Baltimore Sailing Club ILCA Sailors Top 108 Boat Fleet on Home Waters of West Cork

9th April 2023

To the surprise of some seasoned observers, the first ILCA championship of 2023 has produced an extensive fleet in West Cork of 108 boats

To the surprise of some seasoned observers, the first ILCA championship of 2023 has produced an extensive fleet in Baltimore, West Cork of 108 boats Credit: Baltimore Sailing Club

After four races, host club sailors lead two divisions competing for 2023 Munster ILCA/Laser Championship honours in Balimore, West Cork.

Fionn Lydon tops the ILCA 7 division with youth sailor Sorcha Ní Súilleabháin in charge of the ILCA 4s.

The threat of a Sunday gale prompted Principal Race Officer Ciaran MacSweeney to get ahead of the original schedule and stage four races on Saturday to complete the required number of races to constitute a Championship.

The breeze is set to build all day on Sunday, but the timing of the increase, which could threaten further racing, is still unclear.

The 108-boat fleet rig up for what is expected to be a blustery Sunday of the Laser Munster Championships at Baltimore Sailing Club in West Cork

108-boat fleet

To the surprise of some seasoned observers, the first ILCA championship of 2023 has produced an extensive fleet in West Cork, especially for so early in the year.

The Standard fleet is noticeably strong with 25 entries, but 44 are also competing in the ILCA4s (formerly 4.7s), and the ILCA 6s (Radials) are solid with 39 boats.

A mixture of courses was used, but mainly trapezoid, to avoid the three fleets meeting with a single jury boat in operation.

Lydon, a former Olympic Finn dinghy campaigner, is on five points, with rival West Cork sailor Michael O'Súilleabháin from Kinsale two points behind in second place. Ballyholme Yacht Club Master Colin Leonard from Belfast Lough lies third in the 25-boat fleet on ten.

Southerly winds ranged in strength from 10 to 20 knots in the gusts. The race area saw the upwind leg run from the sound at Sherkin Island to a buoy under the land at Baltimore Harbour.

ILCA 6 lead for Coulter

Counting a first-race win and two second places, consistent East Antrim Boat Club ace Tom Coulter is the leader of the ILCA 6 division. The Larne youth has a margin of two points over RStGYC's Fiachra McDonnell, who has already had international racing experience this month at the ILCA Euros in Italy. Third is McDonnell's clubmate, Sam Ledoux.

Sorcha Ní Súilleabháin Tops of ILCA 4s

Baltimore Sailing Club, youth Sorcha Ní Súilleabháin has a one point lead over Howth Yacht Club's Cillian Twomey in ILCA 4s, the biggest fleet of the weekend. Howth's Cillian Twomey lies second, with RSGYC's Kate Flood lying third.

The results are below.

Race Results

You may need to scroll vertically and horizontally within the box to view the full results

Published in Laser, Youth Sailing, West Cork

@ CH Marine website

@ CH Marine Facebook

@ CH Marine NI Facebook

@ CH Marine Twitter

Published in Laser

Tagged under

ILCA

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 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):