Espey On Top in Kinsale's Laser Olympic Trial Dress Rehearsal

27th July 2015

#laser – Kinsale Yacht Club was the venue for a dress rehearsal of this winter's Laser trial for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Four of five possible trialists made up a 17–boat standard rig fleet at the weekend and Belfast's James Espey came out on top at the Laser Leinster Championships.

The 2012 Represenative from London who has just returned from the Laser Worlds in Canada (placing 43 from 53 in the gold fleet) laid down a marker by winning all three races of the regional championship. Second was the National Yacht Club's Finn Lynch counting a third and two seconds. Third was Fionn Lyden (a silver fleet finisher in Canada) and fourth was the host club's Darragh O'Sullivan.

One of the intending trialists, Royal Cork's Seafra Guilfoyle, was not sailing due to injury. The former ISAF Youth Silver medalist is recovering from a slipped disk.

Ireland has already qualified for the Olympics in the Laser class, thanks to Espey's efforts in Santander, in 2013 but now a long haul trials series will see the top Irish Laser sailors make three transatlantic trips in six months to fight for the Irish Rio berth.

In the radial division, Johnny Durcan, who has embarked on a 29er Skiff campaign with his twin brother, came away with the title with three straight firsts. Twin Harry was second in the 4.7 division.

Results are downloadable below as jpeg files.

Published in Laser

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Published in Laser

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About the ILCA/Laser Dinghy

The ILCA, formerly known as the Laser, is the most produced boat in the world, with 220,000 units built since 1971.

It's easy to see why the single-handed dinghy has won the title of the most widely distributed boat of all time.

The Laser is a one-design dinghy, the hulls being identical but three rigs that can be used according to the size and weight of the sailor.

The class is international, with sailors from 120 countries. The boat has also been an Olympic class since 1996, being both the men's and women's singlehanded dinghy.

Three rigs are recognised by the International Laser Class Association (ILCA):