#sailorofthemonth – The Royal Cork Yacht Club's Cup of Success was running over in July, as the Commodore's Cup victory followed on to a Silver Medal at the ISAF Worlds for 18-year-old Seafra Guilfoyle of Crosshaven, who is now the Afloat.ie "Sailor of the Month".
Racing in the boys Laser Radials at the Youth Worlds at Tavira on the Algarve in Portugal from July 14th to 20th, by the last day Guilfoyle was certain of a medal, with the final race to decide which one. As it happened, he came tantalisingly close to Gold.
During the week, after winning the first race, he topped the leaderboard for much of the series. But the last day's racing started with the points leadership held by Joel Rodriguez Perez of Spain 7 points ahead of Guilfoyle, who was now third as Ryan Lo of Singapore had moved up to second.
Yet the Irish helmsman sailed like a champion, and headed the fleet throughout that final contest, with the two other main contenders well down the line It looked as though the Gold was Guilfoyle's. But then Perez battled his way up the fleet, and went like a train in the final stages to get up to fourth and take the Gold by four points, with Guilfoyle solidly placed in second overall for the Silver, the third medal for Ireland in the last two years in the ISAF Youth Worlds.
