Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

A real resurgence has emerged in the UK in the last months or so, following on from several initiatives such as the Crew for Gold Programme run by the RYA and the British Sailing Team has injected a number of female FX teams, whilst a strong 29er fleet has pushed some talented and keen young sailors into the void that might be said existed in the post-youth arena. Can Ireland follow suit and build a similar approach? There is certainly a platform with seven boats competing at the 9er Easterns last April.

But back to Weymouth, Fifteen FX teams and thirteen 49er teams, including a number of Irish visitors and one from the USA who had chosen to train from Portland for the Autumn, or to keep it in context the fall, had gathered at the National Sailing Academy for four days of racing.

The Irish contingent was composed of four FX partnerships and one 49er team. The Irish Sailing Development FX squad had decided to use the event as part of the training process and have NYC coach Thomas Chaix onsite (and crewing for one of the squad members) added to the idea of using the championship to test progress. Discussions post sailing were certainly an effective casual way of debriefing the days.

Big breeze in Wemouth for the 49ers Photo: Optical Marine

Arriving a day early allowed the group to do a short training session on Wednesday in 15-18 kts before the breeze started to build. Then, the waiting game started with a forecast that was playing havoc on the schedule.

No racing could happen on Thursday with winds in excess of 25kts... Friday started very windy and by 3pm, our race officer called it a day... Typically, the wind started to decrease and by 4.30 some sailors decided to head out for a short evening session in 15-20Kts.

Saturday morning welcomed the sailors with a sunny 8-10 kts Northerly. No time was wasted and we got onto racing. It was shifty, gusty and quickly a pattern was established with Ellie Keers and Jess Jobson ( team GB) sailing away to a strong victory in the FX. The Irish were solid enough with Ben O Shaugnessy and Ethan Spain securing 3rd. Teammates James Dwyer and Thomas Chaix were in close pursuit with a 5th.

This form book continued into Race 2 with Ellie and Jess once again winning from former double 49er Olympic medalist Simon Hiscocks sailing with his daughter Amelie. James and Thomas fell foul of the U flag rule having just about jumped the start. It was to prove costly in a likely no discard event. Erin McIlwain and Ellen Barbour were the best of the Irish, with a 5th, with Ben and Ethan (6th) and Lauren and Charlotte (7th) just behind.

Race 3 saw a change of leaders, with Simon's experience showing dividends, taking the race from Ben and Ethan. James and Thomas did not let the earlier disqualification affect their solid tactics and they took 4th on the line.

The final race of the day saw a few changes of leaders with the top 6 finishing within boat lengths of each other. It was eventually the Irish who took the final race of the day courtesy of Ben and Ethan before the wind totally died off.

And we all thoughts we were done with a strong building forecast in store for the Sunday.

An hour before the earliest first gun, the winds were looking OK at 15-18 kts so the fleet was released... And the wind started to pick up to a solid 25kts by the time we started. The race was savage with gusts in excess of 30kts on the left side of the course. The gybing layline was renamed the "graveyard" and certainly buried many sailors' hopes. In this survival of the fittest (or arguably craziest) race, only two 49ers and four FXs managed to reach the finish line. Ben and Ethan took second just ahead of James and Thomas who despite a damaged Gumtree did not back off.

Overall Results: