Both Irish sailors competing in the 153-boat ILCA7 class world championships in Adelaide, Australia, had a stand-out day on Saturday, as they counted top ten results in tricky conditions. The event is preparing to end its qualification phase, and both Finn Lynch from the National Yacht Club and Ewan McMahon from Howth Yacht Club are hoping to secure a place in the men’s single-handed event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Regatta.
Lynch took a 6 and 8 in his qualification fleet to lie 14th overall after two days while McMahon posted a 9,6 in his fleet to lie 25th.
See results below
Lynch and McMahon are part of a trials series of three regattas over the coming months, where they only need to focus on achieving the best possible results, rather than racing specifically against each other.
Saturday’s weather off the South Australian coast proved tricky for race organisers, who first sent the fleet to sea expecting wind to build, then returned to shore when the sea breeze failed to materialize. After a delay of three hours, racing gradually got underway, though it was close to sunset when the sailors eventually finished for the day, but with the event still on schedule.
Just Sunday's programme of a further two races - weather permitting - will decide how the full fleet of 153 entries are split into the Gold, Silver, and Bronze divisions, with both Irish sailors currently well-placed to achieve the top tier series that begins on Monday.
"Both sailors had a really good day, and Ewan managed to have a good average, which is what we want, definitely, and Finn also had two top tens, which is also what we want at this stage," commented Ireland's coach Vasilij Zbogar. "What we want are low scores and no bad results in the qualifying round because there is only one discard in the whole regatta."
For both sailors, their event goal means at least Gold fleet, but ideally, they want to finish in the top ten by the end of the finals round to contest the Medal Race on Wednesday to decide the podium.
Across both qualification and final rounds, each sailor will compete in at least ten races, which has been estimated to equate to a week of back-to-back daily half-marathons in physical performance terms. Racing is scheduled to continue in the early hours of Sunday 28th, with the conclusion of the qualification series.