This weekend saw a record turnout at the ILCA/Laser Ireland Leinster Championships 2022 hosted by the Royal St. George Yacht Club in association with MGM Boats.

90 sailors entered the ILCA/Laser fleet’s Leinster Championships in Dun Laoghaire this weekend making it the largest event so far this season for ILCA Ireland, the new name for the Irish Laser Association. With challenging conditions on both days for both the race management team and sailors alike, this turned out to be quite an eventful competition.

Chris Bateman (157561) and James Murphy reaching in the ILCA 7s at the Leinster Championships 2022 on Dublin Bay

All the signs were that Howth’s Jamie McMahon would dominate the ILCA 7 (Standard) fleet, taking a bullet on both race one and two in 30-knot gusts on Saturday. However, an injury saw him retire on race three and cede the lead to Royal Cork’s Jonathan O’Shaughnessy who had achieved two seconds and a third. Dun Laoghaire’s Dan O’Connell won the third race and Saturday having scored a 6 and a 7 in the first two races. However, Dan continued his form into Sunday completing the hat-trick with two more bullets, giving him the championship.

Dan O'Connell ILCA 7 Leinster Champion (centre) with Royal St. George Yacht Club's Richard O'Connor (left) and Ross O'Leary of MGM Boats

O’Shaughnessy, who only recently moved from the ILCA 6 (Radial) into the ILCA 7, finished one point behind and took the prize for first Under 30 and second overall. Daragh Kelleher of Skerries finished two points behind to take third overall.

Dan O'Connell (219127) leading the ILCA 7 fleet

In the ILCA 6 fleet, it was a weekend for the ladies. The event saw entries from Howth’s Aoife Hopkins plus guest appearances from the world’s number one ranked female ILCA 6 sailor Vasileia Karachaliou plus Ukraine’s Sofiia Naumenko. These three took the top spots in all races across the weekend bar two; with the National Yacht Club’s Benjamin Reeser taking third in race one and the Royal St. George Yacht Club’s Sean Craig taking third in the last race of the event. Hopkins started well with a bullet in the first race of the weekend however Vasileia soon showed why she is the world’s top sailor, taking all bullets for the remainder of the weekend and winning the championship. Aoife finished second overall and Sophia took third place for Ukraine.

Aoife Hopkins (left) and Vasileia Karachaliou (centre) and Sofiia Naumenko

Benjamin Reeser, a USA athlete now sailing from the National Yacht Club dominated the male fleet across the weekend and was followed in the U30 category by East Antrim’s Tom Coulter and Tom Fox from Skerries. Meanwhile, Sean Craig who finished fifth overall led the Masters fleet. He was challenged by Australia and Royal Cork’s Robert Jefferies with just five points separating them at the end of day Saturday. However, Craig’s consistency on Sunday meant the trophy had his name on it by the time prizegiving came round. Conor Clancy of the Royal St. George Yacht Club was third master.

Sean Craig - Leinster Champion - ILCA 6 Master

The ladies masters fleet had a tough weekend with the strong winds. Alison Pigot of the National Yacht Club took the honours, followed by Shirley Gilmore of the Royal St. George Yacht club.

Vasileia Karachaliou Leinster ILCA 6 Champion 2022

Sofiia Naumenko of Ukraine - Third ILCA 6 Champion

The ILCA 4 (4.7) fleet was led from the outset by Ballyholme Yacht Club’s Hannah DadleyYoung from Belfast Lough, securing two bullets and two firsts across the weekend to secure the championship.

Hannah Dadley Young Leinster ILCA 4 Champion 2022

Second girl in 8th overall was Royal St. George’s Ava Ennis with third taken by Aisling Kelly of Rush Sailing Club who finished in 11th overall. The boys fleet was less clear-cut across the weekend. By the end of racing on Saturday Daniel O'Connor and Max Cantwell both of the Royal St. George Yacht Club were tied in second place on equal points. However, a second and first place in Sunday’s racing by their clubmate Krzysztof Ciborowski, saw him taking the boy’s category by just one point from Daniel with Max in third.

