Ireland’s youngest 49er crew produced the standout performance on day two of the World Championships in Cagliari, upstaging their more seasoned teammates.
Ben O’Shaughnessy and Ethan Spain, competing at their first senior worlds, delivered a race win, a second and a 12th to climb to 33rd overall. Their result puts them ahead of LA 2028 Olympic campaigners Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove with three qualification races to go.
“We had a rough first day, so we didn’t know what to expect, but we’re delighted with the outcome,” said Spain. “I expected that we’d be more mid-fleet; we’re here for the experience and to get used to the fleet.”
Ireland out in front on day two of the 49er World Championships in Cagliari Photo: Sailing Energy
O’Shaughnessy said they were working day by day. “We knew what we had to improve on so we’re pleased that we did that. We have to take every day as it comes, and while we’re happy with the result, we still have a lot more learning to do.”
Good starts, keeping speed up and staying relaxed were their key takeaways as they target consistency rather than gold fleet qualification.
For Dickson and Waddilove, the day brought frustration after Tuesday’s opening race win. They started well but struggled to convert in shifting, light breeze, finishing 14th, eighth and 22nd to slip to 41st overall and 20 points off gold fleet contention.
“I’m feeling a little bit frustrated because we had good starts and good speed but we couldn’t convert that into good results today,” said Dickson. “There was good wind on the right but sometimes it went left and we seemed to find ourselves on the other side.”
Wednesday returns the men’s fleet to the morning rotation and similar light conditions are expected to start the day.
Internationally, Poland’s Mikolaj Staniul and Jakub Sztorch lead the 84-boat field, two points ahead of teammates Dominik Buksak and Adam Glogowski. Australia’s Jack Ferguson and Jack Hildebrand move into third after a strong showing in the light airs.
Day one leaders Diego Botin and Florian Trittel of Spain slip to fourth. Three-time world champions Bart Lambriex and Floris van der Werken of the Netherlands rise to fifth on equal points.
Sweden’s Marius Westerlind and Olle Aronsson, third after the opening day, drop to 15th but remain positive. “I think we’ve had the potential to do quite well since this spring, when we really developed our speed,” said Westerlind. “We managed to activate our brains yesterday and sail fast and start well.”
Three more races will decide gold fleet places before Friday’s split and the test medal race format. Results here
