Both Finn Lynch of Dun Laoghaire and Eve McMahon of Howth will be keen to capitalise on their outstanding seasons at the final ILCA event of the year when they compete at the EURILCA Senior European Championships in the ILCA 6 and 7 (formerly Laser and Laser Radial) in Hyères in France

The two front runners are among six Irish competing on the Cote D'Azur that includes McMahon's two brothers, Ewan and Jamie. 

There are 177 in the ILCA 7 men's fleet from 44 countries and another 111 in the women's ILCA 6 fleet from 38 countries.

World Sailing Youth World Champion Rocco Wright is a fourth Howth sailor competing. He competes in the ILCA 6 (Laser Radial) Men's fleet along with Tom Higgins (Royal St George YC) of Dun Laoghaire in the ILCA 7.

As regular Afloat readers know, Finn Lynch reached second in the world in the World Sailing rankings, due to his silver medal at the ILCA7 World Championship in Barcelona in November 2021, which he then followed with a consistent set of 2022 results, including fourth place at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma in April and his sixth place at the 2022 ILCA 7 Men's World Championship in Mexico in May.

Eve McMahon - a hat-trick of gold medals in 2022

Hyères regatta will be Eve McMahon's last competition of the year after a hat-trick of gold medals at the ILCA6 (Laser Radial) Youth European Championships in Greece, the World Sailing Youth World Championships in the Netherlands, the ILCA6 (Laser Radial) Youth World Championships in Texas, and finishing with silver at the U21 ILCA Youth World Championships in Portugal in August. More recently, she won the silver fleet at the Texas-based ILCA 6 Women's World Championships.

Amongst the competitors are Olympic medallists and world champions Agata Barwinska POL, Michael Beckett GBR, Lorenzo Brando Chiavarini ITA, Marit Bouwmeester NED, Elliot Hanson GBR, Pavlos Kontides CYP, Zac Littlewood AUS, Emma Plasschaert BEL, Tonci Stipanovic CRO, Hermann Tomasgaard NOR and Matthew Wearn AUS.

Racing begins on Wednesday, 16 November and concludes with the medal races next Monday, 21 November. 

Three races were completed today in the final series at the 2022 ILCA 6 World Championships, where Irish youth champion Eve McMahon of Howth Yacht Club tops the silver fleet overall, scoring race wins in races five and six to lead the 42-boat fleet by 17 points.

The overall results are below.

With such tight competition in the gold fleet, there is yet again a new leader of this event – Belgium’s Tokyo Olympian Emma Plasschaert.

The sailors set out onto Galveston Bay on time for the 12:00 first warning signal. The first race kicked off, but like the past couple days, the wind died soon after and the race was abandoned. Fortunately, the sea breeze filled in around 13:00 to provide a solid day of racing. The first race began in about 5–6 knots, but finished in about 11–13 knots, which held for the afternoon and the following two races.

In the gold fleet, today’s race winners were Finland’s Monika Mikkola, Polish Agata Barwińska, and Mári Érdi of Hungary. “[Today was] a bit better day than the qualifying series for me,” shares Barwińska. “[But] it wasn’t easy out there – it was very tricky.” This high-scoring event has produced such tricky days with the up-and-down wind that consistency is the only way to end up on top. 

Agata Barwinska

Plasschaert slid into first overall by securing two sixth-place finishes today, along with a 22nd place, which was dropped. Overall, Plasschaert holds 34 net points heading into Day 5. Denmark’s Olympic gold medallist in Tokyo and bronze medallist in Rio, Anne-Marie Rindom, is making a slow and steady rise at this event. She was sitting lower on the leaderboard earlier in the week due to finishing 20th in Race 3, but after maintaining top-10 finishes aside from that 20th, she climbed into 10th place overall yesterday and now sits in second, just three points behind Plasschaert. Only one point behind Rindom is Wiktoria Gołębiowska of Poland in third overall. Gołębiowska finished with an eighth, a second, and a 14th today. “I just want to do my job.” Gołębiowska explains. “…In the end, you don’t really know which side is going to pay, so you have to be focused and concentrate all the time… and stay calm.”

Wiktoria Golebiowska

In the men’s fleet, American Peter Barnard has held his lead at this regatta through today’s three races, finishing with a third, second, and first. “It was very challenging today,” says Barnard. “It was very shifty, and the pressure was up and down, and it was hard to make a game plan. I just stayed consistent and had good starts.” Americans Hamilton Barclay and William Baker hold second and third overall. 

One race was completed on Wednesday at the 2022 ILCA 6/Laser Radial Women’s & Men’s World Championships and three-time Olympic medallist Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands is now leading the event at Kemah, Texas, USA.

Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon – now the only Irish Radial Paris 2024 campaigner – earned a solid ninth place to move up to 40th overall.

Rio Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy is coaching McMahon during this event.

Tropical Storm Karl, which has formed in the Gulf of Mexico, played havoc on Galveston Bay for day two. It was a waiting game with just one race completed in the late afternoon.

