The Olympic authorities see the Laser as the floating equivalent of the pole-vaulter’s vaulting pole, thereby making Laser sailors into proper individual athletes, and very worthy of Olympic inclusion.
But meanwhile, some in the upper echelons of Olympic decision-making see two-person boats as being group-operated machines, thereby precluding double sailors from serious consideration as true Olympic athletes unless it’s with a boat that is a gymnastic challenge in itself. Step forward the 49er.

As for three-person boats….forget it. This would be all well and good were the Olympics in a self-contained bubble. But the reality is that it is the Olympic imprimatur which brings sailing more effectively to public attention than any other branch of the sport – and we don’t exclude the America’s Cup from that grouping.

Thus the glorification of solo dinghy sailing as the ultimate ideal of sailing sport has trickled through to become the accepted group-think in much of sailing, and there are indications that this tough-minded attitude – one thinks of the Spartans leaving newborn babies on the hillside overnight as a quick and convenient selection process to weed out the weak – is really off-putting for shy and mildly introverted kids.

"the glorification of solo dinghy sailing as the ultimate ideal of sailing sport has trickled through to become the accepted group-think"

They like the idea of going sailing, but are put off by the general gung-ho attitude of the more competitive helms, and the possible sense of loneliness in being sent forth solo alone in an Optimist. For this provides all the challenges of being alone, while at the same time having your efforts conspicuously on display in front of one of the toughest-minded bunch of kids in the country.

Spartans afloat - the sharpest sharp end of the Optimist fleet is not for the faint-hearted or shrinking violets, as seen here at Balyholme

The huge national Optimist fleet in Ireland is a force of nature, while - as several clubs have discovered – the International Optimist Dinghy Association of Ireland is so powerful and effective it can function successfully more or less as a law unto itself. And the fact of the matter is that when the demanding Optimist system of encouraging rising talent works, it works very well indeed. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we tried to pretend that it isn’t ultimately elitist, and inevitably causes the elevation of individual talent at the expense of a team approach.

That said, when the situation arises that a top Optimist sailor has to sail in a crewed boat, it’s rarely that they don’t quickly learn the ropes in every sense. And the recent National Junior Championship at Schull was dominated by present or past Optimist sailors who not only adapted to two-person sailing – in some cases almost overnight – but showed clever strategic thinking in selecting crews who were of a size to match their own weight in order to provide the optimum all-up weight to race a TSR 3.6.

That’s the way it is in the fast track. But by its very nature, most potential recreational sailors are never going to be in the fast track, yet they can find their pleasure in sailing by choosing the right boat in an environment in which they feel comfortable when they go afloat.

Yet as soon as you move up from a one-person junior boat to something requiring two or even three to sail, the logistical and expense problems expand exponentially. Nevertheless, at the more competitive level, there are shrewd observers who bewail the thin spread of the International 420 in Ireland, despite Doug Elmes of Kilkenny and Colin O’Sullivan of Malahide winning the Bronze in the Worlds in Malaysia back in 2016.

Doug Elmes and Colin O’Sullivan after winning Bronze in the 420 Worlds in 2016

It certainly seemed inspirational at the time, yet apart from a few notably enthusiastic clubs with keen 420 fleets, you could hardly say the 420 is a nationwide success. But even with the demands implicit in sailing a 420 locally and occasionally campaigning it nationally, there are those throughout Ireland who think that any family that finds itself becoming involved in 420 racing through junior participation deserves every encouragement.

One such is Pierce Purcell, former Commodore of Galway Bay SC, where the small but keen 420 feet has found itself raised to new heights of enthusiasm by the success of their top 420 duo of Adam McGrady and Alistair O’Sullivan, who won the 420 Nationals at Rush at the end of August.

The 2022 420 Nationals at Rush SC at the end of August. Photo: M Gosson

Much and all as Galway is the centre of the universe, the McGrady/O’Sullivan team know they have to travel for top competition, and it really is team travel with their fathers Paul and Gerry totally committed to providing logistics support.