Seth Walker of the Royal St. George YC competing in the ILCA 4s division of the Leinster Championships 2022

The dominant feature of the weekend was the wind, creating a unique challenge for the race team lead by the compelling triumvirate of Harry Gallagher, Richard Kissane and Liam Dineene. Relatively consistent southerly breezes on Saturday meant that three races were delivered in quick succession. Sunday was a different story with 75-degree wind shifts after race 2. This meant that laying a proper course was extremely difficult with race officers and mark layers thwarted at every turn. The ILCA 7 fleet’s first attempt at a third race had to be abandoned. Finally, after some relaying of course and false starts, the race team decided they were beat and sent everyone home for prizegiving.

Richard Kissane, Harry Gallagher, Liam Dineen and jury member Vincent Delany (right) were the ILCA 7 Laser Leinster Championship race management team at the RSTGYC

Event supervisor, Kevin Doyle, praised the entire race team saying “We were privileged to have such a competent race management team led by three national race officers. It is a testament to their good race management that our national jury Vincent Delany had no hearings to deal with after racing. The event team at the Royal St. George Yacht Club has proven once again that Dun Laoghaire is the premier location in Ireland for national events.”

Full results are available below.

Next up for the ILCA fleet is the 2022 National Championships this year being held at Tralee Bay Sailing Club from August 18-21

Royal Cork Yacht Club's Jonathan O'Shaughnessy leads Skerries Daragh Kelleher in the ILCA 7 division of the ILCA/Laser MGM Boats sponsored Leinster Championships at the Royal St. George Yacht Club on Dublin Bay. Third in the 18-boat ILCA 7 fleet is Cork Harbour's, Chris Bateman.

Three races have been sailed so far in the six-boat series. 

Leading in the 34-boat ILCA 6 division is Portuguese visitor Vasileia Karachaliou from C.N.Cascais with Howth's Aoife Hopkins lying second. Third is Ukraine's Sofiia Naumenko from OSHVSM. 

Hannah Dadley Young from Ballyholme is at the top of the 23-boat ILCA 4 fleet followed by Daniel O Connor of the host club.

Results are below. Racing continues on Sunday.

Despite the gathering record-breaking heatwave over Europe as July progressed, Ireland’s Eve McMahon (17) won Gold at both the ILCA 6 (Laser Radial) European Youth Championship in Greece, and then Gold again at the 2022 World Sailing Youth World Championship in The Netherlands, where her Howth YC clubmate Rocco Wright (15) also collected Gold after a masterful final race.

But as world climate observers never tire of telling us, what is currently regarded as extreme heat in mid-Europe is simply thought of as fairly normal summer in places like southern Texas.

Yet a six-strong Irish ILCA team is now bound for the ILCA 6 (Laser Radial) Youth World Championships at Houston in Texas (starting Monday, July 25th) where the typical forecast for the city this afternoon (Thursday) predicts a temperature of 37C. However, it will feel like 41C owing to an underlying high level of humidity (86% at night) which does admittedly fall to 42% when the afternoon’s 15 kmh southerly breeze sets in.

Double Gold – Eve McMahon & Rocco Wright after total success in The Hague

But whether it’s a case of out of the frying pan into the fire or not remains to be seen. In the stellar Netherlands championship, their coach Vasilij Zbogar commented on how cool the two young stars stayed throughout. And though that was about their general state of mind, it’s a very useful foundation to have in place when you’re dealing with the added challenge of searing heat.

Also racing for Ireland is Sophie Kilmartin. Fiachra McDonnell, Luke Turvey and Oisin Hughes, with Liam Glynn as coach. 

Next week’s hot spot for world youth sailing. The Houston Yacht Club is – meteorologically speaking - the coolest place in town

In Texas, the Irish team will face a wide field of 212 sailors from 35 countries. All sailors are under 18. The regatta is held over a week from Monday 25 July to Saturday 30th July. There are two races scheduled per day, each lasting approximately 50 minutes. Hosting the event is the Houston Yacht Club, based in Shoreacres, Texas, USA and the International Laser Class Association (ILCA).

