Harry Durcan and Harry Twomey finished ninth overall at the Zhik 29er World Championships in Poland, which drew to a close yesterday (Saturday 3 August), scoring Ireland’s best result ever in the competition.

And it marks another remarkable result for the Royal Cork duo who also placed second at the RYA Youth Nationals in Weymouth this past April.

That was despite the fact it was the first time former Optimist ace Twomey was helming a 29er in competition alongside March’s Sailor of the Month.

Theirs was the top Irish result from three pairs among 175 teams competing in Gdynia — the same venue where Team Ireland were racing in the Youth Worlds last month — with Durcan’s twin Johnny not far behind in 16th overall in his mixed pair with Lola Kohl.

Also competing for Ireland over the week were Charlie Cullen (Royal St George/National YC) and Ben Hogan, who placed sixth on the Bronze fleet.

Read how a unique tie-up with the US Virgin Islands led to eight Irish sailors contesting the Gdynia Championships by Chris Bateman here.

It was Cork crews all the way in yesterday’s intensely-fought final in the two-day Student Nationals in the J/80s at Howth Yacht Club.

But in the end, victory was taken by Cork Institute of Technology helmed in style by Harry Durcan. The final margin over University College Cork may only have been one point, yet CIT is now not only Irish champions, but they will be the national team in the Student Yachting Worlds in France in the Autumn.

More on this story here.

This month's Californian 29–er skiff Worlds was youth sailors Harry Durcan and Harry Whitaker's last regatta together as the pair embark on different sailing and study plans.

Durcan will swap to crewing the 29er dinghy. His new helmsman is 2016 Irish and British Optimist national champion Tom Higgins of Dun Laoghaire's Royal St. George Yacht Club.

Dun Laoghaire's Tom Higgins who has moved from Optimist to Laser 4.7 and now to 29er skiff. Photo: Bob Bateman

The pair have already started training and although the early goal back in April was to contest the Europeans this month in France they have not entered that regatta that began at the weekend. The campaign will last until next June 2018 and the end of sixth year studies. 'Once that is over I'll be heading into the Olympic 49er class, the young Cork Harbour sailor told Afloat.ie

Harry Whitaker, it is understood, will take a step back from competitive sailing but will continue to participate in team racing and yacht racing while going through college.

Tomorrow's All Ireland Junior sailing championships looks like it will get off to a wet and windy start for the 16–nominated junior sailing stars drawn from seven yacht clubs from around the country.

The Under–18 championships is scheduled to race over two days in West Cork's own TR3.6 two handed dinghies but the weather forecast for the Schull venue shows winds topping 40–knots for Saturday and the same again on Sunday.  

XC weather forecaster shows big winds in Schull, West Cork tomorrow

In a show of strength for Dublin's Royal St. George Yacht Club more than a third of the participants are drawn from the Dun Laoghaire club. RStGYC juniors are representing the RS200 (Toby Hudson Fowler), the RS Feva (Henry Start), Laser 4.7 (Peter Fagan), Optimist (Tom Higgins), Topper (Jack Fahy) and Kate Lyttle from the 420 class.

Multi–champion in the Optimist class, Tom Higgins from the Royal St. George, is nominated for this weekend's All Ireland Juniors  in Schull

Royal Cork Yacht Club is the next biggest club on the water in Schull with four sailors involved. 29er skipper Harry Durcan and twin Johnny representing 29er and Laser Radials respectively. Harry Twomey represents the Optimist class and Sophie Crosby sails for the Toppers. 

The National Yacht Club's Clare Gorman represents the Laser 4.7 and will defend the girls title and the NYC's Leah Rickard sails for the Optimists.

Schull's own TR3.6 dinghies ready for the junior all Ireland sailors. Photo: Fastnet Marine

The West coast is represented by three clubs.Topaz sailors Adam Byrne and Dylan Reidy representing Dingle SC and Foynes YC respectively and Sligo Yacht Club sends Mirror ace Sarah White.

The 420 class is represented by Geoff Power of Waterford Harbour Sailing Club. 

Full nominee list below

Royal Cork's Harry Durcan and Harry Whittaker have won the UK 29er National Championship in Torbay. After six days racing and 19 races in all, it all came down to the final race which they secured with a bullet giving them a two point lead over the rest of the fleet. Full results here. Conditions today were shifty at best and the Race Officer did well to get four races in to finish the final series.

