Wind Aplenty for Tomorrow's Laser Nationals At Ballyholme Yacht Club

27th August 2014

#laser – Tomorrow sees the start of the 2014 Zhik sponsored Irish Laser National Championships at Ballyholme Yacht Club (BYC) on Belfast Lough writes BYC's Mark Mackey.

The top Northern Ireland dinghy club is now expecting 130 boats with competition across all three fleets, especially at the top of the Laser Standard and Laser Radial fleets.

In the Standards, Olympian and multiple Irish National Laser Champion James Espey will fend off Finn Lynch who was crowned Under 19 World Champion last week with fellow squad sailors Fionn Lyden and Darragh O'Sullivan hot on their heels.

In the Radials, Olympian Annalise Murphy will have ISAF World Youth Silver medallist Seafra Guilfoyle to contend with as well as a host of Ballyholme YC's best Radials including Ryan Glynn (4th in UK Nationals), his brother Liam who was last year's Topper World Champion and Tim Brow, son of Event Organiser Paddy Brow and 7th in the UK Nationals.

Also look out for Ballyholme's Sarah Eames who has spent the summer competing across Europe at the ISAF Worlds, European Youth and World Under 19 Championships.

A mixture of conditions is forecast over the next 4 days with plenty of wind tomorrow afternoon and Friday. Expect to see Annalise excel in the breeze as always against the best of the boys, and catch most of those in the Standard fleet who start five minutes before her.

Published in Laser

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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):