The ILCA/Laser Ulster Championships took place at Strangford Lough Yacht Club at the weekend. Over twenty individual clubs were represented from all four provinces, showing the continued strength of the class throughout the island of Ireland, with all age categories represented from youths through to great grandmasters.

Saturdays South/South Westerly proved tricky for the race committee as the wind shifted this way and that off the land in a breeze which averaged around ten knots and hit up to twenty-two knots in the brisk squalls. Nonetheless, RRO Angela Gilmore and ARO Scott Rogers persevered and served up three races for all three ILCA rigs.

In the ILCA 4’s, Krzysztof Ciborowski (RSGYC) was the leading overnight sailor on three points, with Hannah Dadley Young (BYC), Daniel O’Connor (RSGYC) and Daniel Palmer (BYC) in a three-way tie on four points each.

In the ILCA 6’s, Benjamin Reeser (NYC) led on two points, with Sean Craig (RSGYC) in second on three points and Lucas Nixon (BYC) in third place on five points.

In the ILCA 7’s, Conor O’Farrell (CLYC) led overnight on five points, while Gavan Murphy (RSGYC) and Dan Sheriff (BYC) were tied on seven points for second and third.

What started with a glorious Westerly in ten to fifteen knots on Sunday soon turned out to follow a similar weather pattern to the Saturday with very shifty conditions coming off the shore.

Nonetheless, the race committee persevered and managed to squeeze in a series, thanks in no small part to rib drivers and their crews, who were busy moving marks and start lines throughout the day.

In the ILCA 4’s, Hannah Dadley Young (BYC) came out blazing to take the overall win. In contrast, Daniel O’Connor (RSGYC) and Krzysztof Ciborowski (RSGYC) took home second and third, respectively, Ciborowski just pipping Daniel Palmer (BYC) on count back. At the same time, Lucy Ives (CSC) was the second-placed girl overall.

In the ILCA 6’s, Benjamin Reeser (NYC) continued his overnight form and took the win, while Lucas Nixon (BYC) came flying out of the blocks with two first-place results to take second overall from Sean Craig (RSGYC), who finished third overall.

Charlotte Eadie (BYC), sister Kaitlyn Eadie (BYC) and Shirley Gilmore (RSGYC) were first, second and third-placed ladies overall.

In the ILCA 7’s, Conor O’Farrell (CLYC) remained true to form and maintained his overnight lead to take the win overall from Colin Leonard (SLYC) on count back, with Gavan Murphy (RSGYC) in third overall.

The National Yacht Club's Mark Lyttle took second overall at the 2022 ILCA 7/Laser Masters World Championships in Mexico on Tuesday.

The 24-boat championships took place in Puerto Valletta on the Pacific Coast of Mexico in the same venue as the Senior Worlds where Lyttle's clubmate Finn Lynch came sixth at the ILCA7 World's last month.

The Dun Laoghaire sailor, who is based in the UK, took the Grand Master World title in 2018 on home waters, but all-around Masters legend Brett Beyer of Australia had just moved up to the Grand Master Category (55-64 upwards) and proved an unstoppable opponent.

With only one discard out of 12 races, consistency was key but not easy as you had to pick a side to hook into the strengthening breeze. The middle of the line starts and shifts up the middle never seemed to work. Downwind speed was also key, especially in marginal surfing conditions. 

Mark Lyttle surfing to silver in Mexico Photo: John Pounder

"We expected similar conditions with the sea breeze developing from noon each day but a slightly early start time for the masters meant the first race was invariably sailed in less than 10 knots but often building to 12 to 15 knots with beautiful surfing waves and 30 degrees temperature - champagne conditions", Lyttle told Afloat.

"I had put together a good series by the start of the last day with two races to be sailed in the lightest winds of the week with 10 and 14 points ahead of 3rd and 4th", he said.

Mark Lyttle clung on to second overall despite a strong challenge from Canada and Spain in the last of 12 races Photo: John Pounder/ILCA

Having rounded in third at the first mark and in good shape to secure second overall (leader Bayer was on course to win his 14th World masters title) I promptly dropped to 10th at the end in very tricky conditions. That meant a final race showdown with Andy Roy of Canada and Jose Van Der Ploeg of Spain. Each one of us was ahead at one stage but I managed a nice last beat with some tactical covering and hung on", Lyttle told Afloat.

