Irish Sailor of the Year Eve McMahon recovered from a port-starboard incident shortly after the start of the first race of the day at the ILCA 6 Womens' European Championship but recovered well to place 14th and then ninth in the second race of the day in Andora, Italy.

Vasileia Karachaliou POR is leading with 7 points after scoring a 2-1-4 on Tuesday. Top places are very tight, with Emma Plasschaert BEL and Anne Marie Rindom DEN following her with 8 and 9.

Polish sailors Agata Barwisnka POL and Wiktoria Golebiowska POL are also close with 13.

The Irish Youth World champion from Howth Yacht Club, Ireland's sole ILCA 6 campaigner for Paris 2024, lies 19th in a fleet of 112.

Medium air conditions were quite shifty, with the breeze up and down on the Riviera delle Palme.

With just three races sailed in the qualification round, Wednesday will see three more races before deciding the finals line-up to be sailed over the remaining two days of the event.

The first warning signal is at 09:00. Coaches meeting at 07:00.

Ireland’s Olympic sailing team has started the New Year with a fair wind in its sails, having welcomed a new addition to its fleet of commercial vehicles in the shape of a new Mercedes-Benz Vito van.

The second of its kind to be added to the fleet, the Vito will soon be put through its paces transporting the team’s boats and equipment to international training camps and competitions throughout Europe in destinations such as Portugal, Italy and, significantly, the Olympic sailing venue of Marseille.

No stranger to the Irish sailing community, Mercedes-Benz has supported a number of water sport activities over the years, most notably in its sponsorship of Ireland’s Olympic medal-winning sailor Annalise Murphy in her preparations for the Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games.

Fittingly, the predominant user of this new vehicle will be Howth Yacht Club’s Eve McMahon, the current Youth World Champion in Murphy’s old class the ILCA 6 (formerly Laser Radial) who is hotly tipped for Olympic success of her own, at Paris 2024 and beyond.

Day two of the Mapfre Euromed International Championships in Malta yielded mixed results for the Irish competitors.

Little wind meant only one race for the Laser group and none for Optimists.

Daniel O’Connor is Ireland’s best-placed boy in the ILCA 6 fleet of 19 in fifth overall. The Royal St George Sailor earned second place behind Ukrainian sailor Dmytro Karabadzhak. The strong Maltese fleet hold the top three positions before the first discard kicks in. With a maximum of 12 races to be sailed, the organisers will hope for stronger winds today.

In the ILCA 4 fleet, Lucy Ives, sailing under the Carlingford Sailing Club burgee, stays 9th after four races sailed. Howth’s Charlie Keating is in 11th.

The Royal St George pair of Jessica Riordan and Emily Conan are in 14th and 17th, respectively. 

In the 138-boat Optimist Fleet, Carolina Carra of the Royal St George Yacht Club is lying in 64th place after four races sailed. Jude Hynes-Knight is 65th.

Full results here:

ILCA 6

ILCA 4

Optimist

Dun Laoghaire Harbour's Sean Craig has moved up to fifth overall in the EurILCA/Laser Master European Championships in L’Escala on the Costa Brava, Spain.

After eight races sailed, the Royal St. George sailor is nine points off the podium with 42 points. 

Winds have been light, largely eight to 10 knots from 60 degrees, and several starts procedures were aborted in both regatta fields because there were boats out of line. 

France's Gilles Coadou is the first ILCA 6 Grand Master (55 – 64 years old); the second, also French, Luigi Santocanale; and third, the Belgian Pieter Van Laer.

Among the women, the French Isabelle and Helene Viazzo continue to occupy the first two places now, with the Dutch Martien Zeegers-Nouwen in the third.

With eight scored races, the 2022 EurILCA Master European Championships passes its halfway point with the Spanish Xavi Tous and Alfredo Gómez as leaders of the ILCA 6 Apprentice Master category (30 – 40 years old) followed by the Italian Gianmario Broccia.

In the women's category, the provisional podium goes to the Spanish Míriam Carles-Tolra, the Italian Elisa Boschin and the Greek Georgia Cheimona.

Among the ILCA 6 Masters (45 - 54 years old), the Frenchman Sebastien Baudier rules, ahead of the British Ian Gregory and the Spanish Mònica Azón, the first female in the category, followed by Spain's Marina Sánchez Ferrer and the German Alexandra Behrens.

