On the first day of the Irish Olympic 49er trial, Royal Cork Yacht Club's Seafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan had a better day than rivals Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) for the Paris 2024 berth later this summer.
Thanks to a second place in the opening race followed up with two 14th places, at one stage the Cork Harbour pair were on course for a top three finish in the third race except the duo had a capsize from which they quickly recovered to be 17th overall.
Racing for the second flight of boats in this initial qualification round was delayed for almost two hours as the race course was shifted to find better wind conditions. This group included Ireland's second pairing of Dickson and Waddilove who had a fifth as their best result of the day along with a tenth and a 21st. to lie 21st overall.
The Dublin pair are part of Irish Sailing's Senior Squad and qualified for Ireland in November for the men's skiff event for the Paris 2024 Olympics. They are now competing in a selection trials series against the Cork crew, which is competing independently until they regain a place in the squad.
Three events comprised of these world championships plus the French Olympic Week next month and then the 49er European Championships in early May will decide which of the two crews will take the sole Irish place for Marseille in July.
"It was good to get started after a long winter and we've worked bloody hard," commented Johnny Durcan. "We've a new boat and gear and we're going really fast which was an area that we struggled with at the Europeans in October so it paid dividends today."
Conditions saw a northerly wind affected by the large mountains close by leading to very shifty wind direction though Durcan pointed out that this is one of Guilfoyle's strengths.
"We enjoyed the challenge of the shifty stuff but it was really, really tricky," he said. "We've a long way to go but the forecast looks good so we're filled with confidence."
It was a similar story for the second Irish crew who had a later finish due to the course problems.
"We had good starts so we were pretty happy overall with how we sailed," commented Robert Dickson. "We were very happy with our result at the Europeans but its too early to tell yet as the conditions here are very different and will probably show different strengths that we've been working on (over the winter training period."
The early days theme was reflected in Irish Sailing coach Matt McGovern's assessment of the day watching the Howth and Skerries duo. "Rob and Sean had fantastic starts in the first two races and were early leaders but the shifts seemed to go against them," he said. "In the third race they dug back well to get a fifth so it's all to play for as its early days."
The American duo Andrew Mollerus and Ian McDiarmid claimed the lead, which was closely pursued by defending champions Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken from the Netherlands.
Racing continues with three races scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday to decide the Gold fleet split before the final round commences and Sunday's medal race for the top ten overall.
There a number of other standout performances today, notably the British team of James Grummett and Rhos Hawes who have missed Olympic selection but are another team pushing for LA 2028. They sit in 4th overall ahead of Mikolaj Staniul and Jakub Sztorch in 5th, a useful start for this Polish team in a tough selection trials for Paris 2024.
It’s a similar forecast of northerly offshore breeze for day two, so we can expect some big changes on the leaderboard as the 126 teams strive to achieve the almost impossible task of staying consistent.