Top three

1. Brett Beyer AUS 15
2. Mark Lyttle GBR/IRL 44
3. Andrew Roy CAN 48

Full results are here

18 Ukrainian ILCA/Laser sailors were outside of Ukraine, training or racing when the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine started at the end of February.

The sailors are mostly from Odesa and Kyiv and have been unable to return to their homes.

These sailors continue to train and compete internationally thanks to generous donations from the sailing community. The Irish Laser class association, ILCA Ireland, were quick to respond to the call for help and raised €1,500 in donations to support Ukrainian ILCA sailors.

Irish Laser sailors collected €700 which ILCA topped up to €1,500.

To assist this group, EurILCA (the European governing body for ILCA/ Laser dinghy) launched a crowdfunding campaign and requested assistance from the 42 district members across Europe; one of them being ILCA Ireland.

Donations are being managed by EurILCA with all collections going solely to support the ILCA Ukrainian team to travel, train and race. More information and link to make further donations HERE

Sofiia Naumenko, the 23-year-old ILCA 6 sailor from Dnipro, has coordinated the efforts.

In an interview on 21st May, she said; "When the war started, I was in Spain. I had no idea where to stay and so I was put in contact with a former windsurfer from my country who has lived in Spain for ten years. Her name is Olga Maslivets. She hosted me in her apartment and then helped me find a place to sleep both at the Europa Cup, held in Port de Pollenca, and at the Princesa Sofia Trophy, in Palma de Mallorca."

Sofiia is now training at lake Garda in Italy and commented; "Here in Italy the Ukrainian team is much bigger and therefore we all live in different places. After this regatta, I will go to France, to the Hyères Olympic Week, where I believe the organizing committee will help me find a cheap accommodation. After all, I expect to have to stay in Europe for a while longer. "

The 18 sailors from the Ukrainian ILCA team are:

1. Sofiia Naumenko (ILCA 6)
2. Devid Izmailovsky (ILCA 6/7)
3. Oskar Madonich (ILCA 7)
4. Andrii Verdysh (ILCA 6/7)
5. Danylo Raichuk (ILCA 6)
6. Ivan Zhukalin (ILCA 7)
7. Valeriy Kudryashov (ILCA 7)
8. Stanislav Mulko (ILCA 7)
9. Semen Khashchyna (ILCA 6)
10. Nazar Artiukh (ILCA 6)
11. Roman Akopov (ILCA 6)
12. Andrii Lipchenko (ILCA 6)
13. Yelyzaveta Vynohradova (ILCA 6)
14. Anna Dehasiuk (ILCA 6)
15. Ivan Pylypchii (ILCA 4)
16. Ivan Antipin (ILCA 4)
17. Varvara Postrelko (ILCA 4)
18. Denys Saidukov (ILCA 7)

The National Yacht Club's Mark Lyttle stays second going into the final two races of the 2022 ILCA 7/Laser Grand Masters World Championships in Mexico.

Canadian Allan Clark won the first race of the day – as a typical ILCA 6 sailor, the lighter wind suited him. The fleet’s leader of the week, Australian Brett Beyer, won the second race and continues to hold first overall. Ireland’s Mark Lyttle still sits in second and Spain’s Jose Maria Van Der Ploeg in third.  

Two final races are scheduled for Tuesday.

For full results, see here

The National Yacht Club's Mark Lyttle is going well at the 2022 ILCA 7 Masters World Championships in Mexico this weekend.

After six races sailed and one discard to count, the 1996 Atlanta Olympian is two points off the lead in a 24-boat fleet. 

The venue is the same as where Lyttle's clubmate Finn Lynch sailed to his second top ten at the ILCA Worlds late last month.

If the Dun Laoghaire sailor, who is based in the UK, is to reclaim his Grand Master World title in 2018 on home waters, he will need to dislodge all-around Masters legend Brett Beyer of Australia.

