Although Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon discarded a 35th scored in light winds, the Irish Sailor of the Year has a commanding 18-point lead going into the final day of racing at the ILCA6 U21 World Championships in Morocco on Sunday.

Day five began off with sunshine, warm temperatures and a light south breeze signalling that all the storms were over and the stable weather was back. Although some scattered clouds and a lower sun angle hinted at the arrival of autumn. The plan for the day was to sail two races; however, at 11:00 am, the AP flag was hoisted as the breeze was too light to sail.

At 12:30, AP was removed and sailors made their way to the race course with a light breeze of 7 knots. As the afternoon progressed the gentle breeze died down to 2-3 knots making racing impossible. However, at 2:30 pm the first warning signal was hoisted as the northwest breeze increased to 7 knots for some tricky sailing.

In the first race of the ILCA 6 fleet the Italian, Emma Mattivi came in first with a good advantage over the second Ginevra Caracciolo also from Italy. However, McMahon is still in first position, closing the day with 46 points, a good advantage over the second and third positions, which are very close. Overall, second-placed Italian Carlotta Rizzardi has 64 points, very closely followed by the Swiss Anja Von Allmen with 65 points.

Howth's Eve McMahon continues to lead the ILCA 6 Women's fleet at the Under 21 ILCA 6 World Championships at Tangier, Morocco.

After eight races sailed, McMahon holds a six-point advantage over Italy's Carlotta Rizzardi who won Friday's final two races in the 66-boat fleet.

After the passing of a storm, the weather in Tangier continues to be unstable, with rain showers and a strong westerly breeze on the race course.

The Paris 2024 campaigner is one of five Irish sailors competing. 

Two more racing days remain and the current podium looks as follows:

ILCA 6 under 21 women’s fleet top three

1. Eve McMahon IRL 216111 with 29 points
2. Carlotta Rizzardi ITA 221459 with 35 points
3. Anja von Allmen SUI 220286 with 41 points

Results below.

Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon is lying second overall after four races sailed at the 2023 ILCA U21 World Championships in Tangier, Morocco.

The Paris 2024 campaigner is one of five Irish sailors competing. 

Wednesday started cloudy, with rain showers coming and going over the racecourse and the city of Tangier.

The sea conditions were slightly different today as there was a swell from the northwest and the wind from the southwest. The wind conditions were quite unstable across the racecourse, as the wind at the start line was more substantial than at mark 1, which was significantly weaker. The wind intensity ranged from 6 knots at the top marks and up to 12 knots at the start line, with gusts up to 15 knots.

In the first race of the day, the ILCA 6 fleet had three starting procedures, starting with a general recall, followed by a cancelled start due to a wind shift, and a final good start under a black flag. The ILCA 6 first race was the outer course, with Josephine Heegaard from Denmark arriving first to mark one. The race was very close until the last moment when the race was won by Italian Emma Mattivi. In the second race, the winner was again Emma Mattivi; nonetheless, with one discard after four races, the top female sailor was Josephine Heegaard.

In the male ILCA 7 yellow fleet, the racing was tight, and each sailor demonstrated their skill and expertise in the very technical swell and shifty conditions. In race one, the first place went to Italian Attilio Borio, and in race 2 Haruto Kuroda from Japan took the top spot. In the blue fleet, Finley Dickinson of United Kingdom won both races of the day. The top Irish sailor is Royal St. George's Ficachra McDonnell in 66th.

Results are here

Due to light winds and strong tide at the Sailing World Championships in The Hague, today's cut-short ILCA 6 qualification series has denied Ireland's Eve McMahon of Howth Yacht Club the chance to recover from a Black Flag penalty and earn herself a Gold fleet place. The Howth youth sailing star will now compete in the Silver division for the remainder of the series.

As Afloat reported earlier, McMahon had dropped to 81st overall in her 110-strong ILCA6 women's single-handed on Monday and faced a difficult comeback.

While Olympic nation qualification in The Hague represented the best possible preparation for Paris 2024 and the best indicator that Ireland is in the medal hunt, McMahon has two remaining opportunities to make the Marseille startline next July. These are the ILCA 6 2024 Continental Championships and a final qualification regatta just weeks before the Games itself.

Ireland's Eve McMahon of Howth Yacht Club dropped to 81st overall in her 110-strong ILCA6 women's single-handed class at the Allianz Sailing World Championships in the Netherlands on Monday.

With two races left to decide the Gold fleet split for the final round later this week, the Irish Sailor of the Year must overcome a 20-point deficit in Tuesday's schedule if she is to keep Ireland's Olympic nation qualification chances alive in The Hague.

