The Irish Laser Class Association is responding to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation with autumn amendments to its 2020 events calendar. 

ILA events will now only be run in Level 2 venues and will restrict participants from counties of Level 3 and above, the class association has announced.

It follows its last-minute cancellation of the Laser Masters event in Dun Laoghaire as Level 3 measures were announced for Dublin city and county on September 18th.

The dinghy class says it intends to proceed with its Munster Championship at Kinsale Yacht Club, County Cork on a restricted basis next weekend (2rd/4th October). 

In an update to members, the association says that 'It is with regret. however. that we would ask all sailors from Level 3 counties DO NOT attend this event"

The association said this is being done "in the interests of participant safety and to show our commitment and willingness to adhere to all government advice".

Likewise, the Laser Connaught Championships planned for Lough Derg Yacht Club in Tipperary on the 17th/18th October will also be run on a restricted basis.

The Leinster Championships planned for Howth Yacht Club on 31st Oct/1st November has been postponed.

Two of Ireland's three Olympic men's Laser campaigners finished in the top ten of the Italian Olympic Week fleet today even though they didn't manage to sail the final race in Follonica.

Howth's Ewan McMahon closed the gap on the National Yacht Club's Finn Lynch when he moved up from 12th to finish tenth overall, just three places behind the 2016 Rio rep. Ballyholme's Liam Glynn finished 21st in the 88-boat fleet. 

It all adds up to an exciting Irish contest where the prize will be a place at the Tokyo Olympics if a nation berth can be won by any of the three.

As Afloat reported last November, before any Irish Olympic nomination can be conferred at least one of the three must win one of two final European Olympic slots remaining but that Olympic qualifying regatta will not now be held until 2021. 

Racing was cut short for the Irish trio in Italy today as they ditched the last race of the series this afternoon in order to catch a flight home before Italy closed to Ireland as a 'green listed' country in the latest round of COVID travel restrictions.

Both American Charlie Buckingham and Brazilian Robert Scheidt managed to overhaul overnight leader Guatemalan Juan Ignacio Maegli for the overall win, according to provisional results issued.

Download results below

The next event for the Irish Laser men is the Europeans in Poland, Gdynia, 6th to 12th of October.

The Irish Laser men who are in a three-way battle for 2021's single Tokyo Olympic berth resumed their fight after the COVID hiatus at Italian Olympic week in Follonica this weekend. 

With six races sailed, the National Yacht Club's Finn Lynch, the 2016 Irish Olympic representative, is seventh in the 88-boat fleet, five places ahead of Howth Yacht Club's Ewan McMahon. Ballyholme's Liam Glynn is lying 15th.

Unfortunately, the Irish trio spent a fruitless day afloat today with no wind to even get one race sailed. However, stronger scirocco winds are forecast to complete the series tomorrow with an early start.

Guatemalan Juan Ignacio Maegli (6 points) leads from American Charlie Buckingham (7) with Brazilian Robert Scheidt (8) only two points off the lead. 

As Afloat reported last November, before any Irish Olympic nomination can be conferred at least one of the three must win one of two final European Olympic slots remaining but that Olympic qualifying regatta will not now be held until 2021. 

The trio is joined in Italy this week by Radial teammate Annalise Murphy who leads her 41-boat division.

Rio Olympic silver medalist Annalise Murphy continues her preparations for Tokyo 2021 with an overall lead at the Italian Olympic Classes Championships at Follonica. 

In a 41-boat Laser Radial fleet, the Irish star remains at the top of the leaderboard on six points after the penultimate day's racing was cancelled due to lack of wind. The National Yacht Club solo sailor leads Italian Silvia Zennaro. Third overall is the Norwegian Host Lineflen. Many of Murphy's key rivals for Olympic Gold next year are not contesting the Italian championships.

After a long day at sea to try and complete at least one race, the wait was in vain and racing was officially abandoned at 5 pm this evening. 