Among the ILCA 6 Great Grand Master (55-64 years old), the Australian Jeff Loosemore ranks first, with the British Max Hunt in second place and the Spanish Miguel Noguer in third.

In this category, two French women lead the women's division. They are Isabelle Arnoux and Evelyne Ferrat.

Australian Peter Heywood, French Jacques Kerrest and Dutch Henk Wittenberg occupy the provisional ILCA 6 Legend podium.

The Slovenian Matej Vali, the Italian Lorenzo Cerretelli and the Canadian Ian Elliot are the first three ILCA 7 Apprentice Masters;. At the same time, the American Peter Hurley, the Greek Dimitrios Theodorakis and the Greek Aristotelis Chatzistamatiou are the leaders among the ILCA 7 Masters.

The Spanish José María Van der Ploeg, the French Bertrand Blanchet and the Swedish Tomas Nordqvist occupy the ILCA 7 Grand Master head.

The SpaniardJosé Luis Doreste, the British Tim Law and the American Peter Vessella are leaders of the ILCA 7 Great Grand Master division.

Howth Yacht Club’s Aoife Hopkins has announced her retirement from Olympic campaigning.

The ILCA 6 (Laser Radial) sailor and former U21 European Champion had been readying for the Paris 2024 qualifying campaign, following the disappointment of missing out on Ireland’s sole spot at the Tokyo 2020 games last year.

Only this past summer it was announced that 23-year-old Hopkins would share with fellow HYC prospect Eve McMahon in The Olympic Federation of Ireland Paris Scholarships fund for their Olympic preparations.

Sailing since she was nine years old and well regarded as one of Ireland’s top sailors, Hopkins achieved her personal best result when she placed 17th overall at the 2021 ILCA 6 World Championships in Oman, where she also scored one of two World Championship race wins in her career.

Before that, arguably her biggest highlight was her win at the U21 Europeans in 2017 — just weeks after sitting her Leaving Cert — and that same year she graduated to the senior Irish Sailing Team.

Hopkins balanced sailing with her studies for a maths degree over the subsequent years, and together with Aisling Keller helped secure Ireland’s single qualification place for the ILCA 6 at Tokyo 2020 during the class Worlds in Japan in 2019.

However, Hopkins’ hopes of securing that spot were dashed when the following summer’s Olympic trials were cut short in the early months of the COVID pandemic, and Rio 2016 silver medallist Annalise Murphy was selected instead.

Aoife Hopkins had been gearing up for the Paris 2024 qualification campaign after the disappointment of Ireland’s Tokyo 2020 selection

At the time, both Keller and Hopkins expressed their dismay, with the latter saying: "I really can’t understand the decision not to continue with the trials. I am utterly and completely devastated.”

Hopkins did not appeal the decision by Irish Sailing and took some time out to reassess her situation.

The young sailor missed the Irish ILCA 6 title nationals on a tie break in Kerry in August but did lift the ladies' salver. Her most recent victory on the water was as helm of the J80 Ladies of the Kite, leading a team of under-25s to the Sportsboat title at last month’s Women at the Helm regatta.

Aoife (second from left) among the winners with the ILCA 6 Ladies' Salver in Tralee in August

Before the event, Hopkins said: “Events like these are super important for women in sport and women in sailing … and it’s brilliant to see the turn out today. This is the one event of the year when the women’s changing rooms are busier than the men’s!

"It gives women the opportunity to helm boats that they might not have and to actually showcase their skills and what they can do because it’s not really about capabilities, it’s about opportunities.”

Afloat.ie wishes Aoife Hopkins the very best in her future endeavours.

Tuesday’s first day of racing saw Eve McMahon take third in the overall ILCA 6 standings — and first among U19s — at the ILCA U21 World Championships in Vilamoura, Portugal this week.

The Howth Yacht Club prospect is part of a youth sailing fleet that enjoyed champagne sailing conditions in the Algarve in the early part of this week — though lack of wind meant day two on Wednesday (24 August) saw no racing.

Eve is no doubt eager to hold her place at the top of the table to challenge for the podium this weekend — and close out a successful summer after her return with a gold medal from the ILCA 6 Youth Worlds besides two other major titles.