Champion youth sailor Harry Durcan of Royal Cork took a swim during heavy weather training at last week's 420 dinghy training camp in Schull, West Cork. The near miss between the two 420s was captured on video and can be seen below.

Following on from the Schull session, the next 420 training will take place in Cork Harbour on March 5th. The training will be led by Ross Killian, ISA National Coach with an assistant coach on the water. Cost will be €50 per sailor/€100 per boat for the weekend, which will go ahead subject to a minimum of 4 boats.

#optimistworlds – After eight races sailed of the Optimist World Championship at Club Nautico San Isidro, Argentina, Royal Cork's Harry Durcan is lying 22nd from 70 in his red flight of a massive 210–boats. The Munster youth had a difficult start to his regatta counting two starting penalties in his first two races but by race eight had bounced back to take a ninth, his best result so far. Durcan's scores to date: (70.0 UFD) 70.0 BFD 54.0 53.0 12.0 39.0 9.0. Full score–sheet here.

Six races were sailed last week and the fleet was divided into Gold, Silver and Bronze. Each fleet has 70 sailors. This first part of this championship had light winds, lot of current and little waves but today it changed completely: The wind gauge marked 23Knts on the race area, the waves were high and short, there were current and it was cloudy. The changes made a turn on the results. The Gold Fleet had two races: The Brazilian sailor, Gustavo Abdulklech won the first race and then Voravong Rachrattanaruk from Thailand won the second race.

The Silver fleet made two races also and the bronze fleet only made one because of the strong winds. The final results: 1st Nicolaz Rolaz from Switzerland, 2nd Dimitris Papadimitriou from Greece and third place Gustavo Abdilklech from Brazil. Mara Turin who was winning the OptiWorld is 8th after a very hard day.

Top five, Gold fleet after Tuesday's racing:

1. Nicolas Rolaz, SUI, 28.0 points
2. Dimitris Papadimitriou, GRE, 31.0
3. Gustavo Abdulklech, BRA, 43.0
4. Jelmer Velds, NED, 45.0
5. Aina Colom, ESP, 55.0

#youthsailing – Talented Royal Cork youth sailors made a clean sweep of the All Ireland Junior Helmsmans Championships off Kinsale yesterday. In an end of season boost just ahead of his solo assault on the Optimist Worlds in Argentina next month, Harry Durcan lifted the trophy in style, topping off a remarkable 1,2,3 result for Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Twenty sailors from nine classes and out of eleven clubs (including two wild cards) were chosen to compete this weekend out of Kinsale Yacht Club.

After patiently waiting again for wind the morning of day two, racing started at 12:30.  Race five turned out to be hectic at the marks throughout the race with plenty of calling out by all. First over the line was Ros Morgan and Ronan Walsh of Skerries Sailing Club, followed by Clare Gorman and Amy Carrol of the National Yacht Club and third place Adam D'Arcy and James Hassett of Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Winds remained consistent for some reliable performance throughout race six with Peter McCann and Michael O'Suileabhain of Royal Cork Yacht Club coming first over the finish line on race six, the final preliminary race before choosing the top ten for the medal race.

Selection for the top ten resulting sailors to enter the medal race was calculated and six teams from Royal Cork Yacht Club made it through with one team from Malahide Yacht Club, National Yacht Club, Dingle Sailing Club and Kinsale Yacht Club.

The medal race (race 7) gave double points and the pressure was on to get a good start. James McCann and Michael Carrol of Royal Cork Yacht Club were ahead all the way with excellent mark rounding and good boat control that got them over the final line first. Fellow club members, Harry Durcan and Harry Whittaker, were close on their tail.

Harry Durcan and Harry Whittaker from Royal Cork Yacht Club were the overall winners

Gemma and Cara Mc Dowell from Malahide Yacht Club who won the Ladies Competition

The overall top three was:
• 1st Harry Durcan and Harry Whittaker of Royal Cork Yacht Club with 29 points.
• 2nd Peter McCann and Michael O'Suileabhain of Royal Cork Yacht Club with 32 points.
• 3rd Adam D'Arcy and James Hassett of Royal Yacht Club with 42 points.

Ladies Competition
• 1st Gemma McDowell and Cara McDowell of Malahide Yacht Club on 45 points.

Harry Durcan's next event he will be representing Ireland at the Optimist Worlds in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Harry will then be moving on to compete in 29ers in 2015. 

