Strangford's Laura Gilmore lead going into the last day but had a tough time in the strong conditions however she persevered to finish a credible sixth and first Girl, a great achievement. The other Irish persevered in the conditions and all to their credit finished all the races without gear failure. The most notable charge up the leader board came from Tim Brow with a great day, finishing 15th, 8th 2nd in last race, with great speed but big line starts may require more work.

That concludes the British Nationals, now the class look forward to the Topper Worlds Championships held by the National YC, Dun Laoghaire from the 14-19 August.

Final Irish Results:

GOLD
Laura Gilmore 6th
Timothy Brow 17th
Jack Brien 19th
Dougie Power 25th
Craig Campbell 26th
Erica Ruigrok 60th
Andrew Penney 72nd
Conor O'Farrell 73th
Sorcha Donnelly 79th
Tom Purdon 86th

SILVER
Aisling Keller 5th
Kevin Harrington 40th
Suzanne Flannigan 46th

See here for full results.

On the eve of the Word Championships on Dublin Bay an Irish Sailor leads the Topper British National Championships in Scotland.

Laura Gilmore, from Strangford Lough, who has already won the Ulster Championships now leads the top British event going into the last race today.

On Tuesday which was Day 3 of the Championship, the heavens opened up in Scotland. A mammoth amount of rain fell, which coupled with no wind i.e. 1 knot gusting, meant that no races were completed.

With only two races completed the qualification series was extended to Day 4. It was a more promising day with much less cloud cover giving signs a light  sea breeze could later develop.

Eventually after much wind speed up and down and moving the course inland to escape the massive tide (sometimes up to 2 knots or more), the wind stabilised to 5-6 knots at about 4pm.

The PRO was under pressure to get races in and as time got later and the fleet behaved more and more badly the races were confined to 1 lap, just 20 minutes per race. Not ideal for a National Championship but such was the nature of this week so far.

The breeze did pick up to 12 even 13 knots at times with the tide playing a huge roll for numerous black flags through the day. Up to 80 sailors were penalised over the two races from the day as the tide pushed the fleet over the line time and time again.

The Irish results were much better and after the discard all Irish sailors have made Gold and Silver Fleets with just two in the minor. Laura Gilmore with two more bullets took the overall lead in the championship. The 3rd race of the day was cancelled for safety reasons due to a deep fog approaching and the fleet returned ashore at 7pm.

Results and Final Fleets:

GOLD
Laura Gilmore 1st
Craig Campbell 16th
Dougie Power 19th
Jack Brien 36th
Timothy Brow 51st
Andrew Penney 56th
Erica Ruigrok 68th
Tom Purdon 69th
Sorcha Donnelly 78th
Conor O'Farrell 89th
Aisling Keller 91st

SILVER
Kevin Harrington 100th
Suzanne Flannigan 127th