Beyer has just graduated from the 45-55 category and has four race wins in his score tally at the halfway point. He previously won seven Laser Apprentice Masters World Championships between 2001 and 2010.

Saturday was a reserve day at Vallarta Yacht Club, with racing scheduled to resume on Sunday running until Tuesday.

Results are here

British sailor Sam Whaley described the 2022 ILCA 7/Laser World Championships as the hardest six days of his life – as he notched up a personal best 11th-place finish.

From 64th in 2020 to 15th in the 2021 event, Whaley was within touching distance of the top ten at this year’s regatta in Vallarta, Mexico.

All four of the British Sailing team athletes came inside the top 20 of the 126-boat fleet for the second year in a row.

Whaley, 25, from Swanage, Dorset, said: “It’s been a really tough week out here in Mexico, but I’m over the moon with the result.

“The heat combined with some illness made the event the hardest six days of my entire life. However, I’m really happy with how I’ve been sailing and it’s great to knock in another solid result in such a high-profile fleet.”

Whaley moved in to the top ten with two second-place finishes of the six-race qualifying series. He remained there through the six-race finals before eventually dropping a spot on the final day.

Whaley added: “It was great to also knock in another solid worlds performance with Dan [Whiteley], together with Micky [Beckett] and Elliot [Hanson] - we’ve got a really good squad going at the moment.”

The top Brit was Tokyo 2020 Olympian Elliot Hanson who was knocking on the door of a podium finish right until the final day of the competition.

Hanson, who had two race wins in qualifying, had put himself in contention for a medal, but a final day 9th and DNC eventually meant a seventh-place finish.

Dan Whiteley put in another strong performance, which included a race win, to back up his top ten finish in 2021. He sat just behind teammate Whaley in 12th.

Micky Beckett rued his mistakes throughout the week to come home in 18th, but finishing on the high of a race win, the Pembrokeshire sailor aims to take the positives forward.

Beckett, 27, said: “I just made far too many mistakes. It’s been a tough week where I kept trying to get it right, but ultimately never did. I'm looking forwards to a break and figuring out how best to learn from this.”

Full results can be found here

The well supported 2022 ILCA/Laser Master Championship 2022 at the National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire Harbour saw a combined fleet of 56 boats - including UK visitors - for the weekend championship in the south of Dublin Bay.

Six races were sailed in light to medium winds in both the ILCA 6 (Radial) and ILCA 7 (Standard rig) rigs over trapezoid courses.

There was a combined fleet of 56 boats for the ILCA Masters Championships made up of 32 ILCA 6 rigs and 24 ILCA 7s Photo: Afloat

Prizes were awarded for age categories in each rig type; 30 years to 44 – Apprentice, 45 to 54 – Master, 55 to 64 – Grand Master and 65 to 74 – Great Grand Master.

Wicklow helmsman Michael Norman is the 2022 Great Grandmaster ILCA 6 champion

Wicklow helmsman Michael Norman is the 2022 Great Grandmaster champion in the 32-boat ILCA 6 class. The Grandmaster titleholder is Sean Craig of the Royal St. George Yacht Club and his Dun Laoghaire clubmate Brendan Hughes is the Master champion.

Brendan Hughes is the ILCA 6 Master champion Photo: Afloat

The ILCA 6 Apprentice title was won by Malahide's Darren Griffin. 

In the ILCA 6 Female fleet, a closely fought battle for national champion saw Judy O'Beirne of the Royal St George Yacht Club win over her clubmate Shirley Gilmore. Alison Pigot of the National Yacht Club was third female. 

Royal Cork's Nick Walsh is the Grandmaster champion (above) Photo: Afloat

Royal Cork's Nick Walsh wins the pin end in a start at the ILCA Masters on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

In the ILCA 7, Charlie Taylor from Balyholme Yacht Club takes the Great Grandmaster title while Cork sailors took the rest of the silverware. Royal Cork's Nick Walsh is the Grandmaster champion. Dan O'Connell is the Master Champion and Apprentice champion is Kieran Dorgan of Cove Sailing Club. 

Results are here