Displaying items by tag: youth sailing
A win in the second race of the Youth Sailing Worlds in Poland for Ireland's Rian Geraghty McDonnell and Nathan van Steenberge has given the National Yacht Club duo an early boost and leaves them fourth overall after three races sailed.
The Dun Laoghaire duo also scored a 12th and a 16 in their 28-boat fleet at Gydnia yesterday.
In the Girls 29er fleet, Ireland's Leah Rickard (also from NYC) and Eimer McMorrow Moriarty (from Kerry’s Tralee Bay Sailing Club) have yet to race.
Thomas Chaix is coaching the Irish 29ers. Results are here.
The Boy’s and Girl’s 29er, provided by Ovington Boats, are sharing boats in Gdynia. The 28-boat Boy’s 29er were able to complete three races but the Girl’s 29er fleet were unable to race due to dying winds.
Finland’s Ville Korhonen and Edvard Bremer got off to a great start, posting a 1-(3)-3 scoreline. "We started well and had good speed," said Bremer, "this put us in the top three all day. It was really shifty and there were a lot of holes in the wind. It built up but it was still challenging."
Korhonen added, "The communication was good today so that helped us most. It’s been a great ever so far, really fun. We’re with the best in the world here."
Spain’s Enrique Urios Salinas and Filippo Binetti Pozzi had a tough start to the competition, sailing their way to a 22nd and a 13th but a bullet in the final race propelled them up the leaderboard.
"We didn’t start as good as we thought we would," commented the Spanish duo. "The conditions were not easy. The wind was really unstable and we couldn’t place where we wanted to place.
"We concentrated a bit more, spoke to our coach and after that we were more focused and did what we were supposed to do. We won the last leg. I think we did really well."
The Spaniards are sixth overall. Defending champions Mathias Berthet and Alexander Franks-Penty (NOR) occupy second and Sweden’s Marius Westerlind and Olle Aronsson are third.
Howth Yacht Club brother and sister, Jamie and Eve McMahon, are the first Irish siblings to qualify for the same Irish Youth Sailing Team and will compete in the Laser Radial class at the Youth Sailing World Championships in Poland in July.
After a successful outing at the RYA Youth Nationals for the first time, report here Rian Geraghty McDonnell and Nathan van Steenberge (National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire), with Leah Rickard and Eimer McMorrow Moriarty (Tralee Bay Sailing Club, Fenit) will race in the 29er class.
Eve McMahon achieved her standard in spectacular fashion winning the u17 category at the Europa Cup in Lake Garda last week, as Afloat reported here.
The Youth Sailing World Championships will see over 100 nations compete, and is the world’s leading championship for youth sailors. Ireland first competed in the championship in 1971 and won medals in 1996, 2012, 2014 and 2016.
There will be no Irish 420 crews participating in Poland this year.
Irish Sailing Laser Radial coach Sean Evans will attend and Thomas Chaix will coach the 29ers.
Racing starts 13 July in Gydnia, Poland. More here
There were three McMahon family members from Howth racing in the Laser Radials at this year’s Irish Junior Championship at Crosshaven. But while youngest Jack had to be content with 13th overall, his cousin Eve was very much in improvement mode as the series progressed, notching three fourth places to finish at fifth overall. This made her winner of the girls’ division by five clear points, and thus well entitled to bring the McMahons a second Junior Sailor of the Month accolade for April.
Jamie McMahon (Howth Yacht Club), put in a convincing performance at the Irish Youth Championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club in the final weekend of April to emerge as Laser Radial overall champion, seeing off some determined challenges from a fleet of 27 from all over the country in a championship contested in decidedly unsettled weather patterns to make him one of two Junior Sailors of the Month for April.
I like the direct approach of Irish Sailing President Jack Roy. He makes his points clearly, such as telling me that the sport is under pressure from other sports and needs more young people to become involved and ‘yes’ it can be expensive to equip young people to go sailing. But there are ways to do it and he wants to see that happen.
He showed his commitment at the youth championships in Cork Harbour at the weekend, sailed out of the RCYC, Crosshaven, where a hundred and fifty young sailors under the age of twenty raced.
"What about the constant criticism that sailing is an expensive sport?"
“Sailing is under a lot of pressure to attract young people, but we offer a sport that is different and for life and the way to do it is getting children out on the water, so that they can enjoy what it offers".
I asked him: What about the constant criticism that sailing is an expensive sport?
In a direct way, which I have not heard too often previously, he replied: “Sailing and yacht clubs around the country have taken that point and are responding to it. Yes, to set children up in sailing can be an expensive outlay. To counter that, many clubs are investing in their infrastructure and their own boats, so that parents can bring their children down to their local club and, without any massive expenditure, get them on the water by use of club boats, right down to the equipment that is needed. This is what I want to see - access to the sport.”
He also discusses the new initiative in Team Racing.
