Northern Ireland Sailors Shine at Ulster ILCA Championships

9th April 2025

Betty Armstrong

Daniel Palmer Ballyholme YC (225663), winner of the ILCA 6 division with third-placed Lucy Ives (Royal St George) 210100, edging out in front at a start at the Ulster ILCA championships hosted by East Antrim Boat Club.

Over half of the record-breaking 72 strong fleets at last weekend's Ulster ILCA championships hosted by East Antrim Boat Club were top-performing sailors from Northern Ireland in each of the three classes.

East Antrim Boat Club celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Coincidently, the Laser class is reportedly 50 years old. Still, that figure varies from club to club – Ballyholme celebrated its Laser class 50th in 2021. Dublin Bay ILCA had its anniversary in the same year.

The three fleets, ILCA 4,6 and 7, completed five races in brilliant sunshine and perfect conditions, as Afloat reported earlier.

Emily McAfee from Ballyholme is a member of the NI Sailing Team

Emily McAfee from Ballyholme put in the best NI performance in ILCA 4 17 strong fleet, finishing fifth overall, counting a win in Race 2. She is a member of the newly formed NI Sailing Team.

ILCA 6 was won by Daniel Palmer from Ballyholme on Belfast Lough with a string of four first places to top that fleet five points ahead of another BYC sailor, Bobby Driscoll. Cormac Byrne from the same club was 7th in the 28-strong fleet. Daniel and Bobby are also members of the NI Sailing Team.

The ILCA 6 Ulster championships hosted by East Antrim Boat Club was won by Daniel Palmer from Ballyholme

The ILCA 7 fleet, mostly Masters and Seniors from Northern Ireland, saw Tom Coulter, a Senior Supported Athlete on the Team from the home and Portrush clubs, as runner-up and Ballyholme's Colin Leonard third. At fifth was Patrick Hamilton of the Strangford Lough Club, East Down YC.

The next championship event is the Munsters on 19th and 20th April in Baltimore, West Cork.

Race Results

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

Published in Laser, Northern Ireland Waters

@ CH Marine website

@ CH Marine Facebook

@ CH Marine NI Facebook

@ CH Marine Twitter

Published in Laser

Tagged under

About The Author

Betty Armstrong

Email The Author

Betty Armstrong is Afloat and Yachting Life's Northern Ireland Correspondent. Betty grew up racing dinghies but now sails a more sedate Dehler 36 around County Down

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):

ILCA 4: sail of 4.70m2
ILCA 6: sail of 5.76 m2
ILCA 7: sail of 7.06 m2

ILCA 2026 Calendar

Apr 04–05 — Munster Championships — Baltimore SC
Apr 09–12 — Irish Sailing Youth Nationals — Ballyholme YC
May 09–10 — Ulster Championships — East Antrim BC
May 23–24 — Masters National Championships — Howth YC
Jun 27–28 — Leinster Championships — Skerries SC
Jul 24–26 — National Championships — Royal St. George YC
Sep 11–12 — End of Season Championships — Waterford Hrbr. YC

2026 ILCA World Championships

Men ILCA 7: Aug 23 – Aug 30
Women ILCA 6: Sep 04 – Sep 12
Royal St. George Yacht Club & National Yacht Club (Dublin Bay)

At A Glance – Laser Dinghy Specifications

Designer Bruce Kirby & Ian Bruce

Year 1969

Crew 1
Draft 0.787 m (2 ft 7.0 in)
Hull weight 58.97 kg (130.0 lb)
LOA 4.2 m (13 ft 9 in)
LWL 3.81 m (12 ft 6 in)
Beam 1.39 m (4 ft 7 in)
Mainsail area 7.06 m2 (76.0 sq ft)

Racing D-PN 91.1 RYA PN 1088 PHRF 217