After a disappointing week for both Irish crews competing at 49er World Championship in Lanzarote a final-race second place on Sunday (10 March) for Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove was a welcome early season morale boost.

After a clean start, Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) led the fleet at the first mark but then jousted with the eventual overall winners of the championship for the two laps of the course.

While the score was welcome, it wasn’t enough to lift them from 25th place in the Gold fleet. Meanwhile, at the front, French sailors Erwan Fischer and Clément Péquin maintained their lead to secure their nation’s first world championship in the 49er skiff class. See the overall results HERE.

“The guys are world-class sailors and can perform in a lot of conditions with good starts and they’re very fast,” said Matt McGovern, Irish Sailing’s skiff coach. “We just struggled with a bit of the strategy so we need to get back to the drawing board and look at what we’ve learned from this event.”

Elsewhere, Crosshaven’s Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan (Royal Cork Yacht Club) ended their championship in 31st place, narrowly missing their Sport Ireland funding goal of top 30 boats.

An opportunity to protest a Danish rival for a rules infringement wasn’t enough to close the gap on 30th place while racing in the 46-boat Silver fleet.

However, both Irish crews are now on level points after the first of three regattas for the selection trials to determine which crew will take the sole place for Ireland in the men’s skiff event for the Paris 2024 Olympic regatta in Marseille this Summer.

Both crews will be in action again in late April at the French Olympic Week in Hyères, where more than 1,000 sailors will gather for the ‘last-chance regatta’ to decide the remaining nation places for the games.

Ireland has already qualified in all three events that Irish Sailing’s Senior squad trains for, with Eve McMahon and Finn Lynch both confirmed for their respective single-handed events pending nomination by the Olympic Steering Group of Irish Sailing to the Olympic Federation of Ireland.

The skiff trials series will conclude at the start of May with the 49er European Championship at La Grande-Motte near Montpelier.

Tricky wind conditions have exposed a weakness for the leading Irish crew competing at 49er World Championship in Lanzarote on Friday (8 March).

Competing in the Gold fleet final round, Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) were unable to lift off the bottom of the leaderboard and remain in 25th place overnight.

The problem area for Dickson and Waddilove is how to handle the variable wind direction and strength blowing down from Lanzarote’s nearby mountains.

Few of the top sailors have escaped incurring high scores during the series so far, including three-time world champions Bart Lambriex and Floris Van de Werken from The Netherlands.

However, the Irish crew have yet to repeat their previous form of regular top ten results or higher in this series.

“It’s clear that we’ve found one of our weaknesses which is good as it’s definitely something we can focus on in the next couple of months,” said Sean Waddilove after racing ended for the day. “It’s different to Marseille [the Olympic regatta venue] which is a bit more predictable.

“These conditions aren’t what we used to find in Lanzarote but we’ve had them and we have to deal with them and do a better job.”

Waddilove maintains that the issue is fixable and points to their progress in previous weak areas that the pair addressed last year such as their light-winds boat speed and starting technique.

“When you’re at this level of sport, it’s hard to find weaknesses but the big lesson this week is that we’ve definitely found something that we can make gains in heading to Marseille,” he said.

Meanwhile, Crosshaven’s Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan (Royal Cork Yacht Club) had a good day in the 46-boat Silver fleet where they included a race win and a second place to move into the lead of that class.

Both Irish crews have started a selection trials this week to determine which of them will represent Ireland in the men’s skiff event for the Paris 2024 Olympics this Summer.

With Dickson and Waddilove trailing in Gold fleet and Guilfoyle and Durcan leading the Silver fleet, the outcome of this event could be very narrow, setting the scene for a major contest at the French Olympic Week regatta in five weeks’ time.

Elsewhere, Day 4 showcased the dominance of Brazilian duo Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze, the only team with top 10 scores in all three races today.

The Dutch women’s team of Annette Duetz and Odile Van Aanholt also maintained consistency while their male compatriots Lambriex and Van De Werken struggled, allowing the local Spanish favourites to climb to second place.

In the men’s 49er, the French pair Erwan Fischer and Clement Pequin secured a significant lead. The battle among French teams for the home Olympic spot is intensifying.

After Friday’s fickle breeze and the mind-bending challenges of such a random race course, the fleet is hoping the forecast of stronger breeze might make things more predictable on Day 5.

One of the two Irish boats at the 49er World Championship in Lanzarote has qualified for the Gold fleet final series at the end of the nine-race qualification round on Thursday evening (7 March).

Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) placed 25th out of 71 crews after a tough day on the water at Playa Blanca that saw them narrowly qualify for the next three days of finals racing.

“Today had the hallmark of a great day for us with perfect conditions,” said Matt McGovern, Irish Sailing’s 49er coach. “But the day just got away from us and it isn’t very obvious why — it wasn’t what we wanted performance-wise.”

However, the regatta is still only at the halfway stage and Dickson reckons that its still all to play for.

“We’re last in Gold fleet so we have nothing to lose; we can probably take a little more risk and try and get up the leaderboard,” Dickson said after racing ended. “I definitely think that medal race is possible as the conditions have been very variable and the points are very tight.”

Earlier, Crosshaven's Séafra Guilfoyle with Johnny Durcan (Royal Cork Yacht Club) came agonisingly close to making the cut for Gold fleet but were disappointed to finish the qualification series in 27th overall.

The Cork crew placed second in the opening race of the day though Guilfoyle later conceded that it was due to a lucky windshift in their favour that saw them jump over 20 places in the space of one leg.

The pair will continue the world championships competing in the 46-strong Silver fleet while 25 boats will race in the Gold fleet to determine the top ten boats to sail in Sunday's medal race final.

“Obviously, it’s very disappointing that we’re not in Gold fleet and that’ll take a bit of time to process,” Guilfoyle said. “We definitely have to keep fighting for top 30 because our funding depends on it. With another nine races to go, we can do it.”

Guilfoyle and Durcan are in a trials series with the Dickson and Waddilove to decide which of the two boats will take the single Irish place for the Paris 2024 Olympic regatta in the men’s skiff event. Two more events will follow over the next eight weeks.

“We have to pick ourselves up now and attack the rest of the regatta — we can debrief fully later.”

It was a day of mixed and extreme emotions in the boat park after the fleet came ashore at the end of a vital third day of Qualifying at the 49er and 49erFX World Championships in Lanzarote.

For some this was perhaps the hardest day they will ever experience in their Olympic sailing career. For some who didn't make it through to Gold Fleet, who find themselves relegated to Silver, it could well spell the end of their dreams of making it to Paris 2024.

Racing continues with the fleets split into gold and silver for each fleet.