After a three-hour on-shore postponement, the fleet was sent out onto the racecourse with high hopes of sneaking in some racing. Unfortunately, due to the instability of the weather pattern, the breeze did not build as expected. Finally, after a two-hour wait on the water, a race was underway in fickle conditions.

A light southerly had pushed in when the sailors finally got on the water today. However, not only was this predominant wind unstable, but large storm clouds were building into the afternoon due to the high humidity levels in the region.

In this fleet full of repeat Olympians and world champions, 86 women from 40 countries are competing.

Ireland's sole Paris 2024 campaigner Eve McMahon of Howth Yacht Club in the ILCA 6/Laser Radial, is lying 46th after scoring 24 in each of the races on the first day of the 2022 Women's & Men's World Championships at the Texas Corinthian Yacht Club in the USA.

On Tuesday, the first two races were completed in both women's fleets and the men's fleet. Hungary's two-time Olympian Mári Érdi is leading the women's division after the first day.

Rio Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy is coaching Eve during this event.

In this fleet full of repeat Olympians and world champions, 86 women from 40 countries are competing.

Some names to watch at this event: France’s Marie Barrué, who won the 2021 Hempel World Cup Series and the 2021 ILCA Europa Cup and won silver at the 2022 French Olympic Week; Poland’s Agata Barwińska, who won 2021 Kiel Week, 2021 EurILCA Senior World Championships, and 2022 French Olympic Week, and won second at the 2021 ILCA 6 World Championships; and Ireland’s Eve McMahon, who won the 2021 and the 2022 ILCA 6 Youth World Championships, won the 2022 Youth Sailing World Championships and won second at the 2022 ILCA 6 U21 World Championships.

Today brought steady 8-12 knots of breeze on Galveston Bay, and there were no recalls in any fleet. "Beautiful first day," said Canada's Tokyo Olympian Sarah Douglas, "great to be back racing with everyone... I hadn't done a world championship since 2020, so it's just great to get back with the top sailors around the world, competing and seeing how you line up within that." Douglas is tied with three-time Olympic medallist Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands for second overall behind Érdi.

In the first race of the day, both Douglas and Bouwmeester placed second in their respective fleets behind Belgian Tokyo Olympian Emma Plasschaert and two-time Olympian Lucía Falasca of Argentina. Érdi maintained her position in the top of the fleet and won the second race, as did American two-time Youth Sailing World Champion Charlotte Rose. Douglas and Bouwmeester both placed fourth in their fleets. At the top of the leaderboard, Érdi holds five points ahead of Douglas and Bouwmeester, each with six.

The men's fleet is sharing the women's course area but competing separately. Leading the division is American Peter Barnard, who finished with a second and first in today's races. Fellow countrymen Nicholas Mueller and Thomas Kraak are in second and third overall.

Two races are scheduled for tomorrow in each fleet.

Results after Day 1:

Women's
1. Mári Érdi (HUN) - 5 pts
2. Sarah Douglas (CAN) - 6 pts
3. Marit Bouwmeester (NED) - 6 pts
4. Silvia Zennaro (ITA) - 8 pts
5. Emma Plasschaert (BEL) - 9 pts
6. Erika Reineke (USA) - 9 pts
7. Maxime Jonker (NED) - 11 pts
8. Mirthe Akkerman (NED) - 11 pts
9. Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) - 12 pts
10. Line Flem Høst (NOR) - 12 pts

Men's
1. Peter Barnard (USA) - 3 pts
2. Nicholas Mueller (USA) - 5 pts
3. Thomas Kraak (USA) - 7 pts
4. Hamilton Barklay (USA) - 8 pts
5. William Baker (USA) - 8 pts

Eve McMahon narrowly missed her fourth international title this summer in Portugal this afternoon but takes a silver medal at the U21 Laser/ILCA Youth World Championships.

The Irish Sailor of the Year's achievement marks the best U21 world championship result for Ireland in the ILCA 6 (formerly Laser Radial) class.

McMahon secured her medal after another day with no racing at the venue. A total of seven races were completed over the week due to a lack of wind.

McMahon also won the U19 category.

As regular Afloat readers know, already this summer, the young Howth YC sailor achieved a hat-trick of gold medals, winning the ILCA 6 Youth World Championships in Texas, the World Sailing Youth World Championships in the Netherlands and the ILCA6 Youth European Championships in Greece.

Eve McMahon on the podium for Ireland at the U21 ILCA Youth World Championships in Portugal Photo: ILCA

McMahon was competing in a tough fleet with some older and more seasoned girls who have been to the Olympic Games.

And it was a challenging event; there were only seven races over the series, and most of them were in very light, fickle sailing conditions.

The Howth teen had a couple of big setbacks early on when she had a race that she finished quite well, inside the top ten, that was then abandoned when she finished the race, and then she got two yellow flag penalties in race three.

So any mistake after that point would have given her 81 points on top of her overall score and put her way down the fleet, so there was a lot of pressure on her not to make any mistakes.