As Afloat reported, her regatta started badly on Sunday with a black flag disqualification in race two.

"The Irish Sailor of the Year must overcome a 20-point deficit"

Hungary’s Maria Erdi pulled clear at the top of the standings thanks to a third-place finish in the day’s opening yellow fleet race on a day of mixed results for the top contenders.
 
Erdi leads Carolina Albano by a point after the Italian finished fourth and 22nd in the two blue fleet races, with Marilena Makri (CYP) and Maud Jayet (SUI) taking victory.
 
The yellow fleet races were won by Patricia Reino Cacho (SPA) and Marie Barrue (FRA), with Olympic gold medallist Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) rising to third thanks to finishes of eighth and third in the yellow fleet.
 
Home favourite Marit Bouwmeester (NED) sits sixth after a mixed day that saw her finish seventh and 11th, while Emma Plasschaert (BEL) responded from a 30th-place finish in the day’s opening race to grab a second-place finish in the blue fleet’s second race.

ILCA 7

McMahon was the only Irish sailor to race yesterday as racing for ILCA7 Men's single-handers, where Finn Lynch and Ewan McMahon are competing, was cancelled due to light winds and strong tides on the race course. Lynch (National Yacht Club) is eighth overall in his 138-boat event thanks to a 12th and fourth place from Sunday's opening races. 

49er

Tuesday sees the opening races of the finals round for the 49er, where Ireland's Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) have qualified for Gold fleet and lie sixth overall after their nine-race qualification round.

Ireland's Eve McMahon of Howth Yacht Club took eleventh in her ILCA6 opening race at the Sailing World Championships in The Hague before suffering a Black Flag disqualification in race two.

Hungarian Maria Erdi and Italian Carolina Albano sit level at the top of the ILCA 6 standings ahead of British sailor Daisy Collingridge.

Erdi bounced back from a fifth-place finish in the opening race to record a bullet in the second and sit level on points with Albano at the top of the ILCA 6 standings.
 
Home favourite Marit Bouwmeester triumphed in the first blue fleet race of the day but was unable to emulate those exploits in the second as Erdi toppled Australian Mara Stransky.
 
And in the yellow fleet, Albano similarly improved on her fourth-place finish in the opening race to trail Romanian Ebru Bolat in the second and lie level with Erdi on six points.
 
Beckett’s compatriot Collingridge currently occupies the bronze medal spot after an eighth and fourth on an eventful opening day, six points adrift of Erdi and Albano and just one ahead of chasing trio Lucia Falasca (ARG), Charlotte Rose (USA) and Julia Busselberg (GER).

Results are here
 
 

After the elation of a race win in race eight, Eve McMahon managed 21st in races nine and ten today as the ILCA 6 class wrapped up the places for the final medal race at the Paris 2024 Test Event. 

The Howth Yacht Club teen has finished a creditable 11th at her first opportunity but unfortunately misses out on Saturday's top ten medal race participation in Marseilles.

Meanwhile, Marit Bouwmeester’s dominance in the ILCA 6, means that she has already secured gold before the medal race.

Even with double points available on Saturday, the Dutch star cannot be caught, thanks to a bullet in the final race on Friday.

That win, combined with a 19th place for nearest challenger Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN), meant that Bouwmeester leads by 21 points heading into the medal race, an unassailable advantage.

A year out from the Olympics in the same venue, it was the dream week for the 2012 Olympic champion.

She said: “I was happy with my results. It's never easy in Marseille. If I'm winning, it's not entirely up to myself, I think my competitors made a few more mistakes, but I'm happy with the week. We had such a variety of conditions, and I think it gave a good insight into what we can expect for next year.

“It's constantly changing and always difficult, but we learned a lot about the bay. It's nice that we got a proper event in.”

Results here

Ireland’s rising star Eve McMahon caught the eye on the Olympic Stage in Marseille today with a win in mistral conditions in the Paris 2024 ILCA 6 Test Event.  

The appearance of the mistral had a big impact at the Test Event in the Marseille Marina as the ILCA 6s close in on medal race line-ups.

As regular Afloat readers know, Howth Yacht Club's McMahon, the reigning Irish Sailor of the Year  and recently crowned Ulster Champion, has won everything there is to win at junior level and showed she is just as comfortable on the global stage with victory in the final race of the day in the ILCA 6. 

That was enough to jump up to tenth after eight of the ten races for the Irish teenager, who beat a host of decorated sailors along the way.

Chief among them is Marit Bouwmeester (NED), a four-time world champion and 2016 Olympic gold medallist, who finished second and fourth in the day’s two races to cement her place at the top of the leaderboard.

