Irish Sailor of the Year Eve McMahon recovered from a port-starboard incident shortly after the start of the first race of the day at the ILCA 6 Womens' European Championship but recovered well to place 14th and then ninth in the second race of the day in Andora, Italy.

Vasileia Karachaliou POR is leading with 7 points after scoring a 2-1-4 on Tuesday. Top places are very tight, with Emma Plasschaert BEL and Anne Marie Rindom DEN following her with 8 and 9.

Polish sailors Agata Barwisnka POL and Wiktoria Golebiowska POL are also close with 13.

The Irish Youth World champion from Howth Yacht Club, Ireland's sole ILCA 6 campaigner for Paris 2024, lies 19th in a fleet of 112.

Medium air conditions were quite shifty, with the breeze up and down on the Riviera delle Palme.

With just three races sailed in the qualification round, Wednesday will see three more races before deciding the finals line-up to be sailed over the remaining two days of the event.

The first warning signal is at 09:00. Coaches meeting at 07:00.

Irish Sailor of the Year Eve McMahon of Howth Yacht Club finished a promising 12th in fickle conditions in her first race in the yellow flight of the  ILCA 6 European Championships in Andora, Italy.

Both ILCA 6 Women’s groups were also able to complete a race, but Red’s was finally cancelled by Jury decision due to a problem with a GPS mark, so it will need to be resailed tomorrow.

The Irish youth world champion, the only Irish female campaigning for Paris 2024, regained ground after a poor start and, over the first lap of the course, worked into the top ten boats of her flight.

On the second upwind leg, she slipped to 12th, a good start to the regatta in her 116-boat event.

McDonnell second in men's ILCA 6

Also on the same course area, the Men's ILCA 6 class had their first series race that saw both Irish sailors in the top five.

Dubliners Fiachra McDonnell (Royal St. George Yacht Club) was second while Rocco Wright (Howth YC) had a fifth.

No ILCA 7 racing in Andora

The senior men's ILCA 7 class had no wind on their course to allow a second race so Tuesday will again be a waiting game to see if the weather delivers enough wind for a planned three-race day across all fleets.

Ireland's Finn Lynch (National YC) had a fifth place on Sunday while Ewan McMahon (Howth YC) placed 20th in their single qualification round race sailed to date.

Irish Sailor of the Year Eve McMahon goes into action for the second time in 2023 when she races at the – unusually early – 2023 ILCA Senior European Championships in Andora, Italy.

The Howth world and European ILCA 6 youth champion is joined on the Iberian Peninsula by Olympic sailing teammate, 2021 world silver medallist Finn Lynch (National YC) in the men's ILCA 7.

Both were among four Irish sailors to be awarded funding under the Sports Council funding earlier this month. 

Last summer, Lynch was placed second in the world in the World Sailing rankings, thanks to a consistent string of results that included a silver medal at the ILCA7 World Championship in Barcelona in November 2021 and his sixth place at the 2022 ILCA 7 Men’s World Championship in Mexico in May 2022.

Lynch, however, suffered a blip at the back end of 2022 when he posted 25th overall at the 2022 Europeans in France. He suffered in the lighter winds at the crucial later stage in the competition, meaning the hoped-for top-ten finish on the Bay of Hyères was out of reach for the 2021 World silver medalist. 

Lynch appears in good form this season, posting a second overall in a 50-boat fleet at the second round of the Portugal Grand Prix in Vilamoura a month ago.

Andora will be Eve McMahon’s third senior-level European championship but her first not competing as a Youth. She had an incredibly successful summer in 2022, winning a hat-trick of gold medals at the ILCA 6 Youth European Championships in Greece, the World Sailing Youth World Championships in the Netherlands, the ILCA 6 Youth World Championships in Texas, and finishing with silver at the U21 ILCA Youth World Championships in Portugal in August. The stand-out performance earned her a second Irish Sailor of the Year title.

Like Lynch, McMahon had her first races in 2023 Vilamoura in February, an event won by Olympic Gold medalist Marit Boumeester. The Irish ace posted 15th, counting a black flag disqualification in her scoresheet in a 79-boat fleet.

Also competing in Andora is McMahon's older brother Ewan who is Lynch's main competition for the single ILCA 7 berth in Paris 2024, and youths Rocco Wright and Fiachra McDonnell in the men's ILCA 6. 

In the men’s ILCA 7 fleet, there are 195 sailors representing 42 countries, including the reigning Senior European champion Pavlos Kontydes, the reigning World champion Jean Baptiste Bernaz (France) and the reigning Olympic Gold medallist Matthew Wearn (Australia).

The ILCA 6 women’s fleet sees 117 sailors representing 40 countries, including the reigning Senior European champion Agata Barwinska of Poland, and the reigning World champion and Olympic Gold medallist Anne-Marie Rindom of Denmark.

