Displaying items by tag: Laser
The rising young stars in Ireland's ILCA 6 aka Laser class have had a very successful outing to the seasonal opener of the XVII Andalusian Olympic Week in southern Spain. In a hugely popular win for the times that are in it, the convincing victor was Andrii Verdysh of Ukraine on a scoreline for Gold in which he discarded a third, and came in with four firsts and two seconds.
Royal Cork's Jonathan O'Shaughnessy discarded a 7th from a scoreline of 2,2,4,2,2, and 4 to take Silver, while Howth's Rocco Wright took the Bronze on very improving form as it was he who pushed Verdysh into his two concluding seconds by taking a couple of wins, his other scores with a sixth discarded being 4,5, 6 & 6.
Fiachra McDonnell of Royal St George was next best of the Irish on 6th overall.
Laser Sharp Ronan Kenneally Takes Monkstown Bay 'Yard of Ale' in Style
Twenty-knot blustery conditions brought the six-week Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Laser Winter League to a close in Cork Harbour yesterday.
The host club's Ronan Kenneally successfully defended the MBSC Yard of Ale Trophy with the experienced Rob Howe (also an SB20 sailor) taking second overall in the 20-boat dinghy fleet.
Paul O'Sullivan of the host club came up to third. One time series leader Kieran Dorgan of Cove Sailing Club slipped to fifth and Brendan Dwyer finished fourth.
Rob Howe (centre) with Race Officer Alan Fehily (left) and MBSC Commodore Sandy Rimmington
Paul O'Sullivan (centre) with Race Officer Alan Fehily (left) and MBSC Commodore Sandy Rimmington
Kenneally Back in Charge at Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Laser Winter League (Photos & Vids)
The overall leader of the Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Laser Winter League Ronan Kenneally (right) has a six-point lead going into next Saturday's final races in Cork Harbour.
Kenneally took the advantage on the penultimate Saturday to oust Cove's Kieran Dorgan from the top spot in the 20-boat fleet.
Races 13, 14 and 15 were solid races with some great gusts for fast downwind sailing that produced three different race winners in the competitive outing.
The first race was a windward-leeward course over three rounds on Monkstown Bay.
The wind rose from the southwest rose for the second and third races and Race Officer Alan Fehily added a triangle for the second round in both these races giving high speed reaches and a number of spills.
Sunday's Well sailor Paul O'Sullivan capsizes Photo: Bob Bateman
Scroll down for a photo gallery of Saturday's races plus vids by Mary Malone of the racing and a short interview with the MBSC Officer of the Day.
MBSC Laser Winter League results
Photo Gallery By Bob Bateman of Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Laser Winter League
Despite the massive upsurge in Laser sailing in the capital's waters over the last few seasons, it was Cork Harbour helmsman that topped the 2021 Irish Laser rankings in all three rig divisions.
In the Standard rig (ILCA 7) rankings, Royal Cork Yacht Club's Ed Rice finished 2021 in first place, just .5 of a point over Royal St. George's Ross O'Leary.
In the ILCA 6 rankings, the latest Crosshaven wunderkind, Jonathan O'Shaughnessy finished top of the Radials. As regular Afloat readers know, O'Shaughnessy had a standout season for which he was rewarded in January with RCYC's Pyewacket Trophy.
O'Shaughnessy's clubmate Dara Collins led the 2021 rankings in the ILCA 4 or 4.7 rig.
Download the full Irish Laser rankings for 2021 below.
Tipperary Laser Ace Aisling Keller Coaches Rush Youth Sailors
Rush Sailing Club hosted Tokyo Olympic campaigner Aisling Keller from the Irish Laser Association for a two day Laser dinghy training course for 13 of its junior members on January 22/23.
A report from the club's Michael Gosson says "the Juniors got some great experience under super guidance from Aisling".
"They were fully engrossed in the theory and debriefing lessons afterwards; The quietest we have seen them and all excitedly chatting in the club at the end of both days", he said.
Aisling Keller (front row second from right) and the Rush Sailing Club juniors
Rush Sailing Club is hoping the dedicated Keller who hails from Lough Derg will return for more sailing on the Rogerstown estuary soon.