Jack Roy was on the water during the running of the Youth National Championships and presented the prizes remaining for several while the event organisers wrestled with a problem in the results of the Topper Class. Prizes for Lasers, 420s and Optimists were presented in front of the big attendance, but a few hours later that had considerably diminished when the Topper results were announced, even though the top places had been known from early on. Jack Roy remained to present these prizes, underlining his commitment to young sailors.
There was no explanation for the delay. My information, from very reliable sources, is that the results sheet was blown into the water from the race official boat involved. Days afterwards Irish Sailing would only say that “the results taken from the score sheet submitted by officials were reviewed according to World Sailing rules.”
• Listen to the Podcast interview with the President of Irish Sailing, Jack Roy, below
420 Girls to the Fore Again at the 2019 Youth Nationals at RCYC
The 2019 Irish Sailing Youth National Championships hosted by Royal Cork Yacht Club provided wild oscillations in weather conditions over the four days of planned racing. Thursday was certainly the calm before the arrival of Storm Hanna and three races for the 420 class were completed in light and fickle conditions. Friday dawned with raceable conditions in the morning but the oncoming storm would have provided little opportunity to get on the water and over to the race area and back again before the onset of the strong winds around lunchtime thereby forcing the cancellation of racing. Saturday looked as if it would provide perfect 420 sailing conditions in the strong breeze at the tail end of the storm but a long postponement eventually saw racing eventually cancelled late in the afternoon.
Sunday dawned with fog and no wind, but the fleet launched at 8:30 in the morning to head out to the race course and they were eventually rewarded with a modest breeze in bright sunshine. The Ferguson sisters from the National Yacht Club provided consistency over the two days of racing with five race wins to retain the title again this year after their win in Dun Laoghaire in 2018. In second place with two race wins were another female crew of Lucy Kane and Emma Gallagher followed by Morgan Lyttle and Patrick White in third position.
The Youth Nationals has traditionally been used by the 420s for team selections to travel to the European or World Championships each year. As Afloat.ie reported earlier here, Nicola and Fiona Ferguson will represent Ireland at the World Championships at Vilamoura in Portugal whilst the qualifiers for the 2019 Junior European Championships at Vilagarcia de Arousa on the North East coast of Spain are as follows:
- Lucy Kane (East Antrim Boat Club) and Emma Gallagher (Malahide Yacht Club)
- Morgan Lyttle Royal (St. George Yacht Club) and Patrick Whyte (Lough Ree Yacht Club)
- Ben Graf and Alexander Farrell (Lough Ree Yacht Club)
Royal Cork Yacht Club and their team of volunteers and race officials are to be congratulated on running a magnificent event under testing weather conditions.
A Howth Yacht Club brother and sister Jamie and Eve McMahon emerged on top of the 200-plus entries at the Irish Sailing Youth Championships sailed in Cork over the weekend in five classes. Both were competing in the single-handed Laser Radial event where Jamie won the class and Eve finished as best girl in fifth overall out of 27 entries.
Prizes were presented this evening on the lawn at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Cork Harbour.
See photo gallery of prizewinners by Bob Bateman below
Irish Youth Sailors Medal at RYA Youth Nationals 2019
The RYA were issuing invitations to visiting sailors for the 2019 event in Weymouth so it gave the opportunity for a few Irish boats to compete at the premier British Youth Sailing event of the year writes Thomas Chaix
The RYA Youth Nationals 2019 produced seven days of great competition on the water of Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour.
The Irish contingent was composed by eight 29er partnerships (showing once more that the fastest growing class in Ireland is also keen to show its competitiveness against the well established UK class), two 420 partnerships, three Laser radials and two laser 4.7s. For the 29ers and the 420s, the event was also part of the trials process to earn selection into the Youth Worlds 2019 Irish team.
Laser 4.7
The Laser 4.7 class competed over a 4-day event and after 7 races, Michael Crosbie secured a bronze medal with a solid series including a race win and a 2nd. His teammate from Cork, Jonathan O’Shaughnessy, completed his challenge in 17th in the 45 boat fleet.
The youth classes competed over 5 days. It was certainly a challenging week with wind in excess of 25 kts on the first day followed by light and shifty conditions on day two, a long waiting day with fog midweek, a marathon fourth day with the 29ers on deck for over 10 hours, and finally glorious sunshine with dying wind on the final day.
Radials
The Laser radials completed 9 races. Dan McGaughey (Ballyholme) was top of the Irish in 13th overall with a series including three top 10 finishes. Moss Simmington concluded his event 24th and 6th U17 a few places ahead of Joseph Karauzum who was very happy with a 6th on his final race in the 50 boat fleet.
420
The 30 entry 420 fleet completed 8 races. Morgan Lyttle and crew Patrick Whyte (RStGYC) completed the event in 13th position overall to top the Irish hopes.
Irish 29er Class
The Irish 29er class is not short of enthusiasm and progress is stellar in a class that is only in its second year of existence in Ireland. Eight partnerships travelled to Weymouth and competed in the 11 race series in the largest fleet of the event with 61 boats racing.
