Ballyholme Yacht Club's Liam Glynn leads the Laser Radial Youth European Championship 2016 in Tallinn, Estonia this morning. The former Topper World Champion has a five point margin from Germany's Nico Steenbuck on 23 points. The event concludes tomorrow with four races left to sail but already this morning organisers have made the decision to postpone the start ashore for three hours. 

In the girls division after six races sailed, Howth Yacht Club's Aoife Hopkins is third and just just one point off the leader, Italian Carolina Albano.

Full results are here

Organisers report from Tallin:

We have managed to wrap up the fourth day of 2016 Laser Radial Youth European Championships in Kalev Yacht Club. Every day the competition gets tougher. Emotions were so heated in the boys’ gold fleet that after several false starts black flag had to be used and as many as eleven sailors got a starting penalty in the first race. However, by the end of the day we have a new leader for boys – Liam Glynn from Ireland. Carolina Albano from Italy still leads the girls but has an equal number of points with Hannah Anderssohn from Germany.

Also today we could not do without delays. The gold fleet start was delayed by general false starts. The third attempt with a black flag worked but the race had to be cancelled anyway due to wind changes. A long wait followed – for the wind to settle so that the course could be adjusted. The new start was given at 13:00. The first attempt failed due to a false start again but from then on all fleets concluded their two races.

Boys’ races brought along many changes in the overall results. Liam Glynn (4-9 today) is now leading with 18 points. Nico Steenbuck, who is three points behind him, is the most impressive riser with his second and third places today. Daniil Krutskikh, who had been leading the competition until now, nailed it in the first race but finished 22nd in the second race. Now he is third with three points behind Nico. Daniel Whiteley lost his position due to the black flag punishment (70-1), although he won the second race. At the moment he is fourth, losing to Daniil by one point. Paolo Giargia from Italy (15-8) is fifth and Milo Gill-Taylor from England (18-4) is sixth. Estonian guy in the gold fleet, Tavo Annus, was 39th and 54th today and is holding on to the 48th position.

In the boys’ U-17 group Daniil Krutskikh is still in the lead, Milo Gill-Taylor is second and Orestis Germano from Cypros is third (22 overall).

The girls’ leader is still Carolina Albano from Italy (2-3 today) but she has an equal number of points with Hannah Anderssohn from Germany (3-1). Aoife Hopkins from Ireland is third (1-2). Louise Cervera from France (4-4) is fourth, losing to Aoife by three points. Maris Seersant from Tallinna Yacht Club was 32nd and 28th today and is now 24th overall.

Aoife Hopkins from Howth Yacht Club is lying third at the  Laser Radial Youth European Championships Photo: Alberto Sanchez

In the U-17 group Laura Schewe from Germany is first (6. overall), Valeriya Lomatchenko from Russia second (9. overall) and Wiktoria Go Biowska third (10. overall).

Irish 420 youth sailors Douglas Elmes and Colin O'Sullivan have moved into third place overall after day two of the Youth Sailing World Championships in Malaysia.

It was a perfect day for some of the early starters as the big breeze was back in Langkawi, Malaysia. Four races have now been sailed and the Howth Yacht Club crew took a well earned win in race three of their 33–boat fleet. With fourteen points scored, Elmes and O'Sullivan are on equal points with Singapore's and Jia Yi Loh and Matthew Lau but only six points off second overall held by Australia's Alec Brodie and Xavier Winston–Smith.

Ballyholme YC's Liam Glynn has dropped out of the top ten of the Laser Radial, but only just, the former Topper World Champion is 11th in his 66 boat fleet. Lough Derg YC's Aisling Keller lies 14th from 53.

Always up and around the top of the boy's 420 are USA's Will Logue and Bram Brakman. With three second places and a discarded third, they can't seem to find that elusive bullet, but lead overall on six points.

The first bullet of the day went to Ireland's Elmes and O'Sullivan who sit in third on 14 points with last year's Youth Worlds gold medallist Singapore's Jia Yi Loh, now sailing with Matthew Lau, in fourth. Loh and Lau had an average day by gold medal standards with a discarded 12th and a sixth place.

So is the weight of a gold weighing on his shoulders? From his demeanour and words, I think not, "I'm sailing with a different crew and we know this place is tricky and the fastest sailor may not necessarily win. It's all about how you play the shifts and anyone here could win, and that's why I think it's taken off some stress."

Singaporean sailors generally have a reputation for excelling in lighter winds due to their build, but Loh isn't letting the strong winds that Langkawi is throwing at them hinder his chances, "We are fine with any winds. In Singapore we get light winds, but then we are on the heavy side so we are fine in strong winds as well."

Picking up the other bullet of the day were Finland's Eklund brothers, Jacob and Anton. With middle order finishes in all their other races, the brothers will hope that the bullet will bring a change in fortunes and is a sign of things to come.

There have been a number of technical glitches at the 'incredibly warm' event, according to Afloat.ie insiders. For example, the supplied 420 fleets didn't get to sail on the prescribed training day as all the required equipment hadn't arrived. Likewsie the SL16s (no Irish affected) didn't race on the first day as they waited for equipment.

