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Displaying items by tag: Peadar O'Suilleabhain

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 30th Student Yachting World Cup (SYWoC), and for the Irish Team, it was the first opportunity for some of them to check out La Rochelle. This year's Team Ireland consists of a joint effort between UL, LIT and UCC.

The team consists of Skipper Robert O'Leary(UCC), Cian Gallagher (UL), John Blake (UL), Dee O'Rourke (LIT), Lisa Dann (UCC), Caitlin Cuppage (UCC), Shane Newman (UL), Peadar O'Suilleabhain (UL), Jamie Donegan (UCC). The team will race with 6 or 7 up depending on the weather for the week, currently the forecast is looking quite light. Not what was expected for this time of year in La Rochelle.
After an early start at 7am this morning, the team travelled to the Societé de Regatis Rochelouies, the club which hosted the very first SYWoC in 1979. And which is SYWoC's base for the week.
A practice race was scheduled for 2pm, after a general briefing at 1pm. However, with wind gusting over 30kts, the race organisers decided that it was not worth risking the fleet with 6 days of racing ahead. The teams will be given an hour prior to racing tomorrow to put the final preparations on their 2010 SYWoC campaigns.
Team Ireland will hope to keep the title of a force to be reckoned with, after all the past 4 SYWoC campaigns for Ireland have had results of a 1st (Trinity - 2006), 2nd (CIT - 2007), 1st (CIT - 2008), 4th (CIT - 2009).

Published in Youth Sailing

About Match Racing

A match race is a race between two competitors, going head-to-head.

In yacht racing, it is differentiated from a fleet race, which almost always involves three or more competitors competing against each other, and team racing where teams consisting of 2, 3 or 4 boats compete together in a team race, with their results being combined.

A match race consists of two identical boats racing against each other. With effective boat handling and clever use of wind and currents, a trailing boat can escape the grasp of the leader and pass. The leader uses blocking techniques to hold the other boat back. This one-on-one duel is a game of strategy and tactics.

About the World Match Racing Tour

Founded in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) promotes the sport of match racing around the world and is the longest running global professional series in the sport of sailing. The WMRT is awarded ‘Special Event’ status by the sport’s world governing body – World Sailing – and the winner of the WMRT each year is crowned World Sailing Match Racing World Champion. Previous champions include Sir Ben Ainslie (GBR), Taylor Canfield (USA), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Magnus Holmberg (SWE), Peter Holmberg (ISV), Adam Minoprio (NZL), Torvar Mirsky (AUS), Bertrand Pace (FRA), Jesper Radich (DEN), Phil Robertson (NZL) and Ian Williams (GBR). Since 2000, the World Match Racing Tour and its events have awarded over USD23million in prize money to sailors which has helped to contribute to the career pathway of many of today’s professional sailors