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Irish Sailing Team's 'Green Armada' on Top in the SSL Gold Cup

20th May 2022
The Green Armada on their way to a race win on Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland
The Green Armada on their way to a race win on Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland Credit: Martina Orsini/SSL Gold Cup

The Irish Sailing Team at the SSL Gold Cup in Neuchatel, Switzerland had a convincing win over SSL Team Estonia in Group 2 Race 2 today.

The 'Green Armada' matches The 'Icebreakers' in the group's provisional rankings.

SSL Team Belgium, unlucky yesterday finishes third, in front of SSL Team Serbia.

 SSL Gold Cup

As Afloat reported previously, the Irish Sailing Team is made up of some of Ireland's top sailors.

Ireland's crew in Switzerland is: 

  • Bow -Simon Johnson
  • Mid Bow/grinder/strategy - Ryan Glynn
  • Pit - Cian Guilfoyle
  • Grinder - Grattan Roberts
  • Trim - David Kenefick
  • Trim - George Kingston
  • Main/tactics - Nin O’Leary
  • Helm - Harry Durcan

The 'Green Armada' Irish Sailing Team in winning form on the Swiss lake The 'Green Armada' Irish Sailing Team in winning form on the Swiss lake Photo: Martina Orsini

The Green Armada panel also includes Olympians Annalise Murphy, Robert Dickson, Finn Lynch, Sean Waddilove, Peter O'Leary and Stephen Milne but these sailor are not in Neuchatel this week due to other commitments, according to Team Captain Nicholas O'Leary.

The SSL Gold Cup Qualifying Series Round 1 started yesterday May 19th with two groups of four teams racing in Grandson, on lake Neuchatel.

Only two teams of each group will go through and access the Final Series scheduled in October and November in a location that will be announced next week.

Tomorrrow's action featuring Team Ireland can be seen below

SSL GOLD CUP ROUND 1

 

Published in SSL Gold Cup
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About the Star Sailors League Gold Cup

In 2022, Sailing finally got its own World Cup, according to the promoters of the SSL (STAR SAILORS LEAGUE) Gold Cup. 

Like football in 1930 and rugby in 1987, the SSL Gold Cup is designed to crown the best sailing nation of all! The World's Top 56 countries, selected on their SSL Nation ranking, will battle their way through to raise the coveted and only Sailing World Cup trophy.

The SSL is the global inshore sailing circuit launched by Olympic athletes in 2012, by sailors for sailors. Its main philosophy considers the athletes (not the boats) as the “Stars” and it aims to showcase the annual global sailing championship with its over 15’000 regattas; it determines and celebrates the world leaders in sailing promoting the inshore regattas to the global audience.

The three main components of the SSL Circuit are the SSL Ranking published every Tuesday, updating the position of over 100,000 leading athletes, thus highlighting the world’s top inshore sailors. The SSL Finals taking place every year around November-December, it’s the annual final of the SSL Circuit among the 20/25 best athletes of the ranking, to crown the champion of the season. And the SSL Gold Cup, the ‘ultimate’ championship of the circuit with 56 nations among World Sailing members, to crown the best sailing nation.

In a mechanical sport where the race for technology sometimes gets in the way of the race for glory, the SSL aims for equal competition where the talent of the sailors is at the forefront and the champions become heroes that inspire new generations of sailors.

The SSL is a World Sailing Special Event since 2017.