#helmsmans – The stakes are raised in this weekend's All Ireland Senior Sailing Championship at Dromineer on Lough Derg following the success of the Junior Championship in Schull a fortnight ago. In some of the best sailing conditions of 2012, the new junior title holder by a clear margin was West Cork's Fionn Lyden (17), who has since been declared the Afloat.ie/Irish Independent "Sailor of the Month" for September.

But Lyden has been allowed little time to reflect on his success. He's back in the fray this weekend in the seniors event, and the lineup he will face racing in the SailFleet J/80s contains some formidable talent, including defending champion George Kenefick (24) of Crosshaven.

Former champion Mark Mansfield has been on top form recently, heading the racing in the 1720s, and he is fired up to avenge the narrow defeat inflicted on him by Kenefick at the same venue a year ago in this championship.

As the racing is in a specialized boat which does not feature as a supported class at any Irish sailing centre, the hope is that the competition will be as even as possible among sailors who usually helm craft of many different types. But of course the wind strengths will play a major role regardless of how even the racing is in theory, and predictions for this weekend suggest a wide variety of conditions.

Today's expected light breezes could inflict havoc in the programme, but the prospect of a freshening southeaster tomorrow – albeit with rain later – will provide ample opportunities to get a result before the weekend is out.

The lineup includes an interesting mixture of sailing specialities, including two veterans of the 2012 Olympics, Star class helm Peter O'Leary from Cork and the 49er's Ryan Seaton from Ballyholme.

Carrickfergus is putting forward Trevor Kirkpatrick, the helm from the Ruffian 23 class on Belfast Lough. It is of course the hope of all club sailors that some day the All Ireland will throw up an unexpected winner from one of the minor leagues. But that hasn't happened for a long time now, and by tomorrow afternoon the smart money is betting that it will be the big guns yet again in the final shootout.

Thus the likelihood of Royal Cork dominating with Mansfield, Kennefick and O'Leary setting the pace is high, but as well there are several highly possible contenders in the form of Tim Goodbody, Ben Duncan, David Dickson, Fionn Lyden, and Alan Ruigrok.

THE SOD IS YOUR FLEXIBLE FRIEND

When you consider the nationwide spread of the home ports of these top sailing talents, there's inescapable logic in staging the All Ireland on Lough Derg, as it and Lough Ree are about as central as you can get in Ireland. It was back in 1982 that I first saw what Dromineer could do when the Helmsmans Championship was staged in Shannon One Designs, and the winner was Dave Cummins of Sutton, crewed by Gordon Maguire no less, and Joe MacSweeney.

There was no lack of wind at that championship, but as John Lefroy's 1874-built all-iron former steam yacht Phoenix was the committee boat, the race officers (Jock Smith was OOD) at least were comfortably ensconced, and when the racing was completed we took the Phoenix up the lough at full chat just for the hell of it, giving a passable impression of a destroyer at the Battle of Jutland.

She'd turn round and look at you". Even in a moderate breeze, the Shannon One Design (sailed here by Sid Shine of Lough Ree) develops a marked twist in her hull.

As for the Shannon One Designs being sailed as hard as they could go by Ireland's brightest and best, they coped remarkably well, though inevitably there were breakages. The design having been developed from slim lake boats, the clinker hulls tend to twist a bit when pinned in for hard windward work - as Pompey Delaney used to say, in a breeze they'd turn round and look at you.

Both Dave Cummins and Gordon Maguire have been Australia-based for many years now, and of course Gordon was sailing master aboard the superb 63ft Loki, overall winner of the most recent Sydney-Hobart Race. He was home recently with his family for a few weeks holiday, and caught me out round the back of Howth YC in the boatyard in the midst of the keel and rudder re-configuration which is the current boat project (and has been for quite some time). Fortunately the great man dropped by at a stage when the job was going well, which isn't necessarily always the case. It's a bit unnerving, to say the least, to have your work evaluated by a Sydney-Hobart winner who is also trained in engineering, but if he thought the whole thing was crazy, he was still too polite to say so.

DESJOY FOR DESJOYEAUX

The fantastic trimarans of the MOD 70 class will by now be cherishing their memories of the great racing they had in Dublin Bay in good breezes on Saturday September 8th, as they have finally completed their European Tour at Genoa, and lack of wind has been a problem for much of the southern section of the programme.

Michel Desjoyeaux emerged as overall winner of the EuroTour on Foncia. But "emerged" is very much the word, as the final miles into Genoa saw these mighty machines crawling along at just two knots in the finest of zephyrs. It looked as though Spindrift Racing had it all sewn up, but by snatching a couple of places virtually on the finish line – just as he did on the stage from Kiel to Dun Laoghaire – the Foncia skipper carried off the cup, while Spindrift Racing was the season's winner when the Transatlantic results are combined with the EuroTour points.

Despite the subdued finish, the potential of this new class to provide spectacular sailing in a manageable budget has been amply proven, and it provides a marked contrast with the America's Cup, where the focus has swung to San Francisco and next year's series.

Foncia (Michel Desjoyeaux, seen here in Dublin Bay) has won the MOD 70s EuroTour, while Spindrift Racing is the season's champion. Photo W M Nixon

That will be raced in 70ft catamarans, and the first of these awesome and unbelievably expensive machines has been showing her paces. But meanwhile not everyone is a happy budgie in San Francisco, where a proposed major development of two piers to provide useful shore bases for challengers has been changed into an intention to have all the action focused more on the Golden Gate Yacht Club.

