Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy and Barry McCartin have been crowned Irish Sailing’s 2026 Dinghy Champions after winning a six-boat final on Dublin Bay on Sunday.
Murphy and McCartin produced the strongest performance across three final races in the supplied Melges 15s to take the title at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire.
The victory came after Murphy had to qualify for the final through Sunday morning’s repechage, joining Ger Owens in claiming the last two places in the six-boat decider.
They joined the four automatic qualifiers — Thomas Chaix, Sean Donnelly, Tim Norwood and Chris Helme — for three final races on Sunday afternoon.
Murphy, the 2016 Rio Olympic silver medallist, then teamed up with McCartin to emerge on top and claim the 2026 Dinghy Champions’ Cup.
Bay battle: Annalise Murphy and Barry McCartin race a Melges 15 on Dublin Bay on their way to winning the 2026 Irish Sailing Dinghy Champions’ Cup at the Royal St George Yacht Club.
Norwood and Chaix Set Early Pace
The championship brought together 12 invited helms representing classes ranging from the GP14 and Fireball to the ILCA 7, Water Wag, Mermaid, Melges 15 and RS200.
Saturday’s opening qualifiers produced particularly strong performances from Tim Norwood and Luke Donagh and Thomas and Ben Chaix.
As Afloat reported after Saturday's racing, Norwood and Donagh recorded three straight wins in their flight, while the Chaix pairing also completed a clean sweep of theirs.
Norwood and Chris Helme progressed automatically from Flight A, with Thomas Chaix and Sean Donnelly qualifying from Flight B.
Murphy Comes Through Repechage
The remaining competitors had one more opportunity on Sunday morning, when Race Officer Mairead Ní Cheallacháin oversaw the repechage for the final two places.
Defending champion Ger Owens and Murphy came through to complete the six-boat final line-up.
Murphy and McCartin then made their opportunity count in the three-race final series to secure the national title.
The result adds another chapter to Murphy's long association with the event. She previously competed in the old Helmsman's Championship format and was among the leading names highlighted in Afloat's preview of this weekend's Championship of Champions.
Melges 15s Provide Level Playing Field
The Melges 15s were loaned by members of the Royal St George Yacht Club fleet, with Melges representative John Sheehy equalising, rigging and measuring the boats ahead of the championship.
The supplied-boat format was designed to put sailors from different dinghy classes onto as level a playing field as possible.
Irish Sailing thanked event organiser Stephen O'Shaughnessy, Race Officer Mairead Ní Cheallacháin and her team, the Royal St George Yacht Club and the owners who provided their Melges 15s.
Attention in the Championship of Champions now switches to the keelboat competition, which is due to be sailed in J/80s at the Royal Irish Yacht Club next weekend.
