29er Race Win for Geraghty-McDonnell & Van Steenberge at Youth Worlds in Poland

16th July 2019

Afloat.ie Team

Ireland's Rian Geraghty McDonnell and Nathan van Steenberge chase Canada in yesterday's opening 29er boys races of the Youth Worlds in Poland

A win in the second race of the Youth Sailing Worlds in Poland for Ireland's Rian Geraghty McDonnell and Nathan van Steenberge has given the National Yacht Club duo an early boost and leaves them fourth overall after three races sailed.

The Dun Laoghaire duo also scored a 12th and a 16 in their 28-boat fleet at Gydnia yesterday.

In the Girls 29er fleet, Ireland's Leah Rickard (also from NYC) and Eimer McMorrow Moriarty (from Kerry’s Tralee Bay Sailing Club) have yet to race.

Thomas Chaix is coaching the Irish 29ers. Results are here.

The Boy’s and Girl’s 29er, provided by Ovington Boats, are sharing boats in Gdynia. The 28-boat Boy’s 29er were able to complete three races but the Girl’s 29er fleet were unable to race due to dying winds.

29er youth sailing Close racing at the 29er Youth Worlds in Poland where Ireland won race two

Finland’s Ville Korhonen and Edvard Bremer got off to a great start, posting a 1-(3)-3 scoreline. "We started well and had good speed," said Bremer, "this put us in the top three all day. It was really shifty and there were a lot of holes in the wind. It built up but it was still challenging."

Korhonen added, "The communication was good today so that helped us most. It’s been a great ever so far, really fun. We’re with the best in the world here."

Spain’s Enrique Urios Salinas and Filippo Binetti Pozzi had a tough start to the competition, sailing their way to a 22nd and a 13th but a bullet in the final race propelled them up the leaderboard.

"We didn’t start as good as we thought we would," commented the Spanish duo. "The conditions were not easy. The wind was really unstable and we couldn’t place where we wanted to place.

"We concentrated a bit more, spoke to our coach and after that we were more focused and did what we were supposed to do. We won the last leg. I think we did really well."

The Spaniards are sixth overall. Defending champions Mathias Berthet and Alexander Franks-Penty (NOR) occupy second and Sweden’s Marius Westerlind and Olle Aronsson are third.

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About the 29er Skiff Dinghy

The 29er is a one-design double-handed, single trapeze skiff for youth sailors.

There is an active class in Ireland, just one of the 38-countries from across all continents now racing the high-performance skiff.

The 29er is one of the latest dinghy classes to arrive in Ireland and has a 50/50 split between boys and girls.

The class like to describe the boat as "The most popular skiff for sailors who want to go fast!".

Derived from the Olympic class 49er class and designed by Julian Bethwaite the 29er was first produced in 1998.

Two sailors sail the 29er, one on trapeze.

The 6.25-metre high rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the workload of the crew, making manoeuvres more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches.

The 15.00 m2 spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and manoeuvres in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.

The 74kg weight hull is constructed of fibreglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout.

The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon.

The mast is in three parts - an aluminium bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fibreglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weights, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminium or fibreglass.

About the ILCA/Laser Dinghy

The ILCA, formerly known as the Laser, is the most produced boat in the world, with 220,000 units built since 1971.

It's easy to see why the single-handed dinghy has won the title of the most widely distributed boat of all time.

The Laser is a one-design dinghy, the hulls being identical but three rigs that can be used according to the size and weight of the sailor.

The class is international, with sailors from 120 countries. The boat has also been an Olympic class since 1996, being both the men's and women's singlehanded dinghy.

Three rigs are recognised by the International Laser Class Association (ILCA):

ILCA 4: sail of 4.70m2

ILCA 6: sail of 5.76 m2

ILCA 7: sail of 7.06 m2

About Moonduster

The queen of all fleets. Denis Doyle's legendary Moonduster was the flagship of Irish offshore racing for twenty years. Doyle's enthusiastic support moved the Round Ireland Race into the international league, and his regular participation set performance standards which greatly enhanced the event.

Doyle owned four different Moondusters in his long career. His last boat, arguably the best known, the varnished Frers, was sold to Norway around 2005 where she is still sailing but not in the same state of repair as she had been in Crosshaven.