The first leg of the ILCA Sprint Grand Prix 2026, sponsored by MGM Boats and Covy Watersports, was hosted by the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club this past Sunday and attracted a 34-boat fleet, 15 ILCA 7s, 15 ILCA 6s and 4 ILCA 4s. The concurrent running of a National Schools Regatta in the harbour over the Saturday and Sunday may have robbed the ILCA event of some younger entries, but that’s the way it goes when there are more events than weekends to sail them. For one entrant this was the next regatta in sequence after coming home from the French Olympic Week in Hyeres, and for at least one other entry, it was an extension to a scheduled visit to Dublin, with a coaching commitment on the preceding Friday evening. Both these boats featured strongly in their respective class races.
Dun Laoghaire ILCA Class Captain Hugh Delap warned that the ILCA community take their time entering regattas and mid-week that appeared to be the case with fewer than 20 boats entered. However, by the Sunday morning, Hugh’s promises of a good-sized fleet materialised with forty-one boats entered, but as per the tally above, not all the entrants made it to the water.
The principal forecasts used by the Race Officer, Cormac Bradley, XCWeather and Met Eireann both indicated that wind conditions would be good to start but that they would fade as the afternoon progressed. And so it came to pass!
The programme was for a maximum of six races each of twenty minutes duration and as the race team set themselves up to the west of the harbour the wind speed was around the 10-knot mark from 120°, coincidentally, very close to the same wind strength and direction for the same event in 2025. The course was set early on, in enough time to ask a DL ILCA to sail it to check on the time taken for the one lap specified in the Sailing Instructions. The response was favourable and with a bit of tweaking of the leeward leg from Mark 3 to Mark 4, the racing began.
Three races were sailed in winds that started to fade by the end of Race 1 such that by Race 4, after consultation, the course was shortened by bringing the cross-course leeward leg upwind and closer to the committee boat. This had the benefit of keeping the lap time within the allocated time in winds that were now down to 5 – 5.6knots. A fifth race was completed before the average wind strength dipped below 5 knots for the first time and given the flooding tide and the time of the afternoon, the decision was made to bring proceedings to a close.
Fiachra McDonnell, 1st Overall ILCA 7s and 1st Under-30.
In the ILCA 7s, race wins were shared between Fiachra McDonnell (2), Conor Byrne (2) and Tom Coulter. McDonnell added three second places to his score, discarded one and ended up with a score of 6 points to take the ILCA 7 Class win. Byrne was black-flagged in the fifth race but added a third and a fifth to finish four points astern of McDonnell. Coulter had a sequence of results from 1 to 5, discarded the fifth to tie with Byrne. With McDonnell first in the Under-30s, Byrne claimed the first Master title. Tom Coulter was second Under-30, with Ross O’Leary 4th overall and 2nd Master. John Marmelstein was 5th overall and 3rd Master while Viktor Sentiscev-Samoilov, took the last age-group title, third Under-30.
Hugh Delap to windward and (211171) and Owen Laverty to leeward (216101)
In the ILCA 6s, race wins were shared between Jack Ives (3) and Conor Clancy. Ives added a third to his overall score and discarded another one to finish with six points. Having been black-flagged in his fifth race, Clancy had to count all his previous scores, a 2 and a 3 and the two wins to finish on seven points. Darren Griffin scored four seconds and discarded a third to finish a point astern of Clancy.
In the age-group categories Ives was first Under-30, with Kate Molloy second Under-30 in seventh place (8, 4, 7, 6 & BFD) and Peter Foster third Under-30 in 13th place overall. In terms of the Masters, the finishing order was Clancy, Griffin, and John O’Driscoll (4th Overall).
Left to right _ Thomas Evans, Pascal Boret, John O'Driscoll, Peter Hassett and Conor Clancy chase Darren Griffin across the upwind leg of the square course.
Ali Robinson was the first female in the ILCA 6s, finishing 5th overall (9, 6, 5, 5, 3), with Kate Molloy second female.
Alex Butcher won the middle three races in the ILCA 4s and bookended these with two second places. That allowed him to post a score of 5 points. Amy Shelley won Races 1 and 5 and added two seconds, dropping a third from the middle race to finish a point astern. James Crawford counted a second and three thirds to post an 11-point total to finish third. Amy was the only girl in the fleet, so the third podium place in the boys went to Tom Darcy.
Kate Molloy to windward and Stephen Farrell in close company.
At the prize-giving in the DMYC, RO and Vice Commodore Cormac Bradley welcomed the competitors to the club and thanked the ILCA fleet for returning to the DMYC. He referenced the success of the same event in 2025, when we had manged to sail all six races, but considered that the five races completed today was a good start to the four-leg Grand Prix Series. With two races constituting a regatta, we were one-down three to go and with five races completed it afforded everyone the possibility of series discards further down the line.
Alex Butcher gets his winner's ILCA Mug for winning the ILCA 4s
In addition to the presentation of ILCA Mugs for podium finishes in each fleet there were three raffle prizes drawn, one for each of the fleets, a €50 voucher from Cozy Watersports.
Ali Robinson, 1st Female ILCA 6s, with DL ILCA Class Captain, Hugh Delap
He also alerted those in attendance that this year’s DMYC Regatta on 6th June would have a second day of dinghy racing on the Sunday, 7th June and asked the ILCAs for their support of the event.