National Champions. Galway Bay SC’s 420 stars Alistair O’Sullivan & Adam McGrady (centre) with their fathers Gerry O’Sullivan (left) and Paul McGrady (right). Photo: Pierce Purcell

But even with Galway now the pinnacle of 420 sailing, there are still those there – and elsewhere in Ireland - who reckon that the ultimate contribution to the development of two-handed, sociable and accessible sailing here was provided by the advent of the Mirror dinghy. I yield to no-one in my admiration for the Mirror, it’s one of the cleverest boat designs ever conceived, and it’s a matter of wonder why someone doesn’t put a computer to work to analyse why the Mirror provided so much for so many people in such a little boat.

It should be possible to then provide a computer-aided design which may look like a contemporary boat of 2023, yet ticks all the boxes on the factors that made the Mirror so very special and useful.

One of the most effective boat designs of all time – sport for all ages in the Mirror dinghy

You’d be surprised how many people are thinking along these lines, and meanwhile look around to see what readily available production boat most nearly fits the bill. And that shrewd observer of the sailing scene, Bob Bateman of Cork, who is the patriarch of an active three generation sailing dynasty while somehow also finding the time to take great photos of just about everything that floats along the south coast, reckons he has found that boat, hidden away in plain sight.

It’s the RS Feva. But though this 12-footer has been around for some time, the performance potential has been so emphasised that casual observers overlook the fact that the Feva is also a low maintenance – almost zero maintenance, in fact – knockabout boat, one that can happily take a bunch of kids for a fun sail.

Yet like the Mirror, she’s an all-generation boat in which a sympathetic adult with the ability to provide kindly teaching – it’s a very special ability, and not given its proper respect – can bring shy young children into sailing and build their confidence in every way, both afloat and ashore.

In the weekend in which some of those who have reached the highest peaks of Irish sailing are contesting the Champions’ Cup in its 75th year reiteration of the Helmsman’s Championship, it is very timely to reflect on the other end of the sailing continuum, and on what – in an ideal world – would be a boat deserving more encouragement in playing its key role in making sailing seem more genuinely accessible.

And apart from that, like the Mirror – which served our family very well indeed for multiple purposes – the RS Feva is simply great fun to sail.

Hidden away in plan sight behind the apparently performance-oriented RS Feva is an excellent little all-round knockabout boat for fun sailing. Photo: Robert Bateman

A record number of ILCA Master class sailors are in L'Escala on the Costa Brava, Spain, to contest the 2022 EurILCA/Laser Master European Championships and two Irish sailors are among the 263 sailors aged over 30 years who will be competing for European titles.

The fleet will have representatives from 26 European countries but also from other parts of the world, such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, the United States and Canada.

Among them are up to 11 participants over 75 years old and 21 women.

Royal St. George's Sean Craig from Dun Laoghaire Harbour is competing in the ILCA 6 division, which has 138 ILCA 6 entries, 48 of whom will race separately in Craig's GrandMaster (GM) division. Entry list here 

The flag is raised at the 2022 EURILCA European Championships Photo: Thom Touw

As regular Afloat readers know, when Craig took fourth in the Worlds last year, all three ahead of him were Europeans, but significantly the silver medal; on the occasion was Miguel Noguer-Castellvi from Spain, who has now moved on to a higher age division, so there is the prospect of a podium finish for Ireland, but nothing is guaranteed on the Costa Brava even though conditions are expected to be good next week, with 10-20 knots in warm water and air temperatures.

Craig did not compete in yesterday's practice race. 

Very eagle-eyed Irish sailors looking at the entry list may recognise Noguer-Castellvi as the Olympic Gold medalist in the Flying Dutchman class in 1980 in Tallinn when Wilkins and Wilkinson took silver for Ireland!

Current GrandMaster World Champion Gilles Coadou will compete for France, as will Belgium’s Pieter Van Laer, third at last year’s Barcelona Worlds and Father to Belgium’s Full rig representative at the Tokyo Olympics.

