Irish Optimists Make the Grade at British and German National Championships

4th August 2011

Afloat.ie Team

Irish Optimists Make the Grade at British and German National Championships

Following on from the success of the IODAI European team in Portugal last month where Royal Cork's Peter McCann finished in 7th place and Tralee's Sophie Brown had an overall win in the Girls section of the French Nationals, Irish Optimist sailors continue to show promise at regattas this week.

At the British Nationals in Abersoch in the Seniors u 15 Sean Donnelly from the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire has recovered from his Black Flag Disqualification in race 2 to 17th. Kinsale's 13year old Clíodhna Ni Shilleabhain having shown her potential in the light and shifty conditions on day 1 where she was lying in second after 2 races has suffered in yesterday's windier and more tidal conditions to fall to 23rd overnight.

In the Juniors Niamh Henry from the RstGYC is showing here experience by leading the Irish sailors in 13th position after seven solid races in the all in the top 10. With new guys Ewan McMahon of Howth Yacht Club and Colin O'Sullivan (Malahide) are showing that they are learning and earning.

in the Regatta Fleet Grace O'Beirne is leading the Irish Challenge in 12th place.

At the German Optimist Nationals, the results are slow to update online.

Fate seemed to have been conspiring against the Irish yesterday because Sean Wadillove from Skerries was won his second race yesterday only to be disqualified because of a technical infringement.

Published in Optimist

Tagged under

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.