A strong scirocco wind is expected for tomorrow's final three races, conditions in which Ireland's 'Breeze Queen' has proved unstoppable so many times before.

As Afloat reported previously, Murphy is on her way to the European Championships in Poland in early October having finished 14th at Kiel Week in Germany last week.

This weekend's Irish Laser Masters National Championships on Dublin Bay have been cancelled in the light of looming Level 3 COVID restrictions for the capital this weekend. It is the second time the event has been affected by Coronavirus.

The last-minute cancellation was issued to competitors this afternoon as the Irish Laser Class Association came to terms with 'the very challenging and uncertain times'. 

As Afloat reported earlier, despite the host club making use of its Virtual Race Office for competitors and observing all social distance guidelines, it was decided not to proceed with the single-handed event.

In a communication to competitors this afternoon via Whatsapp, DBSC Laser Class Captain and Laser Masters Nationals Event Chairperson, Gavan Murphy told competitors:  ‘Folks, regrettably, we have to cancel the Laser Masters Nationals. Although Irish Sailing and the Royal St. George Yacht Club gave us their full backing and support to proceed with the event, the Irish Laser Class Association no longer feel it is prudent to proceed due to recent COVID-19 developments and a potential travel ban in Dublin. We apologise for the last-minute nature of this change, however, as I’m sure you’ll all appreciate, we’re operating in very challenging and uncertain times. The Irish Laser Class Association will refund you all in due course. Hope to see you all on the water again very soon’.

The Royal St George Yacht Club event was one of the first to reschedule in the wake of coronavirus restrictions earlier this year and, unfortunately, it is again one of the first to have to cancel ahead of new measures expected to be implemented this weekend in the capital.

In other news, the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions are now available for the Laser Munster Championships scheduled to take place on the weekend of 3-4 October at Kinsale Yacht Club.

Other 2020 Irish Laser fixture dates are: 

• Laser CONNAUGHT Championships 17th/18th October, LDYC
• Laser LEINSTER Championships 31st Nov/1st Oct, HYC

Storm Ellen and COVID-19 have combined to bring about the cancellation of this week's Irish Laser National Championships in Cork Harbour, one of the biggest dinghy sailing events of the year. 

Both the AIB Irish Laser National Championships, hosted by the Royal Cork YC, and the Irish Laser 4.7 National Championships hosted by Monkstown Bay SC, have been cancelled according to a statement released from organisers tonight.

As Afloat reported earlier, included in the line up of over 100 competitors due into Cork Harbour on Thursday was Tokyo 2021 representative Annalise Murphy who was set to resume domestic competition in the single-handed class in one of the most hotly contested dinghy battles of the season.

The statement says "Both organising Clubs, along with the Irish Laser Association and Irish Sailing have given careful consideration to both public health guidelines and also the impending Storm Ellen due to hit Ireland on Thursday and Friday"

The statement adds: "Notwithstanding the ability for the event to run behind closed doors under the revised guidelines, the combination of that, the weather alert impacting sailing on Thursday and Friday and the number of people travelling, it was decided to cancel the event in the best interest of competitors, officials and everyone involved".

Ireland's Tokyo 2021 representative Annalise Murphy is set to rejoin the national Laser dinghy racing scene after a seven-year hiatus when she sails next week at the 2020 Laser national championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club.

The Rio Olympic silver medalist makes her return in Cork Harbour, the same venue she last sailed at a nationals in 2013, months before her European title win on her home waters at Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

Murphy is not the only Irish Olympic campaigner competing either as the battle for National honours heats up at Crosshaven from August 20th to 23rd.

As Afloat reported previously, due to COVID-19, the three fleet 2020 championships, one of the biggest dinghy events of the 2020 calendar, will now be split between two venues in the Harbour and be run separately.