The GM fleet is boosted by non-European entries from Argentina, and other age divisions feature Australians, Americans, and Brazilians.

Ireland has one other entry, London-based ex-pat John Curran, a member of Wembley SC who travelled over to the Irish Masters in May, featuring quite strongly though his best place of a second was lost to a Black Flag infringement. Curran races in the Masters' division.

Most of the top ten from the World Championships are competing, including Ulf Myrin from Sweden, who beat Craig into second at the Malta Masters in March this year, and Dutchman Wilmar Groenendijk, who pipped him by one point for first GM at the Spanish masters in April.

The Royal St George Yacht Club hosted the last of this season's ILCA/Laser championship events, the aptly named ‘2022 End of Season’, this past weekend.

This event had previously been hosted in Kinsale Yacht Club for the last two years. However, ILCA Ireland agreed that it should be held in Dun Laoghaire as a fundraiser for local ILCA sailor Kevin Doyle who was recently involved in an accident and requires ongoing care.

Between the event entry fee, raffle and gofundme donations, over €23,000 was raised, a remarkable sum and a wonderful testament as to how the ILCA class and the Irish sailing community come together when one of their own needs it most.

The event itself attracted seventy-four sailors from all four provinces, multiple counties and sailing clubs, once again, a super indication of just how popular the class and its events remain, even into the colder and breezier Autumn winter days. The event also attracted the current third ranked ILCA 7 sailor in the world, our very own Finn Lynch, who along with Annalise Murphy and Eve McMahon, very kindly offered their time to conduct one on one coaching as part of a raffle prize draw.

An ILCA 6 start at the Royal St. George hosted End of Season championships on Dublin Bay. Photo Mark Little

Race officer Harry Gallagher and his team delivered a near flawless six race event in winds ranging from 15-20kts across Saturday and Sunday. The event was spread across three fleets with forty-one entrants in the ILCA 6 fleet, fifteen in the ILCA 4 fleet and eighteen in the ILCA 7 fleet. Howth’s Gallagher delivered three back-to-back international-level racing on both days with no delays and competitors back ashore in record time.

The ladies dominated the ILCA 4 fleet over the weekend, securing slots one through four in the final shakedown. Sienna Wright from Howth took straight bullets. Lucy Ives of Carlingford took silver in all six races. Ava Ennis of the Royal St. George had only two slip ups on her path to straight thirds and in both instances, lost out to fellow clubmate Jessica Riordan, who finished in fourth overall. Cillian Twomey of Howth was the nearest challenger to the girls, taking fifth overall and first male.

In the forty one strong ILCA 6 fleet, East Antrim's Tom Coulter looked like the dead cert at the end of day one, with three straight bullets. Fellow Academy teammate, Sam Ledoux of the National Yacht Club was hot on his heels and Coulter dropped a couple of second place finishes on day two. In the end Coulter took gold with some points to spare with Ledoux in second place. Again, in this fleet the more interesting battle was for third. Irish Sailing Academy’s Sophie Kilmartin of Malahide and Royal St. George, was neck and neck with RSGYC master Sean Craig heading into the last race. Kilmartin pulled it out of the bag achieving her best result of the weekend with a third place finish, seeing off Craig for third place. Tom Fox (RSC) was third-placed male under 30 after Coulter and Ledoux. Charlotte Eadie (BYC) and Zoe Whitford (EABC) were second and third placed U30 girls in nineteenth and twenty first place overall respectively. Marco Sorgassi (RSGYC) was second master in sixth overall and Hugh Delap (RSGYC), third master in twelfth overall. In the ladies ILCA 6 master category, Ali Robinson was first overall, followed by Rachel Crowley and Mary Chambers, all of RSGYC.

