Two events over the Easter break drew masses of dinghy sailors to Cork, proving that there's life in the small boats yet.
I spoke to the ISA's Youth & Development Manager Rory Fitzpatrick last night, 'fresh' from ten days of solid sailing action. Rory placed second at the Laser Munsters in Baltimore the weekend before last, a regatta that saw 147 sailors out on the water across three fleets for two days' racing.
From there Rory travelled west to Schull to marshall 168 youth sailors, who hit the waves for the ISA Youth Nationals & Junior Pathway Championship, with five classes competing. This is the main event for youths in Ireland, and forms the keystone in the selection process for events like the ISAF Youth Worlds.
To have 168 youths in the one place is encouraging for the future of dinghies in Ireland, particularly when you consider that great masses of the Optimist fleet, Ireland's biggest little one-design fleet, weren't included. (The Optimists had 200 boats at the nationals in '08 - only 21 were on show at Schull).
So that's 211 boats in the water across just two events in the last ten days. I'll be the first to put my hand up and say that I thought the ISA was guilty of nailing down the lid on dinghy sailing's coffin, back when they removed the racing focus from the junior syllabus to bring in daysailing options. But with a more structured 'pathway' being defined, it seems they might be on the right track after all. Let's hope they can keep the youngsters in dinghies right through to senior level now.
