Competitors battled through fluky winds and torrential rain at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy on day three of the RYA run-IFDS World Championships 2011 today writes Claire Bateman.

After 6 races and one discard John Twomey and his crew Anthony Hegarty and Ian Costello, all from Kinsale Yacht Club, are lying in 9th place overall in the 23 boat Sonar Class. John and his crew have just finished competing in Shilleagh at the Sovereign's Cup Kinsale, finishing 5th in Class 3 IRC and the ICRA Championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club where they finished 4th overall in Class 3 IRC finishing behind Tiger, Anchor Challenge and Blackfun in that order, an excellent performance indeed.

The IFDS World Championships, organised in 2011 by the RYA, is the most prestigious event in the disabled sailing calendar outside of the Paralympic Games and is being held at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) that will play host to the sailing competition for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The event is taking place from July 1st to 8th, 2011, and forms the second qualifying event for the 2012 Paralympic Games sailing competition, with entries exceeding 100 boats across 3 Paralympic Classes. The KYC team is hoping to make the Irish qualification for the Sonar class having just missed the qualification by one point last time around.

All the competitors in the huge entry are keen to gain experience of the Olympic and Paralympic venue in the run-up to 2012, making this event an important fixture in the international calendar.

Racing continues through to Friday 8 July.

A recent shot of John Twomey and crew in Action in Shillelagh. Photo: Robert Bateman