In the eighteen-strong ILCA 7 fleet, Finn Lynch (NYC) unsurprisingly showed why he’s third-ranked sailor in the world, with a string of six first place results. His older brother, Rory Lynch (BSC) showed his younger sibling a trick or two of his own and finished second overall and on-form national champion, Dan O’Connell had yet another super event finishing third overall and first master. Recent ILCA 7 convert Oisin Hughes (RSGYC) showed his credentials finishing third placed U30, after the Lynch brothers, and fourth overall. Hughes was actually in third place coming into the last race, but a left shift at the start of the final race caught Hughes on the wrong side of the course, with O’Connell taking full advantage. Second-placed master in sixth overall was Gavan Murphy (RSGYC) with Gary O’Hare (RSGYC) third-placed master and eighth overall.

A very special thanks for pulling this event together, the 2021 Masters Nationals, the Leinster’s earlier this season as well as countless Sprint Series and ‘Race & Relax’ events must go to Brendan Hughes. After just starting ILCA sailing in 2018, over the last two years in his capacity as Dun Laoghaire class captain, Hughes has been the inspiration and driving force behind the continued success of the class both locally and arguably nationally. He gave countless hours of his time not only to the benefit of the Dun Laoghaire ILCA fleet, but to the fleet nationally.

All eyes are on now on 2023, with the fleet expecting to meet up again in Baltimore at Easter for the Munster Championships, which is the traditional first event of the season. It will be an exciting year for the fleet, with Olympic qualifier events taking place later in the year for the male and female national senior teams. If this weekend was anything to go by, the future of the Irish fleet beyond the current senior team is in very good shape with strong competitive sailing across all ages.

Full results are below

The final event of the Cork ILCA/Laser Tri Series Sprints took place on Sunday in Royal Cork Yacht Club at Crosshaven.

The Cork Harbour regatta was the conclusion of the series following sprint events in Bantry and Inniscarra over the past six weeks.

A total of 38 boats over ILCA4 and ILCA6 entered Sunday's sprint with sailors coming from five Cork clubs to join the home sailors.

Bob Bateman's Photo Gallery of RCYC ILCA Tri Series Conclusion

Race officer John Corkery had the difficult task of conjuring up some wind where little to none was forecast. In the end, one race was completed when a slight sea breeze filled in from the South.

First in ILCA4 was Emma Barrett, Glandore Harbour Yacht Club, second was Ethal Bateman, third Isabel Mc Carthy, and fourth Oisin Pierse all RCYC.

In ILCA6, Oisin Mac Sweeney took line honours with Robert Jeffreys in second (and first master), Fionn Daly was third and Andrew Kingston fourth, all RCYC. The first girl in ILCA6 was Ava Scarlett of Glandore.

The racing was followed by a barbeque on the club lawn and prize giving, where Rear Admiral Dinghies, Maurice Collins and ILCA Class Captain Tim Mc Carthy awarded prizes for the day's sailing.

The overall prize for the series in ILCA6 was awarded to Daniel Mallon who received the Cudmore & Maher Cup. Isabel Mc Carthy received the Cudmore & Maher Box for winning the overall series in ILCA4.

Tim thanked all the sailors for competing and all the volunteers from all the clubs both on and off the water for helping out and to Ed Kingston who was instrumental in setting up the Tri Series.

The Tri Series has been a great success and will be repeated again next year and is now seen as a great way for ILCA sailors to meet and compete in venues that are not usually on the ILCA circuit.

As well as the Tri Series Prizes, there was also a presentation of RCYC League ILCA/Laser Prizes

Bob Bateman's Cork ILCA Tri Series Prizegiving Photo Gallery

Awards presented: 

August Tuesday League

Ilca4 Olin Bateman

Ilca6 Fionn Daly

June Tuesday League

Ilca4 Megan O Sullivan

Ilca6 Robert Jeffreys 

May June Saturday League

Ilca7 Jonathan O Shaughnessy

Ilca4 3rd Eve Mc Carthy

Ilca4 2nd Max Tolan (not present)