As Afloat previously reported, the Irish raced well to collect several honours. Harry Twomey with class veteran Harry Durcan on the wire secured 3rd overall and silver medal in the boys after a strong series including 2 race wins. Not far behind, Rian Geraghty-McDonnell and crew Nathan Van Steenberge (NYC), also scoring 2 race wins, took 6th overall and top U17. It was no small achievement as the boys have now secured a “hat trick” having won the U17 category in all 3 events they attended in the UK since November! Also in the top 10 were Leah Rickard (NYC) and Eimer McMorrow Moriarty (TBSC) in 9th overall, bronze medal amongst the girls, and best U17 girls. Their impressive series included three 2nds.
The remaining Irish had their ups and down with Emily Riordan (RStGYC) and crew Max Goodbody (RIYC) winning silver fleet a couple places ahead of Charlie Cullen and Ben Hogan (NYC & RStGYC) who took the bullet in the final silver fleet race.
Sailing Youth Worlds Selection
The event was also the final leg of the Irish Sailing trials for selection into the Sailing Youth Worlds in Poland (Gydnia) in July. For the boys, Rian Geraghty-McDonnell and Nathan Van Steenberge's commanding performance secured their selection. Leah Rickard and Eimer McMorrow Moriarty also secured their ticket to Poland, becoming the first female Irish team to represent Ireland in the 29er in the Youth Worlds.
As usual, the British produced a very well run regatta under the leadership of event PRO Peter Saxton and we can only hope they will continue to issue invitations to Irish sailors and give us the opportunity to compete against the best Youth sailors from Britain.
More than 150 young sailors with hopes of 'Olympic glory' will get the chance to take the first steps towards fulfilling their dreams at the Irish Sailing Youth National Championships at the Royal Cork Yacht Club later this month from 25-28 April at Crosshaven in Cork Harbour.
The competition is the one time every year when the best of Irish youth sailing come together to test their skills and ability to perform under intense competition conditions – with the added pressure of being under the spotlight for the selectors from Irish Sailing Performance.
The youngsters from throughout Ireland will compete across five different classes of boat during the weekend – the Laser Radial, Laser 4.7, 420, Topper and Optimist. These five classes have been identified, say Irish Sailing, as those that develop the necessary experience sailors need to successfully develop their skills from junior through to the Olympic classes and competing internationally.
As well as racing, there are three evening talks from members of the Irish Sailing Team. Those attending will be treated to 'inspirational talks' from Katie Tingle, who now partners Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy in the 49erFX as they seek Olympic qualification this year. Royal Cork's Tingle should have plenty to talk about as she will have made her international 49erFX debut in the class the week previous at the World Cup in Genoa starting on April 14.
49er sailor Séafra Guilfoyle, a silver medallist at the 2014 Youth World Championships and current partner of Ryan Seaton, who was a finalist at the Olympic Games in London 2012, and Rio 2016; and James O’Callaghan, Irish Sailing’s Performance Director, who will discuss resetting and refocusing during competition with Jessie Barr, Olympic athlete and Sport Ireland sports psychologist.
The occasion also is one of the few times where families and friends competing in the different classes can gather together in one location to share their experiences, learning and generally have some fun.
Sean Evans, Irish Sailing’s Olympic Laser Radial Academy Coach said “The Irish Sailing Youth National Championships are Ireland’s largest Youth regatta and our sport’s primary talent spotting event of the year. All the young sailors that are competing over the weekend have every chance of being selected for the Irish Sailing Academy. Sailors who demonstrate their proficiency at these championships can be chosen for squads that will be competing abroad and may even give something back by coaching and training others as well”.
Finn Lynch, just back from placing 4th in the Laser Class at the Trofeo Princesa Sofia in Palma said “I've great memories of the Youth Nationals, competing with my mates for the right to represent Ireland, racing was always great and the competition was fierce!”.
The Irish Sailing Youth National Championships, showcasing the best up-and-coming talent in Ireland, will take place from 25th-28th April at the Royal Cork Yacht Club, Crosshaven.
National Yacht Club Pair Win Junior UK 29er Inland Championships
Coach Thomas Chaix travelled with two Irish 29er pairs to Grafham Waters in the UK over the weekend to compete at the Inland Championships. The two pairs competed in the 42 boat fleet. Eight races were sailed in 8 to 18 kts providing a range of conditions suiting all level of skills.
Rian McDonnell Geraghty and Nathan Van Steenberge, both from the NYC sailed a very strong series (10-7-6-4-4-14-BFD-6) to take 7th overall and very comprehensively win the Junior (U15) category. It is a very encouraging result for the very ambitious young pair who teamed up on this demanding little skiff just 2 months ago. Early dividends for all the hard work at training is always nice to take!
NYC Leah Rickard, freshly returning from Injury and crew Kerry based Eimer McMorrow-Moriarty had highs and lows showing great skills in the lighter breeze early on topping their series with a 12th on race 2. Both were also competing in the junior category and they secured 6th for their first regatta together.
The 29er class is a growing class in Ireland with new boats and new partnerships getting hooked on this fast, yet challenging to master youth skiff. Exposure to the well established UK class is great for these young teams to gauge their progress.