Irish youth sailing sensation Finn Lynch has won the Laser 4.7 prize sailing in Lake Garda in Italy this month, the win was recorded at his first international event since moving to the Laser class. Lynch from the National Yacht Club came tenth overall in a fleet of 230 competitive boats. Lynch, from Blessington, is reigning UK and Irish Topper Champion. He also finished second in the Topper worlds championships last season before moving to the Laser class.

Lynch's Dun Laoghaire club mate Tadgh Donnelly followed closely as seventh U16 sailor and 54th overall. In the Radials Rory Lynch and Philip Doran both finished in the top third of a fleet of 220 boats with some very good races during the event.

Podcast on youth sailing with Olympic team manager James O'Callaghan.

In spite of a final race win overall victory escaped Carlow's Finn Lynch at the Topper World Championships on Lake Garda. At the halfway stage of the event the Blessington sailor was lying joint second but the next nine races saw a number of changes at the top of the leaderboard. Italy's Michele Benamati emerged as winner after 15 races on 28 points leaving Lynch, who won the British topper title in July, fourth overall in the 124 boat fleet. Official results HERE.

With Tuesday's protests completed, the Gold and Silver Fleets were decided for the Volvo Laser SB3 World Championships finals and a further three races were scheduled for each of the fleets yesterday, taking the Championship race tally to nine.

Top Irish boats are skipperd by Dave Cheyne and Gareth Flannigan, in 27th and 31st respectively. The Gold Fleet is incredibly strong, including many great sailors with past Laser SB3 pedigree as well as a number of strong contenders from the wider sailing world. A measure of that is Geoff Carveth, who won the inaugural Laser SB3 Worlds in Dun Laoghaire, in 21st overall in Lake GardaThe Silver Fleet may not be racing for the Waterford Championships Trophy, but do not be fooled, their fleet will be competitive to the very end. 

On the third attempt, the Gold Fleet were successfully away under the fear of a black flag start. The majority of the fleet picked the left hand side of the course, but at the windward mark, the right hand side of the course had clearly paid.

UK Class Chairman, Jerry Hill (GBR) and his crew onboard 3 Sad Old Blokes notched up some great results for their first finals races taking bullets in the first and second races today. Hill lead to the first windward mark in each race and extended his lead on each leg. It was suggested to Hill that he had made it look easy to win those races, his response, “I’m sure we will make it look very hard before the end of the event!” 

Geoff Carveth was back in race mode today, having suffered a broken rudder gudgeon yesterday. Ben Saxton and his young crew onboard Rola-Trac are enjoying great consistency during their first season in the Laser SB3, they’ve posted some excellent results so far and are certainly a boat to watch at this event and in the future. 

Gill Race Team’s Craig Burlton, Steve ‘AB’ White and Adam Heeley (GBR) had a frustrating first race today, but managed to turn their success around with 2 second places in races 8 and 9. Steve ‘AB’ White said, “It was a tough day at the office today, very few boats managed consistency in all 3 races and only Sarah Allan (GBR) finished in the top 10 in each race. We seem to be a magnet to Luca Rodion (RUS), each race we are sailing in the same piece of water!” Burlton and Rodion lie first and second respective in the Gold Fleet, perhaps that is more of a reason for the 2 teams magnetism! 

Boomsticks, helmed by Brian Reilly and crewed by brother Paul Reilly and John O’Dowd (IRL) had a successful day on the Silver Fleet race course finishing the day with a 2, 3, 1 to add to their results. Their closest competition appears to be the Italians onboard Bravi helmed by Vincenzo Graciotti who took two bullets and a fifth today. 

Vincenzo Graciotti leads the Silver Fleet overnight, and claims, “I can compete in this fleet because I have silver hair! Today we wore our lucky bear t-shirts, perhaps tonight we will wash them and wear them again tomorrow!”

A Worlds entry list that tops the ton shows that the SB3 could well be a sportsboat class with real sticking power. The 2010 World Championship for the Laser SB3 will be hosted by Circolo Vela Torbole, Lake Garda, Italy from 19 – 23 July 2010. The entry list has topped 100 boats, and is still growing. No surprises there then! Entries flooded into Circolo Vela Torbole as soon as the entry list opened in February, a clear demonstration of the popularity of Lake Garda as a venue for major events. 

Representatives from sixteen nations will compete in the World Championships, the largest spread of that the Laser SB3 class has ever enjoyed. Forty boats will attend from the UK, still the largest national entry and the host nation field a twenty boat entry, their largest turn out to a World Championships yet. Entries come from as far afield as Australia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and South Africa. Ireland, France, The Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Ukraine and Russia will all be represented in Torbole in July. 

The two Laser SB3 World Champions, Geoff Carveth (2008 Champion, Dun Laoghaire) and Craig Burlton (2009 Champion, Cascais) will both compete again for the Championship title and the honour of lifting the Waterford Crystal Trophy on Friday 23 July. Both Carveth and Burlton are British and so far the Laser SB3 World Championship has not been won by another nation. John Pollard, another British sailor recently won the Laser SB3 Volvo Cup on Lake Garda by a good margin and will be gunning hard for the top of the fleet. 

However, this event is far from a walk over for the Brits! Tough competition will be provided by the Russian entry helmed by Ukrainian Rodion Luka who recently won the Laser SB3 Eurocup in Morgat, France. Luka, who took silver at the 2004 Olympics in Athens in the 49er class has already demonstrated good boat speed and hot tactics on the race course. Father and son, David and Roger Hudson, the founders of the South African sailing foundation “Race Ahead”, will field two entries, crewed by sailors from the foundation. Race Ahead has achieved second at the World Championships in 2008 and 2009. Will it be third time lucky for them? 

For a number of the crews taking part in the 2010 Laser SB3 World Championships, this will be their first trip to Lake Garda, but for many, a trip down memory lane. Laser SB3 World Class President Dave Cheyne (IRL) can barely contain his excitement! “We have some mouth watering racing ahead of us! There are forty seven entries already for the Italian Nationals, we have an absolutely incredible few weeks of sailing coming up!”

Entrants will be split into two qualifying fleets for the first six races of the World Championships. Gold and silver fleet finals will begin on Wednesday 21st July. For anybody still wanting to enter, there is still time. Please contact Katie Ashworth via the website for further details. 

The Laser SB3 Italian National Championships will take place in Torbole, from 25th – 27th June. A number of keen teams from across Europe will travel to Italy early for a pre-match warm up and to eye up the local competition. 

LaserPerformance through Italian dealer Negri Nautica www.negrinautica.com will provide event support to the Italian Nationals and the World Championships ensuring every boat is able to race each day. Negri Nautica will also be making special offers to the fleet on spares and sails. 

The Laser SB3 Class proudly claims to be one of the most tightly restricted one design keelboat classes in the world with little variation from the builder’s final product permitted. With minimal maintenance, easy to trail and low campaign cost, the class thrives on its philosophy of providing inclusive, high intensity, great fun and easily attainable, quality racing for it’s members.