Bouwmeester sits on 30 points, with reigning world champion Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN), six points back after a pair of third-place finishes.

Results here

A black flag for Eve McMahon (19) in race five of the Paris 2024 Olympic Test event in Marseille has been a setback for the Howth sailor, who lies in the top one-third of her ILCA 6 38-boat fleet.

McMahon is 12th after six races from ten and counts 4, 16, 12, 15, (39)BFD, and 13 to be on the same points as the 11th-placed Finn, Monika Mikkola and one point off the top ten.

Two victories saw Belgium’s Emma Plasschaert surge into ILCA 6 contention as she bounced back from disqualification on Monday to climb to fourth.

“It’s a nice feeling; sailing bullets is always fun,” said the two-time world champion. “I got the strategy right, and it’s nice when everything falls into place.

“It’s important to trust the process and believe one DSQ doesn’t have to affect everything that follows.

“It was tough, I didn’t have the best night’s sleep, but I just focused on the job at hand and tried to gain every point I could.”

Also enjoying an upturn in fortunes was Hannah Snellgrove (GBR), who recorded finishes of fourth and eighth to move into eighth overall.

Snellgrove turned 33 on the opening day of competition and was pleased to have a more successful day to celebrate.

“The birthday didn’t go according to plan, so we are doing a belated birthday two days later,” she said.

“Day one was a bit rough, a yellow flag and one not so good result, so it has been good to put in a few top-10s ever since. I had some good starts today and that made life a bit easier.”

Marit Bouwmeester (NED) and Maud Jayet (SUI) are the joint-leaders on 24 points, three ahead of Chiara Benini Floriani (ITA) with Plasschaert a point further back.
Reigning world and Olympic champion Anne-Marie Rindom remains very much in the mix in fifth.

Results are here

It was a challenging, very windy two days at Ballyholme on Belfast Lough for the ILCA Ulster Championships last weekend.

The big fleet in three divisions, ILCA 4, 6 and 7, attracted 47 competitors from as far away as Glandore in Co. Cork, Dublin Bay, Tralee, Cork, Wexford and Wicklow, and they joined the northern contingent for what proved to be an energetic weekend of Laser competition.

Busy Ewan McMahon of Howth Yacht Club was the ILCA7 Ulster Championships winner is pictured with Commodore Rob Milligan. Prior to the Ulsters event, McMahon competed at a windless Moth Worlds in the UK and the 1720 Euros at Kinsale. His big target this season is the first Olympic qualification opportunity for Paris 2024 at the World Sailing Championships in The Netherlands in August Photo: Jess Mackey

Between them, brother and sister Eve and Ewan McMahon took home two trophies to Howth Yacht Club, both proving invincible, counting a clean sheet each, Eve in the 19-strong ILCA 6 fleet and Ewan first of 20 in the ILCA 7.

ILCA 4 runner up Eolann Miles from Glandore Harbour Photo: Tim McCarthy

In the ILCA 4, Viktor Samoilovs (Malahide YC) counted three seconds and a first to finish clear ahead of the far-travelled runner up Eolann Miles of Glandore Harbour. Third was Eve McCarthy of Royal Cork who along with Miles, managed to discard an NSC in the first race but, despite having to count an OCS, totalled three good results of two firsts and a third.

ILCA 4 Winner Viktor Samoilovs of Malahide YC with Commodore Rob Milligan Photo: Jess Mackey

The Ballyholme YC team for the Ulster ILCA championships staged in Belfast Lough

The best local result in ILCA 6 came from Bobby Driscoll from Royal North of Ireland YC, just six miles west of Ballyholme. He discarded a DNF but counted otherwise three seconds and a third to claim runner-up. In third was Patrick Hamilton from East Down YC on Strangford Lough.

Bobby Driscoll from Royal North of Ireland YC runner up in the ILCA6 Photo: Jess Mackey

And in ILCA 7, the best host club performance came from runner-up Colin Leonard, who proving consistency pays, put together a string of seconds to finish in runner-up slot. Conor Byrne from Royal St George was fortunate to be able to discard a UFD for a premature start in the first race to count three thirds and a fourth.

An ILCA 7 nearly airborne - James Murphy from Wexford Harbour finished eighth overall Photo: Rob Milligan

The next big event for Ballyholme is the Irish Topper Championships’ nine-race three-day event starting 7th July.

Commodore Rob Milligan was delighted that racing was so good; “Despite very challenging conditions over the weekend, the racing went well without incident. The volunteers worked hard to keep the sailors safe on the water and the onshore team proved a well-practised group”.