And she isn’t the only McMahon in action in Vilamoura, as her brother Jamie placed 11th overall in the ILCA 7 after two races. Fellow Irish competitors Tom Higgins (Royal St George YC) and Jonathan O’Shaughnessy (Royal Cork YC) were in 60th and 73rd respectively.

The ILCA U21 Worlds continue till this Sunday 28 August. The latest standings can be found on the event website HERE or below

Fresh from winning two major international championships in Europe already during July, Howth's Eve McMahon (17) has launched her campaign in the Laser Radial/ILCA6 Youth Worlds at Houston in Texas in appropriately rocket-assisted style with four bullets in a stellar fleet of 50.

And while clubmate Rocco Wright (15) has been mixing it among the numbers in the Men's Divisions, he has recorded a best result of 2nd and currently lies 14th overall with Ireland's Fiachra Mcdonnell lying third.

Latest results from Houston are below

Royal Cork Yacht Club's Jonathan O'Shaughnessy leads Skerries Daragh Kelleher in the ILCA 7 division of the ILCA/Laser MGM Boats sponsored Leinster Championships at the Royal St. George Yacht Club on Dublin Bay. Third in the 18-boat ILCA 7 fleet is Cork Harbour's, Chris Bateman.

Three races have been sailed so far in the six-boat series. 

Leading in the 34-boat ILCA 6 division is Portuguese visitor Vasileia Karachaliou from C.N.Cascais with Howth's Aoife Hopkins lying second. Third is Ukraine's Sofiia Naumenko from OSHVSM. 

Hannah Dadley Young from Ballyholme is at the top of the 23-boat ILCA 4 fleet followed by Daniel O Connor of the host club.

Results are below. Racing continues on Sunday.

As The Hague is ready to host the world's best youth sailors, Ireland's Eve McMahon arrives as a pre-championship favourite being both World and Europan youth titleholder in the ILCA 6/Laser Radial class.

Over 450 of the world’s best youth sailors from 69 countries are getting ready to compete at the Allianz Youth Sailing World Championships 2022.

Taking place off the coast of Scheveningen in The Hague, The Netherlands, from 8-15 July 2022, the Championships are open to young sailing stars up to the age of 19.


As regular Afloat readers will know, Howth Yacht Club's McMahon lifted the Euro Youth title in Greece earlier this week by a massive 36-point margin.

This elite gathering of international sailors will compete across 11 youth events including the Male and Female divisions of the 29er Skiff, 420 Two Person Dinghy, ILCA 6 One Person Dinghy along with the Mixed Two Person Multihull, the Nacra 15. Last year saw the introduction of Male and Female categories in Kiteboarding Formula Kite, and this year for the first time we will see Male and Female competitors flying above the water in Windsurfing Youth iQFOiL. The move to more foil-borne events mirrors the developments seen in Olympic competition over the past year since the Tokyo 2020 Games.

The 11 events will test different aspects of the sport. From the highly tactical, boat-on-boat contest that we will see in the traditional dinghy classes, through to the ‘apparent wind’ driven multihull and skiffs which test balance and agility. The foiling windsurfers require high levels of balance and aerobic fitness, while the fastest competitors on the water will be the kitefoilers, capable of peak speeds over 30 knots.

Taking place off the coast of Scheveningen in The Hague, The Netherlands, from 8-15 July 2022, the Championships are open to young sailing stars up to the age of 19

Having already proven themselves at the front of the senior fleet, the battle for supremacy in the brand new kitefoiling contest will be world class by any measure. Singapore’s 15-year-old Max Maeder, winner of the Youth Worlds last year in Oman, has been winning events against all the senior riders on the Kitefoil World Series. “I’m so happy to have the privilege to compete with all of the best youth riders around the world and wish them the best of luck,” said Maeder. “It feels like a great honour to represent your nation at such a big event, and I think the atmosphere on and off the water will be incredible.”

Last year’s silver medallist in the female kitefoiling division, Julia Damasiewicz (POL) is back to see if she can get to the top of the podium in The Hague. Having won the most recent Kitefoiling World Series event in Traunsee, Austria, the 18-year-old Polish rider broke the incredible winning streak of 32 consecutive international regatta wins over the last six years by five-time Formula Kite World Champion Daniela Moroz (USA). Damasiewicz will surely be hard to beat in Scheveningen, although last year’s youth bronze medallist from France, Héloise Pegourié, has also displayed world-beating form at times this year.