As ever with the America's Cup, massive sums of money top the agenda, and you can understand the frustration of the few remaining challengers as they take on the huge resources of Larry Ellison. After all, how can a few guys from New Zealand and their mates expect to face up to someone who has recently been able to buy quite a substantial Hawaiian island out of pocket money?

Arise, Schull, and take your place among the great sailing centres of the world. Move over Sydney. Newport stand aside. Cowes make room. The port in West Cork is punching way above its weight, and last weekend it hosted a superb National Junior Championship which saw a local boy as runaway winner against the best that Ireland can produce.

Fionn Lyden (17) is the Afloat.ie/Irish Independent "Sailor of the Month" for September after nine wins in nine races in the Irish Sailing Association Junior All Ireland Sailing Championship, racing in a fleet of 21 of the top helming talents recruited nationwide.

But what we're celebrating here isn't just one special talent, rather it's the entire Schull spirit with a thriving Community College which has sailing and maritime studies at the heart of its curriculum. It's not something which has happened overnight. It has been built up by many dedicated enthusiasts over decades, and today's rich legacy of healthy involvement with boats and sailing invigorates the town and its part of West Cork, an enormous credit to those who have worked away in the background to make it happen, and keep it happening.

These days the leading organisational figure is David Harte. Lucky indeed is Schull, that this was the place this exceptionally talented sailor, teacher and boat builder always called home while he developed his early career at the sharp end of international sailing all over the world.

The racing last weekend under Harte's direction was in the boats of the Schull-developed TR 3.6 class, and as they're sailed two up it could be argued that this gave an advantage to those accustomed to double-handed dinghies. But that's the way it is in sailing, and as the programme of close racing in good condition in a steady easterly unfolded, it was clear that the local duo of Fionn Lyden and school colleague Anna O'Regan were in a league of their own.

Their closest challenger initially was Finn Lynch of the National YC in Dun Laoghaire, winner of the Laser Single-handed Silver Medal at the ISAF Youth Worlds in July (when he was Sailor of the Month). In the end with Lynch being tripped by a tenth in the final race, it was Lydens all the way, as Eoin Lyden made it first and second for Schull, with Lynch third, while Anna Keller of Lough Derg was first girl at 7th overall, Laura Gilmore of Strangford Lough taking second at 9th OA.

HOW GO THE MOD 70s?

Memories of the spectacular visit of the five MOD 70 trimarans to Dun Laoghaire three weeks ago now seem almost dreamlike, but their show goes on with the boats gathered in Marseilles for another weekend of "City Racing". The weather in the western Mediterranean is not expected to be good this weekend, but at this stage almost any wind is welcome, even if it means rainstorms, as they'd a very slow race from Cascais in Portugal.

It breezed up towards the finish, and as Michel Desjoyeaux of Foncia reported, they covered far more ground in the final 12 hours than they had in the previous two days. Musandam Oman (whose crew includes Round Ireland record holder Brian Thompson) was winner, despite logging an average speed of only 11.35 knots for the 1030 mile course from Portugal, but Foncia still leads overall.

QUIET WAY ROUND

While we've been much excited by the MOD 70s circus and other high profile events of late, it's useful to remember that a significant portion of sailing take place far from the glare of publicity. Some ocean voyagers may find it impossible to sail their miles without the world endlessly knowing about it, but there are others who cross the oceans almost permanently under the radar of public attention, "cruising without fuss" as Eric Hiscock, that diffident guru of long distance sailing, used to put it.

Pylades at sea, making knots on her round the world voyage

The spirit of Eric Hiscock was evoked in late July when Fergus and Kay Quinlan returned to Kinvara on Galway Bay with their 12 metre steel cutter Pylades, which they built themselves between 1995 and 1997. Almost immediately after the launching, they began long distance cruising. But then three years ago Fergus stood aside from his job as an architect (there wasn't much going on in the building business in 2009, and it showed no signs of improvement any time soon), and they took off from Kinvara round the world.

These days, round the world voyages are usually made within the contemporary world's convenient infrastructure, with crews availing of cheap flights to return home from time to time. But the Quinlans decided they were going to do things the Hiscock way, circling the globe with no intention of returning home to County Clare until the voyage was finished, and the boat was home with them.

They've kept in touch with a couple of logs in the Irish Cruising Club Annual, and they were Sailors of the Month back in February for their award of the ICC's premier trophy, the Faulkner Cup, for the account of the middle part of their circumnavigation. But mostly through being low profile and seeking out remote places, they've managed to blend in with isolated island communities, and in their turn they have brought a convivial spirit of north Clare with them.

Now they're home, and at least the weather has improved since the dismal days of July. Whether or not the economy is really on the mend is another matter altogether. But meanwhile, for anyone who has known of their remarkable project, the voyage of the Pylades has been a quiet inspiration in difficult times.

Home are the sailors – Fergus and Kay Quinlan come back to Clare to find a spot of rain

#sailor of the month  – Annalise Murphy of the National YC in Dun Laoghaire is the Irish Afloat.ie/Irish Independent "Sailor of the Month" for August following her outstanding performance in the London Olympics. The talented and dedicated 22-year-old had the entire country in thrall as she battled with the fierce challenge of being top of the Women's Laser Radial class, and her fourth place overall, shy of a medal by fractions of a second, is the best Irish Olympic Sailing Result for thirty years.

