopkins managed to retain her overnight 20th place after a three-race day at the championships that have been blighted by light winds.

The Paris 2024 campaigner opened the day with a 39th place before improving with 23rd and 19th place in the 63-boat fleet on the penultimate day of racing.

A tenth race of the series on Monday will allow a second discard to be applied across the scoreboard. This will allow Hopkins’ 39th place to be dropped though other competitors currently ranked behind her have worse scores to discard so a shake-up of the standings is likely.

Download results below

Howth Yacht Club's Aoife Hopkins had her best day so far at the Laser Radial (ILCA 6) World Championships in Oman scoring 15th in the single race of the day.

The light breeze that arrived for the day came after a delay of two hours and only permitted one race before darkness fell.

Hopkins is currently 27th from 63 thanks to her 15th today in a race where there were ten black flag disqualifications.

Three races had been planned to get the event back on schedule but now organisers hope to have extra races on Saturday to catch before Sunday and Mondays' final races.

Belgium's Emma Plasscheart won the single race and has a narrow lead over Germany's Julia Buesselberg who was one of the disqualifications.

Results are downloadable below

The opening race of the women's Laser Radial (ILCA6) World Championships in Mussanah, Oman has been postponed due to lack of wind at the venue.

A fresh attempt to start the series will be made on Thursday to begin the qualification rounds for Gold and Silver fleets.

Ireland is represented by Aoife Hopkins and Sienna Wright of Howth Yacht Club. As Afloat reported earlier, Wright's older brother Rocco is competing in the men's division.

Hopkins will be aiming for a strong result to follow on Finn Lynch’s (National YC) silver medal at the Laser Men’s (ILCA7) World Championship and Sean Craig's World Masters fourth, both secured in Barcelona last month.

Up to 12 races can be scheduled with the provision to sail extra races daily when weather impacts the programme.

The final result is expected by lunchtime (Irish time) on Monday 6th December.

As Afloat reported earlier, Ireland has two entries at the 2021 ILCA 6/Laser Radial World Championship while the British Sailing Team is fielding three – Hannah Snellgrove, Daisy Collingridge and Matilda Nicholls - supported by British Sailing Team lead pathway coach James Gray (pictured above). The trio will be joined by young Brits Molly Sacker and Anya Haji-Michael. Notably absent from the line-up is three-time Olympian Ali Young, who has decided to retire from Olympic campaigning.

It’s been almost two years since the last ILCA 6 World Championship was held in Melbourne, Australia. Ok, there’s been the small matter of the Olympics, but for the majority of ILCA 6 athletes this will be the first global event for a while. In fact, Young was the only Brit in the field at the 2020 event. In 2019 Snellgrove placed seventh, and you’ve got to go back to 2018 to find Collingridge’s last world championship result, an 83rd at the Sailing World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. That was a long time ago, and all three Brits have proven themselves forces to be reckoned with since then. Collingridge, in particular, posted a seventh at the 2021 ILCA 6 European Championship with Snellgrove and Nicholls not far behind in 17th and 20th respectively.

Daisy Collingridge, 22, Waldringfield, Suffolk: “We’ve done a good training block the last two months leading up to this event, really focusing on the main progress points which came out of Europeans. It’s definitely a lot warmer out here than Weymouth (thankfully!) but I feel super prepared for racing next week. Again it’s another great opportunity to line up against the best in the world and I can’t wait to get onto the start line.”

Hannah Snellgrove, 31, Lymington, Hants: “2021 has been a long season for us and I’m looking forward to rounding it out with my first World Championships since 2019. There’s something quite special about sailing up to the start line of the Worlds and I’m looking forward to trying to capitalise on some of my good performances this year and also progress some areas of my racing that need improvements. Oman seems like a really interesting venue with quite light and patchy winds so I’m sure there will be lots of learning!”

Two Howth Yacht Club sailors are preparing for the ILCA 6/Laser Radial World Championships in Oman this morning.

Dubliners Aoife Hopkins and Sienna Wright are both on the entry list for the championship which takes place from November 29 to December 6, with racing starting on December 1.

64 entries from 31 countries are entered. 

Fresh from hosting the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Championship, Al Mussanah in Oman is the location for this year’s regatta. It can be a tricky venue, characterised by light, offshore winds as well as high temperatures.

Adding to the Irish interest in Oman is the fact that the Principal Race Officer is Dun Laoghaire's Con Murphy from the National Yacht Club. The event director is also Irish, Joe Rafferty, who was also in charge of the 49er Worlds at the same venue a fortnight ago.

This week's regatta follows enormous success for the Men's ILCA 7 and Radial divisions as Afloat reports here and here.

Howth Yacht Club ILCA 6 sailor Sienna Wright Photo: Bob Bateman

A third Howth sailor, the world youth radial champion, Eve McMahon, is also slated for competition in Oman when she competes at the World Youth Sailing Championships in 11 days time.

It’s been almost two years since the last ILCA 6 World Championship was held in Melbourne, Australia. Ok, there’s been the small matter of the Olympics, but for the majority of ILCA 6 athletes, this will be the first global event for a while.

The official website featuring results and the full entry list is here

Men's Radial Worlds

In what is an add-on the women's event, with an entry of just seven from five countries, Wright's brother, Rocco will also be competing this week.

Howth Yacht Club Laser Radial sailors share the top two places overall at the Investwise Youth Sailing Championships in Cork Harbour after six races sailed. 

There was no surprise yesterday when the World Radial Youth Female champion Eve McMahon leapt to the front of the fleet, almost unchallenged in yesterday's opening three races. 

The U18 champion continued her form to have a winning margin after today's race of seven points after six races sailed.

She proved consistent even in the tricky conditions and has a clean scoresheet except for two-second places scored in races three and four.

McMahon's clubmate Rocco Wright counted a race win, as did Michael Crosbie of the RCYC, level on points.

Good fleet awareness in variable conditions was the key to success in the ILCA divisions, where there are 30 boat fleets in both classes. Photo: Bob Bateman.

Racing on the Curlane Bank race area, close to Crosshaven, shifting winds eventually permitted three races to be completed.

ILCA 6: Sailed: 6, Discards: 1, To count: 5, Entries: 30

National Yacht Club's Ledoux Leads ILCA 4s

Sam Ledoux of the National YC leads the ILCA4 (Laser 4.7) Class. The Dun Laoghaire Harbour ace has a two-point lead over neighbour Matteo Ciaglia of the Royal St. George. Local helm Max Tolan is lying third in the 32-boat fleet after three races sailed. Results below.

Racing continues tomorrow.

ILCA 4: Sailed: 3, Discards: 0, To count: 3, Entries: 32

ILCA 4 & 6 Day Two Youth Nationals Photo Gallery by Bob Bateman

No surprise that Howth Yacht Club’s Eve McMahon established an early overall lead in the ILCA 6/Radial class at the Investwise Irish Youth Sailing National Championships on Cork Harbour today. 

The 2021 Radial Youth World Champion took two first places and a second in the opening three races of the event that sees a fleet of 30 assembled at Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Winds ranged from light to medium on the Curlane Bank course on the opening day.

McMahon's clubmate Rocco Wright took the other race win though had a mixed set of results to lie seventh overall. 

Michael Crosbie of the host club leads the chasing pack in second place but still some ten points behind McMahon.

Irish Radial national champion Jonathan O'Shaughnessy sits in ninth place after counting a 19th in race three.

Racing continues tomorrow.

ILCA 6 Sailed: 3, Discards: 0, To count: 3, Entries: 30