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Overall leader Tom Slingsby carries forward his consistent momentum into the critical six race Finals phase of the Laser World Championships buoyed by his fourth race win and a fifth from the last day of Qualifying heats in Hayling Bay off Hayling Island. Ireland's James Espey lies just inside the top half of the fleet, in 73rd place. Other Irish placing HERE.

The 159 competitors racing on the last day of the group stages could find little to fault with the sparkling English summer weather conditions as another day of sunshine, moderate 8-11 knots mainly E'ly and SE'ly breezes was complemented by a worthwhile swell to offer the downwind specialists the chance to shine.

-lw10d4-821

In the Lead: Tom Slingsby. Photo: Paul Wyeth

But even if the winds looked ideal, appearances were deceptive as at least two of the top four sailors sailed their discards on this last qualifying day.

While Australia's Slingsby retained his run of form, as did Kiwi Andrew Maloney who with today's 3,4, promoted himself from seventh this morning to qualify in fourth, on equal points with third placed compatriot Michael Bullot, world champion Paul Goodison confessed later to a couple of 'schoolboy errors' in the first race, contributing to his 14th and hit the windward mark in the second race when he finished fifth.

The Skandia Team GBR sailor, Olympic and World Champion, goes forward to the three days of Finals in second 14 points, behind Slingsby.

And Bullot, runner-up to champion Goodison last year in Halifax, returned ashore scratching his head after having had to recover more than 30 places in his first race to earn his third. But his powers of recovery deserted him in the second heat of the day and he, too, sailed his discard race on the eve of the Finals.

Slingsby admitted that he owes much of his revitalised attack this season to his lacklustre World Championships last year, when he finished 17th. After winning Skandia Sail for Gold regatta in Weymouth he said today that he is especially happy to have found an extra gear to his downwind speed, completing a package which he feels can win him the title, he won in 2007 and 2008, again.

He may have had a slightly nervous start to his day, discovering when he was rigging up that he had a crack in the top of his supplied daggerboard which was replaced with one which had been repaired, but he finished brimful of confidence and well set for the final stages.

Cyprus' Southampton based Pavlos Kontides, a ship studies student, gave his confidence a leap when he posted to back to back wins to lie fifth into the Finals.

The strong New Zealand squad are certainly among the key contenders with two in the top four, three in the top six and four in the top eight.

After their rest day today the Junior World Championships resume their Qualifying with two scheduled races Friday before their four race Finals commence Saturday.

Laser Standard Senior Men's World Championships
Hayling Island, GBR
Provisional Standings after 8 of 8 Qualifying Races, one discard.
1 Tom Slingsby (AUS) 1,8,(29),3,1,1,5,1 20pts
2 Paul Goodison (GBR) 3,1,9,4,3,7,(14),7,34pts
3 Michael Bullot (NZL) 1,2,5,13,9,3,3 (23) 36pts
4 Andrew Maloney (NZL) 2,(22),4,10,2,11,3,4,36pts
5 Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 4,3,21,4,5,(27),1,1, 39pts
6 Andrew Murdoch (NZL) 6,4,11,2,8,(22),9,1,41pts
7 Nick Thompson (GBR) 2,3,(25),6,9,7,9,8 44pts
8 Joshua Junior (NZL) 3,22,1,2,7,5,8,(29),48pts
9 Ashley Brunning (AUS) 12,9,10,12,3,3,1,(19) 50pts
10 Andreas Geritzer (AUT) (33),6,2,1,2,22,9,9,51pts

Quotes:
Paul Goodison (GBR): "We were on the inside course and it was a bit frustrating. I made a couple of schoolboy errors with the tide. In the first race I went around the bottom mark in fourth and expected there to be a tidal gain on the right, and ended up losing 10-12 places which was a bit frustrating. In the second race I got a pretty good start but got caught out in the middle when the wind went right a bit and then hit the windward mark, so a bit of a frustrating day. Second is a lot better than I thought it would be after today, almost putting a smile on my face again. There are still six races to go and I'm looking forward to going into the finals."

Tom Slingsby (AUS): "The first race was really tricky. We were first off and we might have had the most patchy breeze. I was always there and lost one boat on the last run, so to get through with a fifth was pretty good. Second race was bit more steady, a bit more of boatspeed race. I got round third, second at the bottom and then first at the top.
The first race Nick Thompson and I were doing OK in the middle and then a big group came in from the right and we went round in tenth or so and it was very tricky once you're there. The top three were just gone, you are never going to catch them.
Second race the Kiwis were in first and fourth and I just gained and gained, I had a tiny edge in boat speed and so he did not want to stay with me"

But basically it all changes now into the Finals. It all starts again but if you make one mistake rather than losing five boats you lose 20. The only thing I take forward is knowing that I am sailing quick and that if I sail well I can win the worlds."