Merely to describe her result as fourth overall fails completely to capture the essence of Murphy's performance. For about half of the regatta, she was in the Gold Medal slot. Then having slipped down to bronze rankings, she regained the top place with only one race to sail.

At this level of sailing, being top leaves a helm open to all sorts of joint challenges by those nearest in rankings. Like it or not, this is the way it is in sailing. Because there are ten boats involved, and with the wind being the motive power, the opportunities to block off a clear breeze or create other distractions for those heading the points table are there for the taking. When a leader is slowed back by one boat, two or three others can climb up the rankings at the previous leader's expense.

With four of the world's top women sailors in contention for the Gold going into that final race, the pressure was unbelievable. And with the race being staged in the fluky breezes close in off the Nothe at Weymouth, tiny gains could suddenly become significant gaps through vagaries of the wind.

It tells us everything about the stratospheric level of sailing in the Olympics that despite conditions which would have seen club racers spread over a wide time band, the Women's Laser Radials were finishing in tight order. But within that order, it was the Irish girl who - after leading for most of the series - lost out in the final leg.

But despite the outcome, throughout Ireland - maybe for the first time - people fully appreciated what is involved. Through her achievements and popular appeal, Annalise Murphy did more to raise the profile of our sport than any other Irish sailor in this extraordinary year, or indeed for many years.

DUBLIN BAY SPEED SAILING SUPERSHOW NEXT WEEK

The National Yacht Club, current Mitsubishi Motors Sailing Club of the Year, is setting a hectic pace throughout 2012, and tomorrow sees the international sailing focus swinging towards the club in its hospitable corner of Dun Laoghaire harbour as the European Tour of the five new MOD 70 class boats gets going from Kiel on Germany's Baltic coast, racing north round Scotland and on towards Ireland and the NYC in Dun Laoghaire.

Back in July, these 70ft trimarans leapt into prominence with their first major race, the Krys Transatlantic from New York to Brest. Not only did they see two of the boats average better than 25 knots across the pond to establish a new Transatlantic record, but they arrived in good order nicely on time for Bastille Day, and just after Groupama had won the Volvo Race for France. For the French sailing community, it was as good a Bastille Day as anyone could remember.

Since then, other nations have been making the global sailing headlines with the Olympics, and more recently the acceleration of the America's Cup programme in San Francisco. But as of tomorrow, France and the mighty MOD 70s will be top of the bill. They'll be in and around Dublin Bay from 5th to 9th September. After the rather sedate Parade of Sail which concluded the visit of the Tall Ships last weekend, next week we're going to have the opportunity to see sailing in which "sedate" will most emphatically not be the mot juste.

A Centenarian on the silver sea – Ainmara has been stepping out in style for her hundredth birthday. Photo: W M Nixon

SPRITELY CENTENARIAN GOES ISLAND-HOPPING

We took a break from last weekend's posting to go off with Dickie Gomes for the Centenary Cruise of his 1912-built 36ft yawl Ainmara. Those who knew Tiger Gomes in his glory days as a round Ireland record-maker and ace skipper of some notable top end offshore racers may not be aware that, since 1966, he has also been the owner of Ainmara, the first yacht designed and built in Ringsend by John B Kearney.

Admittedly the demands on the Gomes sailing talent were such that Ainmara spent many years as the sleeping princess in a shed at the Gomes farm. But with the Centenary coming up, her prince bestirred himself, she was put afloat for the first time in 28 years last year, and for this season a Centenary Cruise to familiar stomping grounds in the Hebrides was mooted.

It was back in 1960 that I made my first charter cruise in Ainmara to the Scottish west coast. She seemed quite an old boat then, at the age of 48, so getting the head round the fact that she's now a hundred takes a bit of doing. Although these days she carries a Bermudan rig with three headsails on an alloy mast which Dickie built himself back in the 1960s, her hull is still almost totally original, and even her rather brutal coachroof (you get used to the look of it) is simply built on top of the original cabin – this was a tasty little low profile effort, but it provided zilch in the way of headroom.

Dickie Gomes, Round Ireland Record Holder 1986-1993, relaxing aboard his beloved hundred year old Kearney yawl Ainmara in the Sound of Mull, August 2012.

I joined Dickie and his shipmate Denis Fusco (son of legendary sailor the late Victor Fusco) in Ballycastle on Tuesday August 7th. Ballycastle with its much-improved harbour is to Ireland's northeast corner as Kilmore Quay is to the southeast – a mighty-handy point of departure. I'd hopped on the DART that morning in Howth, yet that evening we were comfortably ensconced in the Ardview Inn at Port Ellen on Islay, starting to meet a continuous line of intriguing characters which continued throughout the Hebrides – with so many samey looking boats around these days, when you arrive in with a eccentric-looking Centenarian like Ainmara, it's a very effective calling card.

By going to the Hebrides, we got into the good weather which the areas well north of the jetstream have been enjoying for much of the summer. There's actually a water shortage in the isles. Inevitably with such weather the wind was lacking at times, hut we'd some marvellous sails, memorably trundling up the sea of the Hebrides with the jib tops'l and mizzen staysail added to the basic four sails.