In just over a year’s time, The Hague will host the Sailing World Championships for the Olympic classes over two weeks in August 2023, also from the port of Scheveningen. The event is expected to see 1,400 sailors from 90 countries compete for the world titles in the 10 Olympic and three Paralympic sailing classes, so the Youth Worlds will serve as a useful build-up to the senior competition for race officials, organisers and the local community of Scheveningen.

Many of this year’s youth competitors will compete at next year’s Olympic class event, including a growing number of sailors who have graduated from World Sailing’s Emerging Nations Programme (ENP). World Sailing's Training and Development Executive Cat Duncan and Training Delivery Manager Rob Holden have been running a clinic for ENP athletes at Scheveningen over a number of days before the regatta begins. Former Olympic representative for Mexico in the ILCA 6 singlehander, Tania Elias Calles has been leading the coaching and will be working with the ENP sailors throughout the regatta. “We’re committed to closing the knowledge and skills gap between the top sailing nations and the Emerging Nations,” said Holden. “Last year’s gold medal won by Florencia Chiarella from Peru shows what’s possible if you really dedicate yourself to succeeding at the top level of sailing. It has been great to work with this group of keen ENP sailors this week and I wish them all the best and hope they enjoy the experience of competing at the Youth Worlds.”

The Hague looks set to deliver stunning weather with temperatures forecast for the mid-20s Celsius. A range of wind and wave conditions also look likely for the five days of competition, including the prospect of three-metre swell. It should make for a thrilling contest.

David Graham, CEO, World Sailing, said, “The Allianz Youth Sailing World Championships is a prestigious event in the World Sailing calendar and we are looking forward to the event in The Hague. The combination of a natural beach and the North Sea winds will make for an exciting competition, and a true test of sailing skills for the world’s brightest prospects.”

Tournament Director, Dorian van Rijsselberghe, two-time RS:X Windsurfing Olympic champion from the Netherlands, is particularly excited to see the iQFOiL windsurfers competing at youth level. However, for him the most important aspect of the Youth Worlds is enjoying the experience more than whether or not you win for lose. “I’m not talking about the medals, but the fun, the camaraderie, the road to get there and the enjoyment to be had. We will make sure that all participants will not forget The Hague and that the whole sports-loving Netherlands can watch and enjoy the action from close by. Fun and performance go hand in hand, and where better for that to happen than in Scheveningen.”

The Opening Ceremony officially welcomes the sailors on Saturday 9 July. Racing will commence on Sunday 10 July and runs through to Thursday 14 July when 11 new Youth World Champions will be crowned.

11 Events at the Youth Worlds

Female Windsurfer - Youth iQFOiL (with 8.0m rig)
Male Windsurfer - Youth iQFOiL (with 8.0m rig)

Male Kiteboarding - FormulaKite
Female Kiteboarding - FormulaKite

Female Two Person Dinghy - 420
Male/Mixed Two Person Dinghy - 420

Female One Person Dinghy - ILCA 6
Male One Person Dinghy - ILCA 6

Male Skiff - 29er
Female Skiff - 29er

Mixed Two Person Multihull - Nacra 15

The Youth Worlds

First held in Sweden in 1971, the Youth Sailing World Championships are World Sailing’s flagship event for youth sailors.

Past notable winners include America's Cup skippers Chris Dickson (NZL), Russell Coutts (NZL) and Dean Barker (NZL); Olympic medallists Nathan Outteridge (AUS), Iain Jensen (AUS), Robert Scheidt (BRA), Amelie Lux (GER), Ben Ainslie (GBR), Iain Percy (GBR), Alessandra Sensini (ITA), Elise Rechichi (AUS) and Tessa Parkinson (AUS); and The Ocean Race sailors Stuart Bannatyne (NZL) and Richard Clarke (CAN). The most successful Youth World Champions are Sally Cuthbert (GBR) and Zofia Klepacka (POL), having won four successive titles in the Laser II and Mistral respectively.