#allireland – Wild card entry Harry Durcan leads the Junior Helmsmans championhips at Kinsale Yacht Club this evening by a singe point from his Royal Cork clubmate Peter McCann. Durcan's twin brother Johnny is lying third after four races sailed in a dominant display by Royal Cork youth sailors. Full results below.

16 young helms waited breeze until 1pm today before the first race of the ISA event commenced in a ten–knot southerly, just enough to get them moving. As they came down on a run to the finish line the winds abandoned Kinsale Harbour all together and boats were left drifting. A maximum race time was set for 40 minutes and race was abandoned before any boats made it to the finish line. Boat number 3 with James McCann and Michael Carroll from Royal Cork Yacht Club were only 10 metres from the finish line.

Race two commenced in 8 knots of breeze with a cloud formation that seemed to promise consistent winds and the promise came through. Cliona NiShuillebhain and Jill McGinley of Kinsale Yacht Club gave a steady performance throughout the race and remained in the lead spot to the finish line.

The wind stayed with them and at 15:00 race three commenced. Séafra Guilfoyle and Michael Carrol of Royal Cork Yacht Club worked their way up through the fleet to cross the finish line first.

Race four started at 16:00 – the two Harry's (Durcan and Whittaker) from Royal Cork Yacht Club started with a good lead and were first round the weather mark on the first beat and again first round on the second beat with a 40 second lead. The tide started flooding up to 3knots, which caught a few competitors that took the course wide were held back, with 8 competitors resulting in DNF from not going over the finish line within the time limit.

Winds became light again for race 5 and five resulted in DNF. The girls from Kinsale Yacht Club slammed it again and won Race 5, with Peter McCann and Michael O'Suileabhan in 2nd place and the Harries in at 3rd.

Results after day one

#optimist – Royal Cork's Harry Durcan leads the Irish charge in 22nd place at the halfway mark of a massive 173–boat Optimist British & Open National Championships.

There were strong winds with gusts up to 23 knots created challenging condition for Optimist sailors today off Weymouth.

A grey, overcast morning gave way to sunshine in the afternoon along with a minor decrease in wind strength, however despite a slightly calmer afternoon, day three of racing proved to be the toughest yet for all fleets.

It was a great day for the Senior Fleet (Main), all of whom were challenged by big swells in Weymouth Bay. There was one general recall across three races and overall slow progress to the windward mark due to the choppy waves, however once the sailors rounded the top mark they took off on the reach and flew downwind very quickly. The leaders were the more experienced sailors in the fleet, and they managed to put a good distance between themselves and the rest of the pack.

While the international competition is doing very well, Vita Heathcote, 13 (Royal Lymington Yacht Club) who had a strong day, is sitting in third place and is the top British sailor sailor in the Senior Fleet. Also in the top ten are Arthur Fry, 13 (Royal Lymington Yacht Club) and Hatty Morsley, 15 (Port Dinorwic Sailing Club).

Arthur described the day, "It was pretty windy out in the bay and quite shifty, but it was a great day sailing and I'm pretty pleased to have moved into 8th overall."

Hattie continued, "The strong winds today made it very hard work, but it was also rewarding and there is good competition in the fleet. I managed to get my tactics right and finished with a 5, 15 and 10."

The Junior Fleet (Main) had similar conditions with slightly less chop inside the harbor. They completed three good races with no general recalls. The first race proved to be the toughest with the most wind, favoring the heavier sailors. Between 10 to 12 boats retired from the first race, however there were no major incidents aside from a few capsizes.

A British sailor has moved into first place for the first time in this event in the main – fleet, Alexandra Schonrock, 12 (Parkstone Yacht Club) leads before both the Senior and Junior fleets split into gold and silver tomorrow.

Regatta Fleet racing was especially challenging for the young sailors. The race committee managed two races in the morning and three in the afternoon. The first race of the day took a toll on the fleet and there were a number of capsizes and non-finishers. Slightly less wind in the afternoon meant more sailors were able to get around the course.

The Regatta Coached Fleet had two races in top end of conditions. There was determination among the regatta fleet sailors to get around the course and finish and everyone came back to shore with accomplished smiles on their faces.

The forecast for tomorrow is for lighter winds, between 11 to 13 knots with racing scheduled to resume tomorrow [Wednesday 6 August] at 11.00 AM.

For full results and more information, here