Summertime for an old boat and an even older castle – the Centenarian Ainmara wafts about a visitor's mooring off Kissimul Castle, the ancient stronghold of the MacNeils, at Castlebay in Barra in the Outer Hebrides. Photo: W M Nixon

In all, the spritely Centenarian got to twelve islands in twelve days, our furthest north being Harris where we treated ourselves to a centenary dinner in Donald MacDonald's hospitable inn beside the enchanting little anchorage of Rodel. When that bit of filthy weather swept through Ireland on Wednesday August 15th, we were far enough north to be roaring along towards the Kyle of Lochalsh in a sunny easterly which gave us a smooth water speed burst of 7.8 knots, yet without trailing a roaring quarter wave behind us – John Kearney surely knew how to create a sweet hull.

Even Dickie Gomes is not as young as he used to be, but until this cruise he'd disdained the old man's rig of mizzen and headsails only, with the main kept neatly furled. But with a brisk westerly as we came down down the Sound of Mull, and just the two of us aboard as Denis the Gentle Giant had left ship as planned at Mallaig, he gave the OMR a try, and Ainmara obliged by effortlessly notching 6.7 knots as a squall came off the dark Mull hills.

Grand breeze – Ainmara sails in style up Loch Carron in Wester Ross

A new crew joined at Oban on Monday while I returned to Howth via Donegal (that's another story), and Ainmara is now back at her moorings at Ballydorn off the Down Cruising Club's lightship headquarters in Strangford Lough. The lightship is also celebrating her centenary this year – she was built on the north side of the Liffey in 1912 when Ainmara was being completed at Ringsend on the south side. A Centenary Party will be staged this month, and beyond that cruising plans for 2013 are already taking shape – cruising a boat aged 101 will probably be even more entertaining than cruising an ordinary Centenarian.

#sailingonsaturday – Captain Cool of Carlow is the Afloat.ie/Irish Independent "Sailor of the Month" for July. Captain Cool is Finn Lynch, winner of the Silver Medal at the Youth Worlds 2012, and he's just sixteen. So maybe it would be more correct to refer to him as Cadet Cool. But as his style of winning - staying mentally calm and finishing in control of the race - is something that many much older sailors could usefully emulate, we'll acclaim him as Captain.

In fact, the entire country, afloat and ashore, could learn from his way of doing things. But how does a young lad from Bennekerry in the depths of north county Carlow come to be setting a national sailing example? Well, his father Aidan (a Dub) acquired a taste for sailing during ten years in Australia. Then back in Ireland his mother Grainne took up a job offer in Carlow, than which there is no lovelier county in Ireland.

The family settled there in Bennekerry, which as Aidan cheerfully admits is the middle of nowhere even by Carlow standards. But as it's in the north of the county, lake sailing at Blessington wasn't so very far away, and the three boys - Ben, Rory and young Finn - were introduced to sailing with the Topper fleet at the hospitable Blessington Sailing Club, where Aidan stood his watch as Honorary Treasurer.

All three emerged as top class sailors, and their Topper skills were soon noticed. Each in turn graduated into sailing the Laser Radial, and that led on to the subtle recruiting moves from Dun Laoghaire. The word is that it was Con Murphy of the National Yacht Club, father of Olympian Annalise, who was the talent scout in this case, and the Bennekerries found themselves sailing with the NYC star junior squad.

Even by those standards, Finn was something special. He'd been racing Toppers since he was eight, he was into Lasers in his teens and earlier, and now at sixteen he's proven world class, with three clear years of international youth sailing in front of him.

At the moment thanks to his Silver Medal, Finn Lynch is sailing in Denmark at a youth elite regatta in Aarhus, then it's on to the Euopean Youth Championship in Belgium at mid-month, and after that......well, after that, Captain Cool goes back to school.

The nail-biting classes are doubling their numbers by the minute as the Annalise Murphy challenge battles on through he sailing Olympics. It's deadline in two days time, with the double points scoring Medal Races bringing it all to a conclusion. For once, Baltimore Regatta on Bank Holiday Monday will have to accommodate itself to a lower slot on the national sailing scale.

Meanwhile in the Finn Class we can enjoy a majestic gladiatorial contest without an excruciating depth of personal involvement, as it's the battle of the Ben of Britain and the Great Dane reaching its conclusion tomorrow.

Ben Ainslie's 2012 Olympics got off to a terrible start with one mediocre performance after another, by his standards anyway, while Jonas Hogh Christensen of Denmark was putting in a showing matched only by Annalise Murphy in the Women's Laser Radials. But by Thursday, Ainslie was making a comeback, having made the throwaway comment that missing out on the Gold wouldn't be a setback, it would be a disaster.

Ben analysts wonder if this means that his contract with the America's Cup 2013 (which he takes up immediately after this Olympiad) is dependent in any way on his performance at Weymouth. Stranger things have happened. Be that as it may, it's battle to the death tomorrow, after less than harmonious scenes yesterday and on Thursday.

Thursday saw the Dane and Dutch helm Pieter-Jan Postma shout to Ainslie that he had hit a mark. He took the penalty turns but afterwards was in a real strunt about the whole business, claiming there had been no contact. When Ainslie has one of his moods, it's awesome, and the Dane in particular was upset.

