#allirelandsailing – Prior commitments mean the All Ireland sailing champion Peter O’Leary will be unable to defend his 2012 title. Nor will any of his Olympic 2012 team mates make the Howth Yacht Club start line as Annalise Murphy, Ryan Seaton and Ger Owens, who all received nominations, bow out of tomorrow's competition, where big breeze is expected. The ISA released the line up of 16 competitors this morning. Download line up below as a jpeg file.
As Afloat.ie reported earlier the ISA initially planned a prequalification round for the event for tomorrow but these plans appear to have changed, giving an appearance that 16 is all that could be mustered, a far cry from a few years ago when there were complaints over not getting invited, even to the prequalifying Friday line-up of 28 plus classes.
The 16 class representatives hail from all four corners of the country; nine sail from Dublin, three from Cork and one a piece in Westmeath, Limerick, Donegal and Antrim.
Mermaid – Mark Boylan, Skerries SC; Fireball – Noel Butler; ICRA '1' – Colin Byrne, Royal Irish YC; Laser Radial – Thomas Chaix, Kinsale YC; J24 – Cillian Dickson, Howth YC; SB20 – Ben Duncan; Junior Winner – Séafra Guilfoyle, Royal Cork YC; Shannon OD – Laurence Hanley, Lough Ree YC; Ruffian – Trevor Kirkpatrick, Carrickfergus SC; Wild Card – Finn Lynch, National YC; Flying Fifteen – Ian Mathews, National YC; ICRA '2'– Simon McGibney, Foynes YC GP14 – John McGuinness, Moville BC; RS400 – Emmet Ryan, Royal St George YC; Multihull – Mark Small, Kinsale YC; Howth 17, Mike Toomey, Howth YC.
Among them is a strong up-and-coming youth contingent. Finn Lynch from the ISA Academy earned a wild card nomination for his recent performance at the Laser European & World Championships. The 17 year old took home three medals at the regatta including Gold - U21 Men’s Laser Radial Worlds, Silver – Men’s Laser Radial Europeans and Bronze – Men’s Laser Radial Worlds. Joining Finn in the line-up will be fellow Academy member Séafra Guilfoyle who earned his place by winning the Junior All Ireland event last month in Co. Cork.
Representing the Mermaid class will be Mark Boylan who this year became the youngest ever Mermaid National Champion at the age of 20. And making up an all youth crew for Optimist Squad coach Thomas Chaix will be Dara O’Shea and Douglas Elmes who have since graduated from Oppies and Johnny Durcan who is still on the national Optimist Squad.
The 16 boats will compete in two fleets of eight on Saturday, each scheduled for three races. From there the top three boats from each fleet will progress to Sunday’s final four-race series with two places remaining for the top two boats from a two-race repechage on Sunday morning.
Up to 25 knot south westerly winds are forecast for both days of competition.