As regular Afloat readers will know, the Tipperary Laser ace qualified Ireland for the Tokyo Olympics in the Laser Radial class at the 2019 World Championships only then to be ruled out of contention due to a cut short trials series, an ad hoc change to the selection procedure by the Irish Sailing Association that left Keller 'devastated' and drew the ire of many observers.
Cove Sailing Club's Dorgan in Top Form at Monkstown Bay's Laser League in Cork Harbour
Wins for Kieran Dorgan in races nine and ten of the Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Laser Winter League was a significant result for the Cove Sailing Club ace in Cork Harbour on Saturday.
Top scorer Dorgan was followed by two host club sailors Brendan Dwyer and Paul O'Sullivan in the light and patchy southwest winds. See overall results below.
Three quick races were sailed off Monkstown leaving six left to sail in the 20-boat series. Dorgan gave Mary Malone his view on the series for far in this vid below:
Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Laser Winter League after ten races sailed
The fleet come ashore after racing at Monkstown Bay
Bateman Leads Monkstown Bay Lasers in Cork Harbour
Local helmsman Chris Bateman leads the Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Laser League after a light air seventh race was sailed in Cork Harbour on Saturday.
The single race sailed brings the lead to its half way stage. A race win for Bateman in ghosting conditions puts him ahead of clubmate Ronan Kenneally with Paul O'Sullivan of Sunday's Well lying third in the popular Frostbite series.
The painfully slow going is depicted in this video clip below by Mary Malone together with an overview from Brendan Dwyer who finished second in the race.
20 boats are competing in the series.
See photos and results in Bob Bateman's Photo Gallery below.
Blustery Laser Racing for Monkstown Bay Sailors in Cork Harbour
Local Laser sailor Chris Bateman emerged as the winner of today's three races of the Monkstown Bay Sailing Club's Yard of Ale Trophy in Cork Harbour.
The 14-boat fleet braved strong gales for today's series, the first dinghy racing of the new year.
Second overall was Ronan Kenneally with third place going to Sunday's Well Sailing Club's Paul O'Sullivan.
Monkstown Bay Sailing Frostbites Results 2022
Howth Laser Ace Eve McMahon Wins Viking Marine DMYC Christmas Cracker Race at Dun Laoghaire
From an entry list of 72 dinghies, a fleet of 45 answered the Race Officer’s call and presented themselves in the start area of the Christmas Cracker Race – sponsored by Viking Marine and hosted by the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. This event had a very short gestation period, the idea only being floated on the penultimate Sunday of the pre-Christmas Frostbites. The idea was to have a charity race for the RNLI with entry fees capped at €5/boat and a request that competitors donate online to the RNLI.
In the week leading up to the event, the wind forecast varied enormously from the likelihood of no race due to high winds and gusts to a very light affair of fewer than three knots. Fortunately, neither of those scenarios arose and the fleet of 45 enjoyed winds that went up to a maximum of 15 knots, from the East. The air temperature was a balmy 10°.
Robin and Dacha Hilliard in their Flying Fifteen (3729) in the PY race Photo: Ian Cutliffe
The course was set as a “Tour of the Harbour” with marks in locations to make shoreside viewing easier. Thus, a mark was laid inside the end of the Carlisle Pier, in front of the National Yacht Club, another mark was set inside the fairway entrance to the marina towards the ice-house and the remaining two marks were set close to the Boyd Memorial on the East Pier and upwind of the western breakwater where it joins the West Pier.
Brian and Charlie O’Neil rounding Mark C (Boyd Memorial) Photo: Ian Cutliffe
The fleet was set a beat for the opening leg, to the mark off the Boyd Memorial, and they proceeded in an anti-clockwise direction around the harbour thereafter.
The plan was to have the first boat racing for 75 minutes and the Fireball of Frank Miller & Hermine O’Keeffe (14713), bisected the finish line 1.5 minutes inside that target.