Then in yesterday's second race, Ainslie was leading with the Dane second approaching the finish. Ainslie slowed back in his classic style to sit on the Dane and allow the Dutchman through to second, with the result of GB first, Netherlands second and Denmark third making it very close indeed for the up-coming medal races. The Dane still narrowly leads on points, but the number crunchers are already working out all the possible permutations which can provide another Ainslie gold.

Asgard may have been small for her role as a naional sail training vessel, but she definitely punched above her weight in racing success.

Next week, Erskine Childers' Asgard is put on permanent display in her conserved form in Collins Barracks. John Kearon and his team have done a wonderful job in the painstaking task of saving as much of the original as possible while capturing the spirit of the gallant ketch which Childers sailed to Howth in July 1914.

As one of the finest creations of the Norwegian designer and shipwright Colin Archer, the 1905-built Asgard is of international importance over and above her role in Irish history. But in the midst of all this, let us not forget that between 1969 and 1974 she served as Ireland's first sail training ship. She was too small, she was too old, yet she did her very best, and thanks to the skill of Archer's design, she achieved some notable racing success in her brief sail training career.

During those five years under the command of Eric Healy, more people – including many young trainees – would have sailed on Asgard than in all the rest of her sailing life. It meant a lot to them, it meant a lot for Irish sailing. Forty years on, they will appreciate this new display in Collins Barracks even more than the rest of us. Just the job for a day out on the travel pass. Photos of the restored Asgard at the museum

W M Nixon's sailing column is in the Irish Independent on Saturdays

#olympicsailing –  There's a hierarchy in Olympic sailing which reflects the pecking order in the shoreside athletics. In the stadium, the various specialities will stake their claims for attention. The further down the scale they are, the more vigorously they'll fight for their little place in the limelight. But nobody beats the drum for the hundred metres. They don't have to. It's the business, and that's all there is to it.

In sailing, the pinnacle has to be the Olympic Finn single-hander. It's a brutal beast, a powerful boat, a man-breaker. Becoming the Finn Gold Medallist doesn't necessarily mean you're the greatest sailor in the world, but for sure you're the greatest Olympian.

This Olympic hierarchy is underlined by the sailing programme for the London Olympics. Sailing is accustomed to being different from other Olympic sports, and the fact that the racing is being staged at Weymouth a good 120 miles from the main centres in the capital does little to change this perception. And the programme which starts tomorrow also seems to emphasise the differences within sailing.

The aristocrats of Olympic sailing will have their contests done and dusted within a week, yet other classes have to hang around the venue until the 10th and 11th August. The last race of all is the final for the Women's Elliott 6m class a whole fortnight hence, even though the class starts tomorrow with their initial programme of match racing. Isn't it a bit sexist that the woman sailors have to tidy up long after everyone else has gone?

Maybe so, but we can only hope that whoever finishes last in that last race on Saturday 11th August is aware that they're to turn out the lights and close the door. No point in expecting the favourite for the Finn Class Gold Medal to close up the shop. Unless there's a major upset, Ben Ainslie will have collected that gold for Britain on Sunday August 5th, and a couple of days later he'll be in California to start his programme for the America's Cup 2013. He'll be racing an AC 45 catamaran by August 11th.

Also cracking through their programme in the first straight week are the two man Star class, and here Ireland is well represented by Peter O'Leary and David Burrows. In fact, we're so well represented that it makes us nervous to talk of it. They're on top form, but the variants involved in reaching the podium are infinite. The all-important weather element is now dominated by the fact that summer has arrived big time in the south of England, but for tomorrow's opening race the boys should feel at home, as an afternoon of summer rain is expected.

The Laser single-hander ranks high in global sailing, so both the men's and women's Laser racing in Weymouth is dealt with promptly, with their first race on Monday and their final a week later, on August 6th. Tom Slingsby of

Australia has to be the men's favourite, while Ireland is among the top rankers in the woman's class with Annalise Murphy, whose dedication to the Olympic ideal is a wonder in itself.

The highly acrobatic 49er class sees Ireland represented by Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern. They've been showing excellent form lately and we should see the proof of it by their final on August 8th, but the Men's 470s – Ger Owens and Scott Flannigan sail for Ireland – don't start racing until August 2nd, however they sail their final by Thursday 9th.

Even during a week of racing, the English climate can serve up all sorts of changes in sailing conditions, so almost anything is possible. Our Olympic squad can draw inspiration from last weekend's Silver Medal win in the Youth Worlds in Dublin Bay by Finn Lynch, who belied his sixteen years with an exemplary maturity of approach. That's some going, to be the coolest skipper in Irish sailing aged just sixteen.

#isafyw12 – Sailing folk are getting worried about this summer's weather in northwest Europe. There's a real chance that it might be going to improve, particularly in northern France and southern England. And that might mean gentle conditions spreading in over the Olympic sailing venue at Weymouth on the Dorset coast.

Normally, of course, we would wish Weymouth all the very best in the matter of summer weather. In the heart of the place is a nice little river port where many an Irish sailor has been glad to spend a night or two for a spot of R & R. It has a bustling and attractive quayside which looks all the better for some sunshine. Just enough breeze to waft away the aroma of fish and chips, and Bob's your uncle.