"Doing poorly at last year's worlds, finishing 17th, was a feeling I really did not like. I didn't like telling people that I came 17th, I like saying I'm in the top two in the world. I just restarted over again at Sail for Gold last year and it's been going well since then."

Andrew Maloney (NZL): "The first race it was shifty and hard to pick the side I tacked straight off and played the oscillations and came around the top mark in second and so I was pleased with that, we had a jump on the pack. Second race the pin end was favoured, I started three up from the pin and backed my speed and sent it out towards the best side of the course with a group of about five other boats, and tacked across on a nice left shift, sent it out to the starboard lay-line and then we had a nice jump on the rest of the fleet.
It's not easy but much easier when you get a good start, which I don't usually do, but it's been better here, a bit more confidence, a bit more experience, just being a bit older.
We have a great team, all going really well, but we have done a lot of hard work together, trying to work in places where the conditions are similar to these worlds, like down in Tauranga and inside the harbour in Auckland."

Michael Bullot (NZL): "I was having real bad first beats today. The first race I was probably 40th around the top but came back to eighth. But in the second race I just did not come back, so I think I got a 30th, something like that, it was deep.
The second race I made too many tacks up the beat and really never ever got any leverage on the fleet, and just never really found my rhythm downwind. I really never made any gains. But that is pretty annoying leading into gold fleet with something like that.
The conditions were perfect, beautiful 10-12kts, great waves downwind and I just never found my rhythm. It was not overly shifty but if you did not find a rhythm you got sucked back into the pack pretty quickly.
I think we all get on well but of course you are always looking over your shoulder to see how the other Kiwis are doing, but there is a really good mentality within the group."

Published in Olympics 2012

As the Laser Worlds Draw to a close in Largs, bidding has opened for venues the 2014 World Championships. The events come in four bands, the Standard Rig Worlds, then the Radial Worlds (incorporating Youth, Ladies' and Men's) and the Masters Worlds. Those three groups are slated for a European venue in 2014, with the Youth Standard Rig and 4.7 championships slated for Asia.

Ireland has hosted the Worlds and Europeans in the past, with the Standard Rigs visiting Cork in 2001, the Radials hitting Ballyholme in 2004 and Dun Laoghaire hosting the 4.7 Europeans.

But could Ireland host the 2014 event?

The bid site is here, with the various bands anticipating different numbers of competitors. The Standard worlds should draw 160 boats, the Radial band closer to 500, and the Masters Worlds as many as 400 sailors.

Thoughts on a suitable Irish venue? Have your say in our forum.

Published in Boating Fixtures

Royal St. George Yacht Club

The Royal St George Yacht Club was founded in Dun Laoghaire (then Kingstown) Harbour in 1838 by a small number of like-minded individuals who liked to go rowing and sailing together. The club gradually gathered pace and has become, with the passage of time and the unstinting efforts of its Flag Officers, committees and members, a world-class yacht club.

Today, the ‘George’, as it is known by everyone, maybe one of the world’s oldest sailing clubs, but it has a very contemporary friendly outlook that is in touch with the demands of today and offers world-class facilities for all forms of water sports

Royal St. George Yacht Club FAQs

The Royal St George Yacht Club — often abbreviated as RStGYC and affectionately known as ‘the George’ — is one of the world’s oldest sailing clubs, and one of a number that ring Dublin Bay on the East Coast of Ireland.

The Royal St George Yacht Club is based at the harbour of Dun Laoghaire, a suburban coastal town in south Co Dublin around 11km south-east of Dublin city centre and with a population of some 26,000. The Royal St George is one of the four Dun Laoghaire Waterfront Clubs, along with the National Yacht Club, Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) and Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC).

The Royal St George was founded by members of the Pembroke Rowing Club in 1838 and was originally known as Kingstown Boat Club, as Kingstown was what Dun Laoghaire was named at the time. The club obtained royal patronage in 1845 and became known as Royal Kingstown Yacht Club. After 1847 the club took on its current name.

The George is first and foremost an active yacht club with a strong commitment to and involvement with all aspects of the sport of sailing, whether racing your one design on Dublin Bay, to offshore racing in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, to junior sailing, to cruising and all that can loosely be described as “messing about in boats”.

