October's ISAF open match racing world rankings sees a big improvement for the Irish. There are now 34 ranked Irish match racers compared to a dozen this time last year. Ireland now has a top 100 match racer in John Sheehy. Shane O' Flaherty's single win at the grade 4 E-Boat Class Match Racing Championships puts him 604th, proof that there's great craic to be had in class associations holding an owner driver event.
The ISAF ranking works on a complicated system of event grading with the top 9 teams at each event scoring points and competitors counting their best 4 results from each of the previous 2 years. Confused? The match racing section of the ISAF web site (http://www.sailing.org/4891.php) is probably the best place to go for an explanation. It actually makes sense once you get your head round it and it is as fair a way of comparing teams from around the world as you will find.
Most Irish competitors -with only 1 year of match racing under their belts and with the results from this years nationals yet to be added in - only have 2 or 3 events to count and this is reflected in their ranking. For example Tom Fitzpatrick is currently ranked 237th with a 1st and two 3rds in the grade 4 2009 Match Racing Tour of Ireland events counting. Saverio Ramirez has 8 similar results placing him 100th in the World, the level at which invites to the qualifying events for grade 2 events start to kick in. 8 solid podium placing in grade 3 events will take you into the top 50, above which results in grade 2 international events, of which John has 2, are needed to make progress.