But these are not normal times. A week hence, they'll be gearing up for the opening ceremony of the Sailing Olympiad at the Weymouth and Portland centre. Back in June, they staged the huge Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta there, as near as makes no difference to being an Olympic dress rehearsal. But the weather wasn't impressed – it was absolutely foul, with strong winds, plus enough rain for a year. Yet the Irish contingent loved it, with the Star crew of Peter O'Leary of Crosshaven and David Burrows of Malahide winning Gold, while Laser Women's Radial sailor Annalise Murphy of Dun Laoghaire took the Bronze.

We like to think we can be as good as the next crew in racing in light airs and sunshine, but there was no mistaking the way in which the Irish contingent revelled in the Dorset downpour. 'Tis only a shower, they merrily quipped, and went out and notched yet another win. Meanwhile other contenders – particularly those from sunnier climes – complained endlessly. And even the British crews (for it was their weather, after all) solemnly announced that they were carefully pacing themselves, as they didn't want to peak too early.

Be that as it may, the Irish squad are in the weird situation that their supporters – which is all of us – are getting worried that if things get better, then they'll actually be getting worse. Better on the weather front may mean worse on the results front. But you never know. The weird weather having moved centre stage in recent weeks, we're now aware that one line of thought is that the level of sunspot activity has a lot to do with disturbed global weather patterns.

For most of us in Ireland, if we could only see the sun now and again, we'd be perfectly happy for it to display signs of advanced acne. But apparently last week the sun became hyperactive again, and there were sunspots galore on July 12th. The date being what it was, on the Emerald Isle we could be excused for overlooking this. But the top sunspot honchos tell us that normal predictions are now out the window, and late July and early August could be every bit as awful as June.

It'll all be slightly clearer in a week's time. The first classes will be racing from July 29th onwards, and the final medal races and victory ceremonies – for the Finns and the Stars – will be on August 5th, with the Laser Radials a day later.

Meanwhile, watch those sunspots. But just for now, it's taking a while for it to sink in that Finn Lynch collected his silver yesterday at the ISAF Youth Worlds, aged just 16. Because the age span of 16-19 is so narrow, the rest of sailing tends to see the Youth Worlds as being something rather ephemeral, gone in a trice. But when you're just 16, the years stretching ahead to 19 seem to be for ever, and heaven only knows what young Lynch will be achieving at the end of the time he is still qualified to sail in the Youth championship.

It was fascinating to note as the championship progressed that the true origins of our young stars became clarified. The Dun Laoghaire machine tends to hoover up talent from all around the country as it begins to manifest itself. Thus when the Irish lineup was announced, it seemed to be wall-to-wall Dun Laoghaire and Crosshaven. But those of us who savour the sheer variety of places where people sail in Ireland were happy to note that Sophie Murphy's Strangford Lough connections – Quoile YC to be precise – were getting at least equal billing with her adopted base at the Royal St George. And though Finn Lynch may be promoted as part of the National YC lineup of talent, we trust there was celebration last night in Blessington for their new star from the lake.

W M Nixon's sailing column is in the Irish Independent on Saturdays

#sailing on Saturday – How many of the hundreds of contestants in the Four Star Pizza Youth Worlds getting under way in Dun Laoghaire this weekend will go on to achieve adult fulfillment as international sailing stars?

As with other sports, sailing sometimes has a problem in translating junior success into longterm adult achievement. Suddenly, the sheer pressure of expectation and achievement results in a complete turnoff in the enthusiasm of rising stars. They may even rebel by taking up golf or gardening.

Yet when we consider just some of the names of sailing greats who first came to prominence through the Youth Worlds, it would be obtuse not to be swept along in the wave of enthusiasm which this massive championship is engendering.

People like Russell Coutts, Ben Ainslie, Chis Dickson and Robert Scheidt have emerged as stars of the future from the Youth Worlds. Irish sailing also has its host of Youth Worlds graduates, the best-known being Olympic Silver Medallist David Wilkins, and this year's Olympic participants Peter O'Leary, David Burrows, and Annalise Murphy.

In addition to trophies for individual sailors and crews, the all-squad Nations Trophy provides a significant extra dimension, with France the defending title-holders. Their entry Groupama having clinched her win of the Volvo Ocean Race in Galway last weekend, the French team are under extra pressure to keep the title. But – hear this – they're up against 350 young sailors from 63 different nations.

The Youth Worlds is just that – totally worldwide, utterly global. The Irish squad are Sophie Murphy (Laser Radial, Strangford Lough), Finn Lynch (Laser Radial, Dun Laoghaire), Patrick Crosbie & Grattan Roberts (420, Cork), Alexander Rumball & Rory McStay (SL16 Catamaran, Dun Laoghaire), and Sean and Tadhg Donnelly (29er, Dun Laoghaire).

Necessity being the mother of invention, the current financial restraints on campaigning cruiser-racers in far-flung events has been giving the spin doctors a merry time. It doesn't do the job to describe a regatta with a significantly lowered entry list as being small but perfectly formed. But boutique will do very nicely, thank you.

So we'd a boutique series for the Scottish championship back in June, as scarcely any Irish boats could afford to go, and they're usually 30% of the entry. Now in Crosshaven they've coined the handy phrase "Boutique Week" for this year's Cork Week. But though numbers may be down, the sport is quite something, and heavy hitters such as Piet Vroon's Ker 46 Tonnere de Breskens from the Netherlands, Mike Bartolomew's Summit 40 Tokoloshe from South Africa, and Jamie McWilliam's sister-ship Peninsula Signal 8 from Hong Kong have been having mighty racing.