Click here to go to the results sheets

#laser – While the big boats competing in the Seven Star Round Britain & Ireland race were postponed and the Merlin sailors in Looe were playing beach rounders because of Big Bertha the 150 Laser helms in Largs were kept ashore for lack of wind. Eventually in the early afternoon a Northerly breeze about 10-12 kts arrived to allow all three fleets to complete two races in a fine Scottish drizzle. All starts used a common trapezoidal course laid near Great Cumbrae.

There is a very healthy percentage of youth sailors in the Standard fleet this year and it was Ireland's youth sailor Dougie Power who took the first gun ahead of Alistair Goodwin & Anthony Parke. Jack Aitken, having finished 4th in Race 1, then showed the others the way home in the 2nd race to lead overnight.

With nearly 90 Radials entered the decision was made to split the fleet into two starts and race the first half of the week in a Round Robin format. If today's results are anything to go by this could be one of the most exciting week's racing for a long time. Each start had a different winner and at the end of the day three helms, Jon Emmett, Scotland's Jamie Calder & Ireland's Liam Glynn; were all tied on three points.

The Championship is being sponsored by Neil Pryde ably assisted by Harken UK as the equipment sponsors. Racing continues until Friday and with brighter conditions but stronger winds expected the fun has just begun. – Eddie Mays. More here.

#lasersailing – Current Topper World Champion Liam Glynn from Ballyholme Yacht Club, Bangor has won Race four of the European Youth Laser Radial Championship at Egaa Sailing Club, Aarhus in Denmark.

Liam won the Topper World Championship in France last summer as well as every national and provincial event in Ireland. This is his first international event in the single-handed Laser Radial class - a smaller sail version of the Laser which features in the Olympics.

Ten years ago Ballyholme Yacht Club hosted the European Laser Youth Radials in Bangor which has lead to a huge growth in local Laser sailing especially among the juniors. The Laser Radial has a smaller sail compared to the Laser class - an Olympic class and the largest dinghy class in the worlds. Ballyholme Yacht Club's James Espey represented Ireland at the London Olympics in 2012 and is currently campaigning towards 2016 in Brazil.

Ballyholme Yacht Club will host the Irish Laser National Championship on 28-31st August. Poster attached for download below as a PDF document.

#sailorofthemonth – Ballyholme YC teenage helm Liam Glynn is the Afloat.ie "Sailor of the Month" for July after his comprehensive victory in a fleet of 102 boats at the Topper International Worlds at Loctudy in France in an intense week of racing at the Brittany venue from July 22nd to 26th.

Glynn arrived at the championship on top form with Silver already notched at the Youth Nationals earlier this season and a win at the Topper Nationals in Donaghdee in July. But he showed his quality in depth by turning in an even better performance in France, despite very different conditions. The Championship had been raced on the tide-free freshwater location of Lough Derg, but the Worlds were sailed in notably tidal salt water with often flukey breezes, and a sometimes lumpy sea state which was not always warranted by the wind strength.

Yet despite the huge fleet, the young Belfast Lough sailor put in the sort of consistent performance which is the ideal of any top skipper, senior or junior. His first four races were all top three placings, including two straight wins, which meant that as the series progressed he was building towards a comfortable cushion of 13 points over the next boat as the final day's racing arrived.

As it turned out, his work was done. The final day of racing was lost to calm, and Ireland has a new World Champion.

#topper– Liam Glynn from Ballyholme Yacht Club on Belfast Lough has won the Topper world championships in Loctundy, Brittany, France today.

Racing was cancelled today so Liam remained top of the 102 boat fleet with a healthy 13–point lead. Prize giving is at 5p this evening.

Ireland also had three other top 20s with Niamh Doran 12th, Tom Purdon14th and Conor Sherriff 17th.

Liam packed in a tough training season winning silver at the Irish Youth Nationals on Lough Derg.

Liam got off to a solid start with four top 3 finishes in his first four races including two fleet wins. He won yet another race on Day 2 but even with the steady breeze of 12 knots, Liam had to overcome some difficult sea conditions. Commenting after racing on Wednesday Liam remarked "The wind was quite steady, but it was tricky to deal with waves and current at the starting line. Moreover beating to get the windward mark was one-sided, and tide wasn't helping".

The sailors then faced very light conditions yesterday with winds of only 8 to 9 knots in the morning then dropping to even less in the afternoon. Liam continued his dominance at the top of the fleet while trying to avoid useless risks, ultimately leaving him in pole position at the end of the penultimate day with a 13–point cushion. Commenting after racing Liam said "At the beginning I wasn't confident enough to take risks but now given the results I feel like trying some strategies out. But in any case I really stay concentrated on my sailing and I know that at the end of the day getting constant results is more effective than trying to win each leg.

Draped in the tricolour, Liam Glynn from Belfast lough makes his acceptance speech at the Topper World Championship prizegiving

As for today the difficulty was to stay under the line with the current pushing you over but I managed and got good starts."

 Topper is one of the most competitive youth classes with many Olympians having progressed through the ranks. Olympic sailor Ryan Seaton was once a star within the Topper ranks as well as Rio 2016 hopeful Philip Doran and ISAF youth silver medallist Finn Lynch the three only came close to claiming the world title which Liam now celebrates.