The overall winner of the championship was Eline Verstraelen of Belgium in the girls and Ole Schweckendiek of Germany in the boys ILCA 7 (Laser) fleet.

In the boys fleet, ILCA 7 (Laser) Irish sailors Tom Higgins finished in 10th place, Jamie McMahon in 24th and Jonathan O’Shaughnessy in 106th. Irish sailor Ellen Barbour finished 68th.

For full results are here

Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon is chasing her fourth international title this summer, the 18-year-old is six points off the lead at the 2022 ILCA/Laser U21 World Championships at Vilamoura in Portugal going into the final races on Sunday.

Two races were completed on Saturday and in the ILCA 6 division, Belgium’s Eline Verstraelen was the only sailor to consistently score two single-digit finishes on SAturday, boosting her up to first overall. The Irish Sailor of the Year is just six points behind. The Howth teen is only four points ahead of Italian Giorgia Della Valle in third.

Every sailor has had some inconsistent finishes in this fleet, which will make the final results susceptible to a shake-up on Sunday, depending on which races get dropped at the end of the event.

The penultimate day of racing was another morning without wind, so the race committee displayed the AP flag to start the day.

The wind finally filled in around 16:00 with about 6–7 knots, which was enough to get off two races. During the second race, the breeze picked up to 9 knots, and the race committee was hopeful they could complete a third race as scheduled, but shortly after, the wind died down again just in time to complete the second race. Once again, there were some new names on the leaderboards after Satuday’s races.

In the ILCA 7 division, Germany’s U19 sailor Ole Schweckendiek is leading by one point ahead of Portugal’s José Mendes. Each of them scored a total of nine points on Saturday, sailing very consistent races. Mendes is just one point ahead of Schweckendiek’s teammate, Julian Hoffmann. With only two points separating the top three sailors, the competition will surely be very tight and exciting on the final day.

Three races are scheduled for Sunday, with the first warning signal at 12:00 and the last possible warning signal at 15:00.

The prize-giving ceremony will be held at 18:00.

Results here

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

Eve McMahon will join a special ‘Homecoming Party’ to celebrate of Howth Yacht Club’s winning young talent this Friday 12 August.

The North Co Dublin club’s juniors have made a big splash this summer, with McMahon winning gold at the ILCA 6 Youth Worlds in Texas where club mate Rocco Wright also scored a bronze.

Both earned their stripes as our sailors of the month for July (International and Youth respectively), while Luke Turvey also made a strong showing. And more recently, Eve’s older brother Ewan McMahon retained his title at the Irish Moth Nationals this past weekend.

Eve McMahon will be on hand for the celebration at the clubhouse this Friday afternoon from 4pm to answer a few questions about her exceptional summer.

And there will be ice cream, barbecue and dancing for all — plus free treats for HYC junior members who show their club card.

July 2022 will be remembered as the ultra-crowded month in which sailing in Ireland really did leap back to pre-pandemic levels, something that has been reflected in it recording an unprecedented number of Afloat.ie “Sailors of the Month” in six distinct categories.

But in this as in everything else, Eve McMahon (18) of Howth was in a league of her own. She emerged from the non-sailing purdah in May and June of total concentration on revision and sitting the Leaving Cert to return afloat, and take three Gold Medals in the ILCA 6 Radial - in the Euros in Greece, the World Sailing Youth Championship in the Netherlands, and the ILCA 6 Youth Worlds in Texas.

For many sailors, this would be a lifetime achievement. But Eve McMahon did it all within one month, “to have some fun in boats after swotting for exams”.

Dublin sailor Eve McMahon (18) was pictured arriving home to Dublin Airport this morning after capturing gold in the single-handed ILCA 6 class at the 2022 ILCA 6 Youth World Championships in Houston, Texas on Saturday, July 30th.

Irish Sailor of the Year McMahon and her teammates were greeted by friends, family and supporters on Bank Holiday Monday after an outstanding month of competition for the Howth Yacht Club sailor.

(Above and below) Eve McMahon arriving to Dublin airport after capturing gold in the single-handed ILCA6 class at the 2022 ILCA 6 Youth World Championships in Houston, Texas on Saturday evening, July 30th. This gold medal win is McMahon’s third consecutive gold medal this year, having also picked up a gold medal at the World Sailing Youth World Championships in the Hague, and at the ILCA 6 Youth European Championships in GreecePhoto: INPHO/Tom Maher

As Afloat reported earlier, this gold medal win is McMahon’s third consecutive gold medal this year, having also picked up a gold medal at the World Sailing Youth World Championships in the Hague, and at the ILCA 6 Youth European Championships in Greece.

Eve is greeted by her grandfather Tom McMahon Photo: INPHO/Tom Maher

Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon and Rocco Wright were both Gold medal winners at the World Youth Sailing Championships in The Hague Photo: INPHO/Tom Maher

Eve McMahon with her mother Vicky and her father Jim Photo: INPHO/Tom Maher

Read more on Eve McMahon, Irish Sailor of the Year, and her Paris 2024 campaign here