Two Fireballs led the fleet all the way round. Miller was the first to fly spinnaker after rounding the weather mark and he was followed closely by Neil Colin & Marjo Moneen (14775). These were initially challenged on the water by the RS400 of Dave Sweeney and Gavin Doyle but as the race progressed the gap to the Fireballs increased. A strong ILCA turnout was led by Eve McMahon in the ILCA 6 (Radial), Gary O’Hare in the ILCA 7 (full-rig) and Max Cantwell in the ILCA 4 (4.7). Eve has had a great 2021 with a win in Lake Garda in the ILCA 6 Youth Worlds and she followed that up with a top 5 place in the Youth Worlds earlier this month. At the finish, she was only a couple of boat-lengths behind regular ILCA 7 competitor Gary O’Hare.
While the various ILCA rigs represented the largest element of the fleet, there was a good turnout from the Aeros, (5 and 7), the Fireballs, and there were two each of the GP14s and RS400s. The Irish National Sailing School has eight sailors on the water in the form of School Principal Kenneth Rumball, sailing an Aero 7 and seven RS Feva XLs sailed by the senior instructors. A solitary Flying Fifteen sailed by Robin Hilliard and daughter Dacha also contested the event and the Long household had two boats out – father Pierre, and one son in the IDRA and two other sons in the Mirror. We also had a Pico, sailed two-up.
DMYC Viking Marine Christmas Cracker – Top Ten finishers
1. Eve McMahon, Howth Yacht Club, ILCA 6 (Radial)
2. Max Cantwell, Royal St George Yacht Club, ILCA 4 (4.7)
3. Noel Butler, National Yacht Club, Aero 7
4. Brendan Foley, Royal St George Yacht Club, Aero 7
5. Gary O’Hare, Royal St George Yacht Club, ILCA 7 (full-rig)
6. Kenneth Rumball, Irish National Sailing Club, Aero 7
7. David Williams, Royal St George Yacht Club, ILCA 6
8. Mark Gavin, Royal St George Yacht Club, Aero 7
9. Roy van Mannen, Royal St George Yacht Club, Aero 5
10. Conrad Vandlik, Royal St George Yacht Club, ILCA 7.
Prize-winners will be contacted directly about getting their prizes, vouchers from Viking Marine.
The Christmas Cracker fleet under starter’s orders – 20 seconds to go.
Wexford, Skerries, Rush, Derrynane, Malahide, Howth & Dun Laoghaire In Top Eight Places In Howth's Key Capital Laser Frostbites
In ancient Greece, the mythological Halcyon Days at mid-winter were the calm and bright time around the Winter Solstice. In Ireland, a calm at midwinter (the Solstice is at 3.59 pm this (Tuesday) afternoon) tends to bring grey days, and if the sky does clear, fog is often imminent. But the recent days of grey calm relented sufficiently on Sunday to provide the breeze for two races - nos. 11 & 12 - to round out the first half of the Howth YC KeyCapital Winter Frostbite Series for the long-lived Laser class and the fledgling RS Aeros. And the overall Laser results were startling in the variety of clubs hitting the top eight, the host club barely making the cut with Conor Murphy at sixth.
The convincing overall winner was one of the furthest travelled, Ronan Wallace of Wexford. But though it was mostly Fingal clubs thereafter down to sixth until two Dun Laoghaire helms - Richard Tate of RStGYC and Eoin Delap of DMYC - enter the listings at 7th and 8th overall, an outlier is Dan O’Connell at fourth for ISA. This makes him The Man From God Knows Where, so we’ve assumed he’s from Derrynane in County Kerry, as that’s where successful sailors called Dan O’Connell tend to hail from.
The Laser 4.7s were Howth all the way, with Charlie Keating winning from Fiachra Farrelly, who missed the concluding races as he’s away with his folks Cormac & Mandy for a two month Caribbean cruise. Meanwhile, the flotilla of RS Aeros saw John Phelan winning from Daragh Sheridan, with Paul McMahon third.
Laser Standard Results: 1st Ronan Wallace (Wexford Harbour BTC) 10 pts; 2nd Daragh Kelleher (Skerries SC) 31; 3rd Tom Fox (Rush SC) 35; 4th Dan O’Connell (ISA) 38; 5th Dave Kirwan (Malahide YC) 42; 6th Conor Murphy (Howth YC) 47; 7th Richard Tate (RStGYC) 69; 8th Eoin Delap (DMYC) 69pts.
Full results here: https://www.hyc.ie/results
