The Royal St George Yacht Club hosted the last of this season's ILCA/Laser championship events, the aptly named ‘2022 End of Season’, this past weekend.
This event had previously been hosted in Kinsale Yacht Club for the last two years. However, ILCA Ireland agreed that it should be held in Dun Laoghaire as a fundraiser for local ILCA sailor Kevin Doyle who was recently involved in an accident and requires ongoing care.
Between the event entry fee, raffle and gofundme donations, over €23,000 was raised, a remarkable sum and a wonderful testament as to how the ILCA class and the Irish sailing community come together when one of their own needs it most.
The event itself attracted seventy-four sailors from all four provinces, multiple counties and sailing clubs, once again, a super indication of just how popular the class and its events remain, even into the colder and breezier Autumn winter days. The event also attracted the current third ranked ILCA 7 sailor in the world, our very own Finn Lynch, who along with Annalise Murphy and Eve McMahon, very kindly offered their time to conduct one on one coaching as part of a raffle prize draw.
An ILCA 6 start at the Royal St. George hosted End of Season championships on Dublin Bay. Photo Mark Little
Race officer Harry Gallagher and his team delivered a near flawless six race event in winds ranging from 15-20kts across Saturday and Sunday. The event was spread across three fleets with forty-one entrants in the ILCA 6 fleet, fifteen in the ILCA 4 fleet and eighteen in the ILCA 7 fleet. Howth’s Gallagher delivered three back-to-back international-level racing on both days with no delays and competitors back ashore in record time.
The ladies dominated the ILCA 4 fleet over the weekend, securing slots one through four in the final shakedown. Sienna Wright from Howth took straight bullets. Lucy Ives of Carlingford took silver in all six races. Ava Ennis of the Royal St. George had only two slip ups on her path to straight thirds and in both instances, lost out to fellow clubmate Jessica Riordan, who finished in fourth overall. Cillian Twomey of Howth was the nearest challenger to the girls, taking fifth overall and first male.
In the forty one strong ILCA 6 fleet, East Antrim's Tom Coulter looked like the dead cert at the end of day one, with three straight bullets. Fellow Academy teammate, Sam Ledoux of the National Yacht Club was hot on his heels and Coulter dropped a couple of second place finishes on day two. In the end Coulter took gold with some points to spare with Ledoux in second place. Again, in this fleet the more interesting battle was for third. Irish Sailing Academy’s Sophie Kilmartin of Malahide and Royal St. George, was neck and neck with RSGYC master Sean Craig heading into the last race. Kilmartin pulled it out of the bag achieving her best result of the weekend with a third place finish, seeing off Craig for third place. Tom Fox (RSC) was third-placed male under 30 after Coulter and Ledoux. Charlotte Eadie (BYC) and Zoe Whitford (EABC) were second and third placed U30 girls in nineteenth and twenty first place overall respectively. Marco Sorgassi (RSGYC) was second master in sixth overall and Hugh Delap (RSGYC), third master in twelfth overall. In the ladies ILCA 6 master category, Ali Robinson was first overall, followed by Rachel Crowley and Mary Chambers, all of RSGYC.
In the eighteen-strong ILCA 7 fleet, Finn Lynch (NYC) unsurprisingly showed why he’s third-ranked sailor in the world, with a string of six first place results. His older brother, Rory Lynch (BSC) showed his younger sibling a trick or two of his own and finished second overall and on-form national champion, Dan O’Connell had yet another super event finishing third overall and first master. Recent ILCA 7 convert Oisin Hughes (RSGYC) showed his credentials finishing third placed U30, after the Lynch brothers, and fourth overall. Hughes was actually in third place coming into the last race, but a left shift at the start of the final race caught Hughes on the wrong side of the course, with O’Connell taking full advantage. Second-placed master in sixth overall was Gavan Murphy (RSGYC) with Gary O’Hare (RSGYC) third-placed master and eighth overall.
A very special thanks for pulling this event together, the 2021 Masters Nationals, the Leinster’s earlier this season as well as countless Sprint Series and ‘Race & Relax’ events must go to Brendan Hughes. After just starting ILCA sailing in 2018, over the last two years in his capacity as Dun Laoghaire class captain, Hughes has been the inspiration and driving force behind the continued success of the class both locally and arguably nationally. He gave countless hours of his time not only to the benefit of the Dun Laoghaire ILCA fleet, but to the fleet nationally.
All eyes are on now on 2023, with the fleet expecting to meet up again in Baltimore at Easter for the Munster Championships, which is the traditional first event of the season. It will be an exciting year for the fleet, with Olympic qualifier events taking place later in the year for the male and female national senior teams. If this weekend was anything to go by, the future of the Irish fleet beyond the current senior team is in very good shape with strong competitive sailing across all ages.
Full results are below