Meanwhile the seasoned campaigners of the International Dragon Class have been quietly building a head of steam towards their main event, the Gold Cup in Kinsale in September. The 2012 programme's focus on Ireland has got off to a useful start with a good turnout for the Edinburgh Cup on Belfast Lough, and an excellent result for the home squad, the title going to Simon Brien who finished tops with defending champion Martin Byrne of Dun Laoghaire in the runner-up slot.

Foncia skippered by former Figaro star Michel Desjoyeaux took third in this week's Krys MOD 70 Transatlantic Race at an average speed of 24.96 knots.

And on this Bastille Day morning, Vive la France! They're defending champions in Dublin Bay for the next week, they topped the Volvo Race leaderboard in Galway a week ago, and in recent days while we've all been grumbling about the weather, the first four of the new French-inspired MOD 70s have been scorching across the Atlantic from New York to Brest at speeds well in excess of 30 knots, with the leaders averaging better than 25 knots all the way cross the pond.

An MOD 70 is a state-of-the-art trimaran, 70ft in length and so light the all-up weight of one of them is less than the 8.7 tons of a Volvo 70s keel. Developed during the past three years, they've anticipated the proposed future setup of the Volvo boats by being one design. But as with any mighty leap, resources have been stretched, and though nine boats have been started to build in France, to date just five have been commissioned.

Coming to a bay near you....the fantastic new MOD 70 class will be in Dublin Bay in September. They've just completed their first Transatlantic Race with the winner and runner-up crossing in less than five days from New York to Brest, averaging better than 25 knots.

However, for their first big international event, this week's Transatlantic dash, they secured the sponsorship of Krys. Solid backing, this – they're the French equivalent of Spec-Savers just in case your google persists in steering you towards a Cayman Islands-based global insolvency consultancy, or various pop stars.

Anyway, with Krys to clarify the vision, they got four of the boats to the US where they made a formidable impression in Newport before racing down to New York, with Steve Ravussin and his team on Race for Water taking the honours on that initial sprint. It was from Manhattan on Sunday that they zoomed away into the Atlantic, but the early leader (it was Ravussin again) impacted with what is believed to have been a container, so he'd to slow back and didn't get to Brest until last night, in fourth place.

That a damaged boat could still cross the Atlantic in less than six days gives some hint of what was happening among the three which were still in the hunt. They were screaming along. First to finish on Thursday in 4 days 21 hours and 8 minutes was Yann Guichard's Spindrift Racing, an average of 25.3 knots. Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, skippered by Sebastien Josse, also was above 25 knots, while third placed Foncia (Michel Desjoyeaux), was just under, clocking an average of 24.96 knots.

So it's a beautiful Bastille Day in Brest this Saturday morning. And the MOD 70 show will be coming to Dublin Bay in September – hang onto your hats.

W M Nixon's sailing column is in the Irish Independent on Saturdays

#genuineprospects – If you're contemplating a gentle summer holiday in the south of England in August, forget it. Unless, that is, you see wind and rain of the kind experienced there during the past fortnight as being an essential part of the vacation experience.

With the green and pleasant land becoming grey and soggy and wind-battered last week, Irish teams felt at home and made hay in the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta at Weymouth. It's the final main event in the countdown to the Olympics at the same venue in August, and went so well for our sailors that by Saturday night the Irish squad were in dazed contemplation of a new store of precious metals.

A Gold Medal for Peter O'Leary and David Burrows in the Star, and Bronze for Annalise Murphy in the Laser Radial. As a bonus, the 49er crew, northerners Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern, won their fleet and placed seventh overall - their best yet – in the main division.

If this is the kind of scoreline which can be obtained when the going is very bad weatherwise, then let's have more of it. Let's have medals galore even if horrible weather is a key ingredient. Certainly, some of the Irish sailing and Olympic community are praying for such weather in August on a daily basis. And if that fouls up your beachtime in Bognor – tough.

But we should be careful what we wish for. It wasn't wall-to-wall bad weather. The final section last Saturday, the all-important Medal Races, saw the English Channel in classic lively good humour. A sunny breezy day with a good sou'west breeze, 15 knots in the morning, pushing to a brisk and gear-breaking 23 knots after noon, a testing buildup.

The O'Leary-Burrows leap from third into Gold was achieved partly by the duel between the overnight leaders. Britain's Ian Percy and Bart Simpson had been one point ahead of Brazil's Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada. Then the Brazilians uncharacteristically got themselves into a knot, and had to throw a penalty turn. But Percy and Simpson stayed with them for covering purposes so closely that the Irish team were able to build on a correct tactical decision in the first beat, emerging as deservedly clear and triumphant winners.

Annalise Murphy showed her power in a breeze, and she moved onto the podium, while the Seaton-McGovern progression continued on its merry upward trajectory through the 49er class.

A less happy 49er sailor is Iker Martinez, whose perfect 2012 programme would have been to clinch his early lead in the Volvo Ocean Race at its Galways finish at the end of June, and then go on to race for Spain in the Olympics in the 49er in August.

