#fireball – The first day of the Fireball Europeans, sponsored by Homecoming Scotland 2014 and being hosted by Lerwick Boating Club in Shetland was lost to a combination of mist and very light wind. Principle Race Officer Bruce Leask has originally signalled a 1-hr postponement after the skipper's briefing but that became an indeterminate postponement.

An excellent fish lunch was then served at the host club before racing for the day was abandoned shortly after 15:00.

The fleet has now dispersed but many will reconvene later at the Club to make their way to a curry buffet at a local restaurant in Lerwick, the regatta's culinary choice for this evening.

Cormac.

#optiEuros2014 – Royal Cork's James McCann & Dublin Girls Clare Gorman, Alix Buckley & Gemma McDowell have made the gold fleet cut after a full opening series of the Optimist dinghy Europeans was completed off Dun Laoghaire this afternoon.

The big Irish success today  is that James McCann from Royal Cork Yacht Club bounced back magnificently after yesterday's disappointment to make the gold fleet cut tomorrow. With 11th and 5th in today's races, together with discarding his 28th place, the Munster youth sits on a total of 41 points and placed 13th.

James was the only Irish boy to qualify for the Gold fleet but four of his teammates qualified for the Silver: Jamie McMahon, Loghlen Rickard and Peter Fagan all from Dublin as well as Harry Bell from Co. Down.

In the overall standings French sailor Enzo Balanger from Guadeloupe tops the leader board with results of 1, 1, 3, 3, 1 totalling 9 points. Fourteen points behind at this early stage is Pablo Lujan of C.N. Javea, Spain while Swedish lake sailor Kasper Nordenram of Rörviks Sailing Club lies third.

The Irish girls fared much better in making the cut for the Gold fleet. Clare Gorman from Dun Laoghaire gained eight places today to rank 24th. Also qualifying are two fellow Dubliners; Alix Buckley of Skerries and Gemma McDowell of Malahide.

After another first place today Iset Segura from the Catalan club of Arenys de Mar remains at the head of the fleet followed by Ebru Bolat of Romania and Brazilian Olivia Belda.

#oppieeuros2014 – Young sailors from 44 countries attended the formal opening of the European open championship of the Under-16 Optimist sailing class at Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin today.

The 253 youth sailors with their coaches and team leaders walked in a colourful procession from the Royal Marine Hotel where most of them are staying to the Town Hall where they were greeted by An Cathaoirleach Marie Baker. Eamon Gilmore T.D. spoke of the importance of sailing to the local economy and Frank O'Beirne, chairman of the organising committee of the future of lifetime sailing for the young participants.

The sailors then processed to the club where a welcoming speech was given by Liam O'Rourke, commodore of the Royal St. George with a reply by Lady Stanley of Alderley, vice-president for Europe of the International Optimist Dinghy Association. The official event flag was raised by Grace O'Beirne, one of the 14-sailor Irish team.

Many of the teams will have been encouraged by the presence of the ambassadors of their countries, those from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, India, Netherlands, Norway, Romania and the deputy chef de mission of Russia.

These are just a few of the countries represented, 32 of them from Europe where each country may enter seven sailors including three of each gender, and 12 from non-European nations who can enter four.

If winds ease tomorrow - and it is doubtful - three races of the Star European championships will be sailed to get the Dublin Bay regatta back on schedule.

High winds once again dictated the racing schedule at the Star European Championship at Dun Laoghaire on the third day of the series that has had two races out of the original eight-race programme completed.  

The overnight offshore gale eased slightly during the morning and a two-hour postponement by principal race officer David Lovegrove offered some hope of racing for the 27 crews waiting at the Royal St. George YC.  

However, gale force gusts continued and the programme was abandoned for the day leaving the sailors free to take the 20-minute train ride into the historic Dublin city-centre offering the famous Book of Kells at Trinity College, the Jameson Irish Whiskey centre and other attractions.

Star European Championship 2011 at Royal St. George YC, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland

(Overall standings after two races):

1st ITA Diego Negri & Enrico Voltolini
2nd FRA Guillaume Florent & Pascal Rambeau
3rd IRL Peter O'Leary & David Burrows
4th FRA Xavier Rohart Pierre & Alexis Ponsot
5th CAN Richard Clarke & Tyler Bjorn
6th POR Afonso Domingos & Frederico Melo

Photos HERE

Tim Goodbody of the Royal Irish Yacht Club took a gun at day two of the OK Dinghy European Championships in Medemblik, Netherlands. The weather produced a late finish after a complete change in conditions with very unstable offwind winds mixing up the results, with most of the leading contenders picking up a high score.

Race three got underway at 13.30 in about five knots after an earlier attempt was postponed and the fleet sent ashore to wait for the wind to build. At the start much of the fleet immediately had to tack onto port as no one could cross on starboard and this was a hint of things to come.

Most of the favourites headed to the left hand side towards a big black cloud but after one third of the beat, a 60 degree shift to the right gave the other half of the fleet a massive lead over the left side. The regatta leaders Terry Curtis, Tim Goodbody and Antoni Pawlawski were all on the left and paid a heavy price for this.

Race winner Thomas Glas said, "I started in the middle of the line and then there was a big right shift. Andreas Pich (GER) led round the top mark followed by Christian Hedlund (DEN), Jurgen Illers (GER) and myself.On the last beat Christian and Andreas went to the right and were fighting together so I went left of the fleet and got a lift which took me into the lead and I won by about 50 metres." Glas rounded off an excellent day with a ninth to end the day in ninth overall

He added, "Today was really tricky sailing, especially with the big shifts in the first race."

The wind increased slightly for race four and still very shifty. The left side did pay this time with Neil Goodhead (GBR) and Martin Bower (GBR) leading round the top mark from the left corner and Alistair Deaves (NZL) in third from the right. Goodhead maintained his lead to the leeward mark and then Tim Goodbody (IRL) made his move, taking the lead at the top of the second beat from Bartosz Rakocy (POL) and Deaves with the wind now at 12-15 knots.

Goodbody extended down the run to lead to the finish. Rakocy sailed well to record another second place to the take the overall lead while Jorgen Lindhardtsen recovered from an average first beat in race four to finish third and move up to third overall. Pawel Pawlaczyk (POL) continued his consistency to end the day in second overall. Overnight leader Terry Curtis (GBR) posted a 33 and 27 in the shifty conditions to drop to 12th overall, while Goodbody also picked up a 23 in race three.

All apart from four out of the top 10 have posted high scores so far, so after Wednesday's two races, the discard should considerbly change the order at the top.