Following the success of their athletes at the 2021 edition in Oman, France is the current holder of the Nations Trophy, awarded annually to the top-performing nation at the Youth Worlds.

After the Covid enforced hiatus, the first one-day regatta hosted by a Dun Laoghaire harbour yacht club in four years took place last Saturday, with the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club “breaking the ice” for the other three clubs.

Despite a good deal of sunshine on the day, the wind forecast wasn’t so benign and a South-Westerly of 15 knots gusting to 23/24 knots was “on the cards” from early in the week before. Indeed, on the morning of the regatta, the three Race Officers, Susanne McGarry (DBSC Hut), Barry O’Neil (Green Fleet), Cormac Bradley (Dinghy Fleet) and Regatta Co-ordinator, Ben Mulligan, contemplated an hour-long postponement in the hope that the predicted and apparent breeze might ease. It didn’t and the Race Officers and their RIB entourages set out to provide the day’s racing. The dinghies, comprising Fireballs (5), Aeros (4) and ILCA 6s (5) represented about half of the starting roster with Squibs and Mermaids absent and no other ILCAs coming out to play.

The dinghy course was set off Salthill inshore of the Green Fleet and well to the West of the DBSC Hut Fleet who initially set out westwards before peeling off on a spinnaker leg to the East. While a hand-held was recording regular wind speeds of 15 – 17 knots, the numbers went up on a routine basis to record gusts in the low twenties and their arrival was heralded by darker clouds passing overhead. A postponement was flown to allow the dinghy participants more time to get to the race area but even those who did make it decided that there was to much “oomph” on the water and hightailed it home almost as soon as they arrived.

Racing in winds in the high teens/low twenties can be challenging enough, but couple that with multiple gear failures and the day goes from potentially intimidating to downright frustrating. One well-known Fireballer suffered a broken main halyard before the racing started. Having taken some time to resolve that and present himself on the start line he would go on to suffer a broken spinnaker sheet and a shredded mainsheet, proving that even multiple throws of the dice by an experienced hand can still produce ones.

The five-boat Fireball fleet saw both races won by Josh Porter & Cara McDowell (14695), though they did get a slice of luck in the second race when the boat leading into the last leeward mark capsized giving them the win. Adrian Lee (14713) took second place ahead of Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (14915). On a day when staying upright was key, the level of competition within the fleet was modest and exchanging tacks on the course was not a primary activity. However, Porter & McDowell showed what a light crew can do on a heavy-duty day and looked very comfortable, both upwind and downwind. Spinnakers were flown in both races but not on both reaches of either race.

Another to score a pair of aces was Hugh Cahill (216594) in the ILCA6 fleet which also had five boats racing. Hugh was well placed in the first race, but not leading, when the lead boat went for a swim, allowing Hugh to take the first gun. In the second race he didn’t have to rely on others making errors in order to cross the line first. In overall terms he was followed home by Damien Delap (183295), and Michael Norman (219126).

The Aero fleet mustered 3 Aero 7s and an Aero 5, the latter sailed by Roy van Maanen. This added a bit of intrigue to their racing as it meant there was a handicap race going on within their fleet. Stephen Oram indicated that they enjoyed close racing by way of the lighter van Maanen in the smaller rig being competitive relative to the “bigger helms” sailing the Aero 7. Three of the four Aeros enjoyed relatively close racing with the fourth boat being off the pace. Brendan Foley took the regatta win in the Aero 7, followed by Roy van Maanen (Aero 5) and Stephen Oram (Aero 7).

With two races in the bag and a recent gust of 26 knots recorded on the handheld and given that the Green Fleet had shut up shop for the day, the dinghies were dispatched to the harbour where the day’s proceedings were assessed under a blue-sky afternoon.

DMYC Regatta 2022.

Fireballs
1. Josh Porter & Cara McDowell, 14695 (2)
2. Adrian Lee & crew, 14713 (5)
3. Frank Miller & Neil Cramer 14915 (6)

ILCA6s
1. Hugh Cahill 216594 (2)
2. Damien Delap 183295 (4)
3. Michael Norman 219126 (7)

Aeros
1. Brendan Foley Aero 7, 1321 (3)
2. Roy van Maanen Aero 5, 3822 (3)
3. Stephen Oram Aero 7, 3288 (6)