As of November 2020, the Commodore of the Royal St George Yacht Club is Peter Bowring, with Richard O’Connor as Vice-Commodore. The club has two Rear-Commodores, Mark Hennessy for Sailing and Derek Ryan for Social.

As of November 2020, the Royal St George has around 1,900 members.

The Royal St George’s burgee is a red pennant with a white cross which has a crown at its centre. The club’s ensign has a blue field with the Irish tricolour in its top left corner and a crown towards the bottom right corner.

Yes, the club hosts regular weekly racing for dinghies and keelboats as well as a number of national and international sailing events each season. Major annual events include the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, hosted in conjunction with the three other Dun Laoghaire Waterfront Clubs.

Yes, the Royal St George has a vibrant junior sailing section that organises training and events throughout the year.

Sail training is a core part of what the George does, and training programmes start with the Sea Squirts aged 5 to 8, continuing through its Irish Sailing Youth Training Scheme for ages 8 to 18, with adult sail training a new feature since 2009. The George runs probably the largest and most comprehensive programme each summer with upwards of 500 children participating. This junior focus continues at competitive level, with coaching programmes run for aspiring young racers from Optimist through to Lasers, 420s and Skiffs.

 

The most popular boats raced at the club are one-design keelboats such as the Dragon, Shipman 28, Ruffian, SB20, Squib and J80; dinghy classes including the Laser, RS200 and RS400; junior classes the 420, Optimist and Laser Radial; and heritage wooden boats including the Water Wags, the oldest one-design dinghy class in the world. The club also has a large group of cruising yachts.

The Royal St George is based in a Victorian-style clubhouse that dates from 1843 and adjoins the harbour’s Watering Pier. The clubhouse was conceived as a miniature classical Palladian Villa, a feature which has been faithfully maintained despite a series of extensions, and a 1919 fire that destroyed all but four rooms. Additionally, the club has a substantial forecourt with space for more than 50 boats dry sailing, as well as its entire dinghy fleet. There is also a dry dock, four cranes (limit 12 tonnes) and a dedicated lift=out facility enabling members keep their boats in ready to race condition at all times. The George also has a floating dock for short stays and can supply fuel, power and water to visitors.

Yes, the Royal St George’s clubhouse offers a full bar and catering service for members, visitors and guests. Currently the bar is closed due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The Royal St George boathouse is open daily from 9.30am to 5.30pm during the winter. The office and reception are open Tuesdays to Fridays from 10am to 5pm. The bar is currently closed due to Covid-19 restrictions. Lunch is served on Wednesdays and Fridays from 12.30pm to 2.30pm, with brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 3pm.

Yes, the Royal St George regularly hosts weddings and family celebrations from birthdays to christenings, and offers a unique and prestigious location to celebrate your day. The club also hosts corporate meetings, sailing workshops and company celebrations with a choice of rooms. From small private meetings to work parties and celebrations hosting up to 150 guests, the club can professionally and successfully manage your corporate requirements. In addition, team building events can utilise its fleet of club boats and highly trained instructors. For enquiries contact Laura Smart at [email protected] or phone 01 280 1811.

The George is delighted to welcome new members. It may look traditional — and is proud of its heritage — but behind the facade is a lively and friendly club, steeped in history but not stuck in it. It is a strongly held belief that new members bring new ideas, new skills and new contacts on both the sailing and social sides.

No — members can avail of the club’s own fleet of watercraft.

There is currently no joining fee for new members of the Royal St George. The introductory ordinary membership subscription fee is €775 annually for the first two years. A full list of membership categories and related annual subscriptions is available.

Membership subscriptions are renewed on an annual basis

Full contact details for the club and its staff can be found at the top of this page

©Afloat 2020

RStGYC SAILING DATES 2024

  • April 13th Lift In
  • May 18th & 19th Cannonball Trophy
  • May 25th & 26th 'George' Invitational Regatta
  • July 6th RSGYC Regatta
  • August 10th & 11th Irish Waszp National Championships
  • August 22- 25th Dragon Irish National Championships / Grand Prix
  • Aug 31st / Sept 1st Elmo Trophy
  • September 6th End of Season Race
  • September 7th & 8th Squib East Coast Championships
  • September 20th - 22nd SB20 National Championships
  • September 22nd Topper Ireland Traveller Event
  • October 12th Lift Out

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