Tough Day for Ireland's Brewster & Tidey at 49erfx Worlds

21st November 2015

A difficult penultimate day yesterday leaves Royal Irish Yacht Club pair Andrea Brewster and Saskia Tidey with a mountain to climb if they are to win a prized Rio berth in the final day of competition at the 49erfx World Championships in Argentina today.

With four races left to sail the Irish debutantes are lying 23rd overall and crucially seventh nation in the hunt for only three Olympic spots. Countries ahead of them also looking to qualify sit just outside of the top ten. Singapore (11), Argentina (13), Norway (15), USA (17) and Canada (19) all sit just inside the top twenty. Results are here

Despite earning a superb fifth place in the final gold fleet race yesterday, the Dun Laoghaire duo are 27 points adrift of the last Rio berth on offer after also scoring a 23, 25 and (UFD) for a start line infringement in race 11.

Very long and difficult day for us on the racecourse ...Last day of the Worlds tomorrow to give it our best! 🇮󾓨
Posted by Brewster/Tidey IRL 49erfx Sailing on Friday, 20 November 2015

The FX fleet saw some challenges across the board today with shifty conditions toying with a lot of the sailors mental games. Leading for most of the regatta, Danish team Neilson/Olsen had been knocked out of 1st and into 2nd by the start of the final race in today’s sequence. Marie Olsen noted that today was definitely a tricky one for the two Danes, finishing well into the teens for two out of the four races today. The past world champions Brazil’s own Grael/Kunze, who had a slow start early on in the regatta but have found their groove as the first three races of the day they’ve finished in either 1st or 4th. The pair was knocked back into 2nd by Neilson/Olsen as they finished one point ahead in the last race for the day. Four points separate the two boats, but the two boats have been biting at each other’s heels.

Rounding out the top five are Italy’s Conti/Clapcich in 3rd; Great Britain’s Dobson/Ainsworth in 4t; and finally Hansen/Salskov-Iversen in 5th sitting just one point apart from the 6th place Spanish team of Echegoyen/Betanzos.

The British ladies, Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth, were sitting in tenth going into the day, but decided early on they wouldn’t be sitting there for long. Sophie Ainsworth commented, “We said today when we got out there that it was going to be a really tricky day and that we hoped we were wearing our ‘Jagger’ pants. It’s pretty much how we summed up the day, because you know you can try and make your own luck, but sometimes you get dealt a better hand.” Better hand indeed for these two, apart from their final race of the day in which they took a bit of a digger into 21st, the pair sailed their own races and finished 5th, 1st, and 3rd. These two were definitely wearing their Jagger pants, Mick would be proud!

The Danish pair, Jena Mai Hansen and Katja Salskov-Iversen, who were sitting in 4th going into today, only dropping one place felt the mental pangs early on starting off with a 16th. The shifty conditions and uneven pressure were getting ahold of Hansen’s mental confidence and affecting her style. She notes, “It was tough mentally like, trying to see the right things, trying to make the right decisions, that was really tough because maybe sometimes when you look at other boats it seems like ‘ok left is going really good, oh no, now right is going really good,’ it was difficult to choose.”

The ladies both decided to stop trying to reinvent their style and stick to what they know works – clean starts and getting ahead of the pack early to be able to control what they wanted to do instead of being controlled. When asked about what why she felt she couldn’t start the day on the right track Hansen also mentions, “We were a bit too reserved today in the starts, and normally thats not like us.” The last race Hansen was able to let her aggressive side out and get off the line enabling the pair to win the start and finish 2nd overall.

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Irish Olympic Sailing FAQs

How long has Ireland been sailing at the Olympics?

Ireland’s representation in sailing at the Olympics dates back to 1948, when a team consisting of Jimmy Mooney (Firefly), Alf Delany and Hugh Allen (Swallow) competed in that year’s Summer Games in London (sailing off Torquay). Except for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Ireland has sent at least one sailor to every Summer Games since then.

Who has sailed for Ireland at the Olympics, and when?

How many Olympic medals has Ireland won in sailing?

Ireland has won two Olympics medals in sailing events, both silver: David Wilkins, Jamie Wilkinson in the Flying Dutchman at Moscow 1980, and Annalise Murphy in the Laser Radial at Rio 2016.

Who is on the current Irish Sailing Olympic team?

The current team, as of December 2020, consists of Laser sailors Finn Lynch, Liam Glynn and Ewan McMahon, 49er pairs Ryan Seaton and Seafra Guilfoyle, and Sean Waddilove and Robert Dickson, as well as Laser Radial sailors Annalise Murphy and Aoife Hopkins.

What is the National Governing Body for sailing in Ireland?

