Irish Crews Reach Gold Fleet at 29er Worlds in Kiel

6th July 2026

Afloat.ie Team

Blue Streak: 29er crews race in wet and demanding conditions at the World Championship in Kiel, where the qualification series has been completed and Gold Fleet racing is next Credit: Sander van der Borch

Three Irish crews have qualified for Gold Fleet after the qualification series concluded at the 29er World Championship in Kiel, Germany.

Louise Hanley and Eoin Byrne remained the leading Irish crew throughout qualification. Afloat reported after day two, they were 168th overall in the Open fleet, before finishing the series in 206th overall to qualify 31st in the Open Gold Fleet.

Gemma Brady and Grace Keating were 242nd overall in the Youth standings after the fourth qualifying race and ended qualification in 253rd overall, securing 21st in the Youth Gold Fleet.

Royal St. George Yacht Club's Juliet Ryan and Ella Rock were 245th overall in the Under-17 category after day two and completed qualification in 257th overall, earning 41st in the Under-17 Gold Fleet.

Light winds below 10 knots greeted competitors in the opening race before the breeze steadily strengthened. Gusty and unstable conditions made racing increasingly technical across all three race areas.

The qualification series ended after three days of racing, with the fleet now split into Gold, Silver, Bronze, Emerald, Purple and White fleets for the championship finals.

Sweden's Henric Wigforss and William Drakenberg moved into the overall lead after a consistent scoreline of 2-1-2-3, edging Argentina's Felix Llauro and Lucas Cozar by a single point. Germany's David Plettner and Moritz Aigner hold third overall ahead of France's Alexandre Mostini and Raphaël Allain.

Final series racing begins on Tuesday, with three races scheduled for each fleet and the first warning signal at 10:00.

Published in 29er, Youth Sailing

Published in 29er

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

You might also want to read...

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 class is targeted at youth sailors aiming at sailing the larger 49er which is an Olympic class.

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.