It was all going along as planned, with Martinez in Telefonica flying the flag with steady success in the first half of the Volvo stages. But in the final stages his campaign has gone wobbled. Most embarrassingly for an Olympian, the inshore racing has been his Achilles heel. Last weekend in Lisbon was excruciating with his rattled crew dropping a sail over the side, and the boat placing last to drop more points, points hard won over thousands of miles of ocean.

Race leaders Groupama Sailing Team, skippered by Franck Cammas from France, with Kerry's Damian Foxall onboard lead the fleet at full speed, on the approach to the finish of leg 8, from Lisbon, Portugal, to Lorient, France, during the Volvo Ocean Race Photo: Paul Todd

Franck Cammas and Damian Foxall with Groupama have gone from strength to strength and top the leaderboard with 189 points to Telefonica's 181. But now with the fleet racing back from rounding the Azores and on towards Lorient, Telefonica is once more in charge, but placings are mighty close in very rugged conditions.

The 2012 ITC Lambay Race at Howth, with a fleet of more than a hundred, saw overall victory for Dun Laoghaire, the Lambay Lady Trophy going to the First 31.7 Blue Fin 2 (Bernie Bryson and Mia Delaney, National YC) after a race so fast the sunshine only caught up with the fleet at the finish.

W M Nixon's sailing column is in the Irish Independent on Saturdays

#HYC – When you've been staging a successful sailing race annually since 1899 or thereabouts, it's something which has will have acquired its own momentum with a significant amount of baggage in the nostalgia stakes. And its enduring popularity inevitably means that anyone minded to donate a trophy to the hosting club will want to get aboard the high-flying bandwagon of the big one.

Today's annual ITC Lambay Race at Howth looks to have everything going for it, not least an improvement in the ghastly weather which has dominated this past week. The race's prestige is such that it seems to have accumulated more silverware through its various divisions and classes than any other single race on the east coast – and perhaps the entire country, for that matter.

Taking in courses round the handsome Lambay and its quirky little sister island of Ireland's Eye, the Lambay Race is a celebration of the coast of Fingal which - during the ICRA National Championship a fortnight ago - showed how it can provide good sailing breezes when Dublin Bay is serving up windless frustration.

For this classic, they seem to have found a trophy for just about everything except being dog last, and even that must be only a matter of time. The supreme award is the Lambay Lady (think Little Mermaid of Copenhagen), and it goes to whichever winning boat in any of the myriad classes has the greatest margin ahead of the runner-up.

You might reasonably think this inevitably means whoever wins it sails in the most uneven and uncompetitive class of all, but somehow this never seems to happen, as it all often comes down to split seconds. And as they try to run the prize giving a short time after the very last boat has finished, the calculators are over-heated to come up with a result.

Last year, Dun Laoghaire's Ken Lawless and his team with their very competently up-graded vintage Quarter Tonner Supernova were initially declared the winners. The Lawless crew were well on their way back across Dublin Bay with their boat groaning under a load of silverware when some enthusiast in HYC ran a computer check on all the results and came up with the news that the host club's David Clark with his Puppeteer 22 Harlequin should have been awarded the Lambay Lady.

Dave Clark being the man whose day job is keeping the vintage dishwashers of Howth in working order through these stringent times, this just had to be put right, and Howth YC handled it with some style. They have experience of being on the receiving end of this kind of error. Five years ago, when local boats were scoring big internationally, Howth's Roy Dickson with the Corby 36 Rosie was announced as the initial overall winner of the British IRC Championship in the Solent, a big deal by any standards. The trophy had been back in Howth for 24 hours, and well celebrated, when Royal Ocean Racing Club CEO Eddie Warden-Owen made a sheepish phone call asking for their cup back – Rosie had actually been beaten for first overall by a fraction of a point.

So HYC's Brian Turvey handled the Supernova imbroglio with exemplary diplomacy, offering Ken Lawless dinner for two in Howth YC with all the trimmings if he could just see his way to bringing the Lambay Lady over with him, though of course keeping all the other cups. Today, we'll expect a double run on the results before making the final award. But even then, if you do win the Lambay Lady but subsequently have to give it back again, don't mess about - hold out for free dinner for all the crew.

W M Nixon's sailing column is in the Irish Independent on Saturdays

#SATURDAYSAILING – Eternal optimists among the cruiser-racer community had hoped that the success of the ICRA Championship might make the final difference to the emergence of enough enthusiasm to generate a team to defend the Commodores Cup in July. But ICRA Commodore Barry Rose of Cork – no stranger to optimism himself – reckons that the economic realities militate against it.

A final decision will have to be made within the next fortnight, but with even the top global sailing events showing the harsh effects of economic slowdown, perhaps the sensible thing is to accept that it's a non-runner, and instead we should be building towards getting back in the hunt in 2014.

As it is, with events like the ICRA Championship, the revived ISORA programme, and the round Ireland race in three weeks time providing Irish skippers and crews with excellent value for money and time, those who are keen to go sailing should have no complaints. Nevertheless, with seventeen boats nominated for the British trials this month, even if they muster four three-boat teams out of the lineup, there'll still be five boats going spare. But after the decisive Irish campaigns of the past decade, who would go with some sort of last-minute lash up?

W M Nixon's sailing column is in the Irish Independent on Saturdays