Irish Sailing is the National Governing Body for sailing in Ireland.

Who is responsible for selecting Ireland’s Olympic sailors?

Irish Sailing’s Performance division is responsible for selecting and nurturing Olympic contenders as part of its Performance Pathway.

What is the Performance Pathway?

The Performance Pathway is Irish Sailing’s Olympic talent pipeline. The Performance Pathway counts over 70 sailors from 11 years up in its programme.The Performance Pathway is made up of Junior, Youth, Academy, Development and Olympic squads. It provides young, talented and ambitious Irish sailors with opportunities to move up through the ranks from an early age. With up to 100 young athletes training with the Irish Sailing Performance Pathway, every aspect of their performance is planned and closely monitored while strong relationships are simultaneously built with the sailors and their families

Who is the Irish Sailing Performance head coach?

Rory Fitzpatrick is the head coach of Irish Sailing Performance. He is a graduate of University College Dublin and was an Athens 2004 Olympian in the Laser class.

Who is Irish Sailing’s Performance Director?

The Performance Director of Irish Sailing is James O’Callaghan. Since 2006 James has been responsible for the development and delivery of athlete-focused, coach-led, performance-measured programmes across the Irish Sailing Performance Pathway. A Business & Economics graduate of Trinity College Dublin, he is a Level 3 Qualified Coach and Level 2 Coach Tutor. He has coached at five Olympic Games and numerous European and World Championship events across multiple Olympic classes. He is also a member of the Irish Sailing Foundation board.

Who is the most famous Irish Olympic sailor?

Annalise Murphy is by far and away the biggest Irish sailing star. Her fourth in London 2012 when she came so agonisingly close to a bronze medal followed by her superb silver medal performance four years later at Rio won the hearts of Ireland. Murphy is aiming to go one better in Tokyo 2021.

Who are the Irish Sailing Performance coaching staff?

Under head coach Rory Fitzpatrick, the coaching staff consists of Laser Radial Academy coach Sean Evans, Olympic Laser coach Vasilij Zbogar and 49er team coach Matt McGovern.

How is performance sailing in Ireland funded?

The Irish Government provides funding to Irish Sailing. These funds are exclusively for the benefit of the Performance Pathway. However, this falls short of the amount required to fund the Performance Pathway in order to allow Ireland compete at the highest level. As a result the Performance Pathway programme currently receives around €850,000 per annum from Sport Ireland and €150,000 from sponsorship. A further €2 million per annum is needed to have a major impact at the highest level. The Irish Sailing Foundation was established to bridge the financial gap through securing philanthropic donations, corporate giving and sponsorship.

What is the Irish Sailing Foundation?

The vision of the Irish Sailing Foundation is to generate the required financial resources for Ireland to scale-up and execute its world-class sailing programme. Irish Sailing works tirelessly to promote sailing in Ireland and abroad and has been successful in securing funding of 1 million euro from Sport Ireland. However, to compete on a par with other nations, a further €2 million is required annually to realise the ambitions of our talented sailors. For this reason, the Irish Sailing Foundation was formed to seek philanthropic donations. Led by a Board of Directors and Head of Development Kathryn Grace, the foundation lads a campaign to bridge the financial gap to provide the Performance Pathway with the funds necessary to increase coaching hours, upgrade equipment and provide world class sport science support to a greater number of high-potential Irish sailors.

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What is the organisation structure of the Performance Pathway?

The ethos of the Performance Pathway is progression. At each stage international performance benchmarks are utilised to ensure the sailors are meeting expectations set. The size of a sailor will generally dictate which boat they sail. The classes selected on the pathway have been identified as the best feeder classes for progression. Currently the Irish Sailing Performance Pathway consists of the following groups: * Pathway (U15) Optimist and Topper * Youth Academy (U19) Laser 4.7, Laser Radial and 420 * Development Academy (U23) Laser, Laser Radial, 49er, 49erFX * Team IRL (direct-funded athletes) Laser, Laser Radial, 49er, 49erFX

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The Irish Sailing performance director produces a detailed annual budget for the programme which is presented to Sport Ireland, Irish Sailing and the Foundation for detailed discussion and analysis of the programme, where each item of expenditure is reviewed and approved. Each year, the performance director drafts a Performance Plan and Budget designed to meet the objectives of Irish Performance Sailing based on an annual review of the Pathway Programmes from Junior to Olympic level. The plan is then presented to the Olympic Steering Group (OSG) where it is independently assessed and the budget is agreed. The OSG closely monitors the delivery of the plan ensuring it meets the agreed strategy, is within budget and in line with operational plans. The performance director communicates on an ongoing basis with the OSG throughout the year, reporting formally on a quarterly basis.

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