Ilca4 1st Megan O Sullivan

Ilca6 3rd Joe O Sullivan

Ilca6 2nd Sean O Herlihy

Ilca6 1st Megan O Sullivan

Sunday 18th RCYC Tri series:

Ilca4 4th Oisin Pierce

Ilca4 3rd Isabel Mc Carthy

Ilca4 2nd Ethal Bateman

Ilca4 1st Emma Barret

Ilca6 1st Girl Ava Scarlett

Ilca6 4th Andrew Kingston

Ilca6 3rd Fionn Daly

Ilca6 2nd Robert Jeffreys 

Ilca 6 1st Oisin Mac Sweeney

Overall TriSeries Winners:

Ilca4 Isabel Mc Carthy

Ilca5 Daniel Mallon

This Sunday, the final event in the Cork ILCA (Laser) Tri Series Sprint Regatta is being held in the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

There will be five short (Sprint) races with entry still open to all here for both ILCA 4 (Laser 4.7) and ILCA 6 (Laser Radial).

30 boats have so far entered for Sunday, where the top five places in both fleets are still anyone's for the taking.

The first gun is at 11.55 am.

There will be a barbeque on the club lawn following sailing and a prizegiving thereafter where prizes for the day's sailing and the winners of the overall Tri-Series in each fleet will be awarded.

The second event in the Cork Laser/ILCA sprint Tri-series was held at Iniscarra Sailing and Kayaking Club, on Sunday, September 4th. Summer had truly finished and a fresh South Easterly wind was sweeping along with heavy showers up the lake from the direction of the Iniscarra dam.
 
From the outset of the tri-series concept, it was always an interesting proposition to have a sprint race on this underappreciated body of water. The lake does have its challenges with no possibility of seabreeze and a dry summer leading to low water levels.

However, commodore Aoife Herlihy pulled together a very strong team to pull together all logistics to host the second event in the sprint series. Race Officer John Corkery managed a to find a significant upwind leg which really challenged the fleet searching for dramatic wind shifts.
 
A pathway along the northern shore of the lake allowed for fantastic close quarter viewing especially on the downwind leg. The lack of any swell with a building breeze highlighted some excellent pursuits to the leeward buoy. The format of the sprint can mean very tight racing in a single lap and on the third race a near pileup of four boats screamed into the leeward mark roared on from the supporters on the shore.

Some mistimed flips cost a few sailors a podium finish. Isabel McCarthy in her ILCA 4 was leading all bar one of the ILCA 6s at the leeward before a strong gust flattened her chances. Joe O'Sullivan won out the first sprint of the day in his ILCA 6, but then Phillip Doherty dominated the next two races.

From near flat calm conditions at 9am, the wind built all day and after seeing gusts above 30 kts, the race officer called a halt after three exciting races. With over twenty boats competing on the day split near evenly across ILCA 4 and 6, it was a busy day and a bbq afterwards allowed the spectators and organizing team some time to debrief the events of the day.
 
It was Iniscarra Sailing and Kayaking club's first ever experience of hosting an external race like this and they put on an enviable event from start to finish. John Corkery’s race course, which was a challenge to setup for an all in twenty boat start was a great success with the racing dynamics closely watched from the lakeside onshore.

At the end of three races, in ILCA 6 Phillip Doherty (Monkstown Bay Sailing Club) came out first with Joe O'Sullivan 2nd and Andrew Kingston 3rd (both RCYC) . In ILCA4, Ethel Bateman came out in front of Liam Duggan in 2nd and Eve McCarthy 3rd (all RCYC)

The series will conclude with another set of five sprints in Royal Cork Yacht Club on September 18th and as Afloat previously reported, the Tri-Series is open to all, https://www.royalcork.com/ilca-sprint-tri-series/ . Laser class captain Tim McCarthy is hoping for thirty boats to compete on the day with many sailors competing for the series title also.

Latest results after eight races in the series can be found below

Laser/ILCA Ireland has announced that their End of Season 2022 regatta will be hosted by the Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire this September 24-25.

