Ireland's brand new 'Green Armada' sailing team will not have the benefit of Olympic talent when it debuts in Switzerland this week at the inaugural SSL Gold Cup.

Although the Irish bid to be crowned the world's best sailing nation includes Olympic medalist Annalise Murphy on its 'panel', the Rio silver medal winner and others, such as solo ace Finn Lynch, will not be sailing. Green Armada team captain Nicholas O'Leary confirmed to Afloat today that the Olympians are not available for Thursday's first qualifying rounds due to 'final exams and training camps etc'.

Dun Laoghaire's Finn Lynch, in particular, is in preparing to defend his Laser World Championships silver medal in Mexico from May 21st.

The SSL Gold Cup 2022 will start on May 19th with the Qualifying Series in Grandson, Lake Neuchatel.

All teams ranked from the Top 25 to 56 in the January 2022 SSL Nations ranking will meet in eight groups of four teams each. There will be five stages of the Qualifying Series running from May 19th to July 17th.

The Green Armada crew travelled out today (Tuesday) for two days of training before heading straight into four-boat fleet racing for a round of qualifiers. The top two teams go through to the next round.

Ireland's crew in Switzerland is: 

• Bow -Simon Johnson
• Mid Bow/grinder/strategy - Ryan Glynn
• Pit - Cian Guilfoyle
• Grinder - Grattan Roberts
• Trim - David Kenefick
• Trim - George Kingston
• Main/tactics - Nin O’Leary
• Helm - Harry Durcan

The Green Armada panel includes Olympians Annalise Murphy, Robert Dickson, Finn Lynch, Sean Waddilove, Peter O'Leary and Stephen Milne.