The National Yacht Club ace will confront Aoife Hopkins and Eve McMahon, both unsuccessful rivals in the controversially cut-short trial for Tokyo 2021 who will also be competing in a mixed Radial fleet of 60 plus sailors. There is no entry – so far – however for Lough Derg's Aisling Keller, another 2021 trialist and the 2018 Irish champion who secured Ireland's berth for Tokyo.

Murphy's clubmate, Rio rep Finn Lynch, who is still bidding for a Tokyo nomination in the men's class will be in action in the 30-boat standard rig division as are other 2021 trialists Ewan McMahon of Howth and Belfast Lough's Liam Glynn.

The entry list is here

Royal Cork Yacht Club is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to stage next week's Laser dinghy National Championships, one of the flagship events of its tricentenary celebrations in Cork Harbour.

With the postponement of Phase 4 COVID 19 restrictions, the hosts are not in a position to locate all sailors in the proposed format of three fleets.

In order to ensure that they can hold a safe event, the AIB Sponsored Nationals will, therefore, be split into two events, according to an update from the Laser class.

The position now for the event is that the Radials and Standards will be based in Crosshaven, while 4.7s will be based in Ringaskiddy, where a new slip will give easy access to the lower harbour.

• Standard and Radial Nationals hosted by the RCYC
• Laser 4.7 Nationals hosted by Monkstown Bay Sailing Club (MBSC)

"The 4.7 Nationals are now being hosted by MBSC, an entirely separate event with separate documentation, organisation committees, a separate venue (Paddys Point, Ringaskiddy) and a separate race course",  Royal Cork's Alex Barry told Afloat.

It is expected further details will be available in the next few days. The event starts on August 20th.

Senior sailor and noted offshore veteran Frank Larkin of Limerick claims he only got his latest Laser a year or so ago as a present for himself for his 73rd birthday, and for “just the occasional sail to keep in trim”.

But it looks as though the canny curmudgeon has lost none of his competitive cunning with victory in a varied fleet of 24 boats in Killaloe’s disarmingly-described “Covid-19 Training Race” this weekend. For “training”, read “Red Hot Racing”….. And In it, we note that sail numbers indicate that some Lasers were even newer than the Larkin Lovely, suggesting that the Laser is living up to expectations as the No 1 Covid Buster, something already demonstrated with their turnout "way beyond expectations” at the recent Greystones pop-up challenge and also on Dublin Bay in the DBSC dinghy league

Results from Killaloe here

DBSC dinghy sailing continued its strong turnout for the first Saturday racing of the 2020 season. Over 40 Dinghies turned out for three races in a moderate westerly wind inside Dun Laoghaire Harbour yesterday.

Royal St. George's Theo Lyttle won two races in the Laser standard division and the National Yacht Club's Conor Gorman was a double race winner in the Radial. Full results below:

Race 1

PY Class: 1.  B Foley, 2. R Tate, 3. C O'Kelly

Fireball: 1. F Miller, 2. O Sinnott

Laser Standard: 1. R Wallace, 2. T Lyttle, 3. M Hennessy

Laser Radial: 1. C Gorman, 2. R Geraghty-McDonnell, 3. K Walker

Laser 4.7: 1. A Daly, 2. A Irvin, 3. F McDonnell

Race 2

PY Class: 1. B Foley, 2. R Tate

Fireball: 1. F Miller, 2. O Sinnott

Laser Standard: 1. T Lyttle, 2. M Hennessy, 3. B Owens-Murphy

Laser Radial: 1. R Geraghty-McDonnell, 2. S Craig, 3. C Gorman

Laser 4.7: 1. F McDonnell, 2. L Turvey, 3. A Daly

Race 3

PY Class: 1. R Tate, 2. B Foley, 3. C O'Kelly

Fireball: 1. F Miller, 2. O Sinnott

Laser Standard: 1. T Lyttle, 2. M Hennessy, 3. F Walker

Laser Radial: 1. C Gorman, 2. R Geraghty-McDonnell, 3. M Norman

Laser 4.7: 1. L Turvey, 2. F McDonnell, 3. A Daly