The two-day end-of-season event is the final Laser class ranking event in the 2022 calendar for ILCA Ireland. This event was introduced in 2021 as an exceptional event outside of the regional and national calendar. Last year’s event in Kinsale proved so popular that the association has decided to make it a standard part of the annual event series.

As with all other regional and national events in 2022, ILCA Ireland sailors between the ages of 18 - 30 can participate in this event for free. This initiative is aimed at encouraging young adult Laser sailors who might otherwise take a break from sailing to stay connected with the class. It has been a very welcome initiative throughout the season, with higher numbers of younger adults competing.

This will be the second regional ILCA Ireland event hosted by the Royal St. George Yacht Club in 2022.

Fleet to support local Laser sailor 

The fleet is making the return to the club in support of a local Laser sailor Kevin Doyle who sustained injuries during a regatta earlier in the season. ILCA Ireland and The Royal St. George Yacht are raising funds for Kevin and his family for his care.

Proceeds from the event will be placed in a fund to support Kevin's care needs over the coming months. The club has established a GoFundMe page where people can make contributions.

Early bird entry for the event closes on Friday, September 16, with late entry closing on Wednesday, September 21.

Further details of the event are available on the ILCA Ireland website and the Royal St. George Yacht Club website.

The most numerous and widespread dinghy class in Ireland is the ever-young ILCA/Laser. Yet even though a large fleet turned up for their Nationals in August at Tralee Bay, the fact that several sub-divisions took part with the class’s different rig options makes it a challenge to name the outstanding performer.

But in a close-called assessment, it was reckoned that Fiachcra McDonnell of the Royal St George YC in Dun Laoghaire, winner after a countback in the ferociously close-fought ILCA6 Division, is the Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month (Inshore)” for August.

With racing cancelled on Day 4 at the 2022  Laser/ ILCA 4 Youth World Championship in Villamoura, Portugal and Day 5 being sailed in very tricky conditions, it was always going to be a tense finish in both the Girls' and Boys' fleets.

The final day of racing once again produced a very fickle light breeze and in these conditions, the Race Officials initially postponed the racing before eventually deciding to try and get one race in for the Gold Fleets only for the Boys and the Girls.

Unfortunately, for those hoping to make up some ground, this race did not happen and sailing in the regatta was abandoned.

The new ILCA 4 World Champions are Nicilo Cossitta and Ginerva Caracciolo both representing Italy.

In the boys, Dionysios Kalpogiannakis from Greece was second with Dutch sailor Max Frank in third. Alina Shapovalova from Ukraine was the runner-up in the girls and Petra Merendic from Croatia was third.

The leading Irish boy was Sam Ledoux who finished the regatta in 30th place and in the girls', it was Sienna Wright who finished 17th.

The final day of the Irish Laser/ILCA National Championships on Tralee Bay dawned with glorious sunshine but no wind.

PRO John Leech sent the fleet afloat for an earlier than planned start, but there was little action for nearly three hours as the AP and N flags were up and down like the stock exchange. Eventually, a sea breeze of 6 to ten knots filled in from the NW and all fleets had two good races. The ILCA 4 fleet just got off before the time limit.

In the ILCA 4 fleet, it was a field day for the ladies as they filled four of the first five places. Hannah Dudley Young from Ballyholme was the overall and ladies winner, with Maeve Leonard in second and Isabel McCarthy third.

In the 6 fleet, it was so close at the top that count back was required to determine the winner, with Fiachra McDonnel just edging Aoife Hopkins, who took the lady's title. Rocco Wright was third.

The 7 fleet was dominated by Masters, but Stephen Cunnane of the host club put up a great fight to finish fifth overall and first youth and included a race win on the last day. The overall winner was Dan O'Connell from Nick Walsh and Rory Lynch.

The team prize went to the RCYC.

Results below.

ILCA 2022 Prizewinners TBSC Photo Gallery