2021 Slalom and U20 Waszp European Champion Charlie Cullen of the Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour was joined by six other Irish sailors for the 2022 Waszp Games where over 170 competitors gathered at beautiful Vela Malcesine in Lake Garda Italy.
It is the biggest event in the history of the Waszp fleet to date with the best coming from all over the World to fight for the World title. Cullen (20) was considered one of the favourites after his recent silver medal at the Foiling Week in Lake Garda at the beginning of July.
Day 1 of the regatta was Slalom racing. Slalom is a tight quick downwind format racing with 20 boats heat flights. The top 10 from each flight move to the next round with the bottom 10 getting knocked out. Cullen being the current champion in this discipline set out to defend his title. The Royal St. George sailor qualified for the final and finished 10th overall in the Slalom.
But it was the Spaniards who dominated - 2 time European Champion Joan Costa was on top form getting 2 bullets in the first 2 races in the 3 race final. However, the slalom is a very unforgiving format where one mistake hits hard. In the final race Costa set for a guaranteed win, threw it all away after capsizing 10 metres from the finish line in the final race, handing the win to fellow Spaniard Jaime Framis.
Championship racing followed. Cullen had a flying start getting a bullet in race 3 putting him in 2nd position after the first days of racing. With the days to follow, Cullen would qualify for gold fleet in 6th position - Max Goodbody & Henry Start also qualified for gold fleet. With Marcus O’Leary and Georgia Goodbody qualifying in silver fleet.
Finals Racing was concluded with Sam Street of New Zealand taking the Gold and becoming the 2022 World Champion. GBR Sam Whaley took silver and Enzio Savoini of Italy took 3rd. Charlie Finished 9th overall being the first ever Irish sailor to finish in the top 10 at the World Championships.
There was a record number of girl representation at this event with 40 females taking to the start line compared to only 2 females at the previous Worlds held in Perth in 2019. Georgia Goodbody was Irelands girl representative at only 16 years of age racing in the main fleet with the full 8.2 meter rig. Georgia sailed a great regatta finishing 113th in the 170 boat fleet. Emirates Team New Zealand Engineer Elise Beavis of New Zealand finished 22nd overall and took the overall female title, with Nora Doksrod and Mathilde Roberstad of Norway filling the female podium.
The other Irish had great events with Max Goodbody finishing 55th, Henry Start finishing 58th & Marcus O’Leary finishing 105th.
Royal Irish's Max Goodbody won the top speed prize for the weekend with a speed of 23.5 knots
The next event on the Waszp calendar is the Irish Waszp & Moth nationals that will be held out of the Royal St. George from the 5th to the 7th of August.
Results are here