The Irish sailors benefit from coach Vasilij Zbogar, a three-time Olympic medallist from Slovenia and Sport Ireland backroom support.

Racing begins on Sunday, 12th March and concludes with the medal races on Friday, 17th.

Irish Sailor of the Year 2022 Eve McMahon is back on the water this week when she leads an Irish youth sailing squad into round two of the Vilamoura Grand Prix in Portugal.

Racing begins at noon today for an 11-strong ILCA 6 Irish team (including five sailors from Northern Ireland) in a fleet of 81 entries for the year's first outing.

As well as McMahon, now under 21, the Irish lineup includes her clubmate, also a world youth gold medalist from last summer, Rocco Wright, who continues at u17.

The Irish pack includes: Luke Turvey, Howth YC u19; Bobby Driscoll, RNIYC / BYC u17; Tom Coulter, EABC/PYC u19; Zoe Whitford, EABC u17; Charlotte Eadie, Ballyholme Yacht Club u19; Fiachra McDonnell, Royal St George Yacht Club u19;  Lewis Thompson, Ballyholme YC, u17; Sienna Wright, Howth Yacht Club u17 and Daniel Palmer, Ballyholme Yacht Club, u17.

Rocco Wright of Howth Yacht Club Photo: World Sailing

The ILCA 6 entries will be divided into two fleets and will sail a qualifying series (three days) followed by a final series (one day) with no Medal Race. 

Ireland's top hope for Paris 2024, Finn Lynch, is an entry in the 52-boat ILCA 7 fleet.

Vilamoura also sees an Irish entry in the 49erFX fleet, with Newcastle Yacht Club and Royal St George Yacht Club combination Erin Mcilwaine and Ellie Cunnane making the first steps in their campaign for LA 2028.

More here

Eve McMahon is “Irish Sailor of the Year 2022”, making it into the top national position for the second successive year after the ILCA 6 sailor’s international performance was of such a standard that she even managed to better her exceptional showing in 2021.

For although 2021 had its special challenges as the limited international programme worked its way around the changing patterns and restrictions of the global pandemic, 2022 brought the fresh vigour and reinforced competition of emerging action.

Yet despite this, the now 18-year-old Howth sailor’s tally brought home no less than three Gold Medals from majors on both sides of Europe, and from both sides of the Atlantic. So although she first took the “Sailor of the Month” title in April 2022 by marking the beginning of her exit process from the Junior scene with a domination of the ILCA 6 class in the breezy Youth Nationals at Ballyholme, it was entirely within the month of July that she amassed the three Golds on the international stage.

Portrait of the Gold Medallist ready to party

During the two-and-a-half months between those peaks of achievement, she had to focus on the demands of the Leaving Cert. Keeping a level head in such demanding circumstances would challenge even the most academically-inclined, yet at the beginning of July she reappeared in top-level athletic sailing with joyful enthusiasm, and took herself off to Greece for the European Youth ILCA 6 Championship, which she won going away by a clear 36 points.

School’s Out! – celebrating the 36 point victory in Greece only days after finishing her Leaving Cert. Photo: Thom Tow

The stakes were then raised for the Allianz Youth Worlds at The Hague in The Netherlands in mid-July. Yet she led the ferociously-challenging 55-strong ILCA 6 fleet from the get-go, and her worst result – a very discardable sixth – didn’t occur until the final day with its flukey winds, by which time the Gold Medal was right in the frame.

There was barely a pause for breath before the focus shifted across the Atlantic and the opulent setting of the Houston Yacht Club in Texas on the Gulf of Mexico for the ILCA 6 Youth Worlds. All this was still being done within the timeframe of July, with the added challenges of extended transoceanic lines of communication in a pandemic-emergent situation, and the fierce heat and super-bright sunshine of Texas in high summer, coupled with the fact that the impressive host club would naturally have been hoping for a home win.

A perfect start for IRL 216111 at Houston. Eve is comfortably clear of the boat to lee and is already lee-bowing 204624 on her weather quarter, while the apparently well-placed two boats at the other end of the start are being lifted in a new line of wind which will further improve the position of Eve’s group when they reach it within half a minute.

But as Eve has shown in previous majors on the sometimes slightly partisan location of Lake Garda, she is well able to face the added challenge of “alien” status, and coming into the final race on Saturday, July 31st, she clinched the Gold with two bullets.

Going well at Houston, with an impressive array of boats astern

Occuring as it did around midnight in Ireland, people wondered if they were dreaming, with the more pessimistic saying that if something sounds too good to be true, then that’s the way it is. But it was soon doubly proven to be true when Ireland’s latest sailing Gold Medal with its holder returned with the small but extremely effective Irish squad to Dublin airport and a rapturous welcome.

Once a sailor gets to this level, he or she is at the heart of an intense little industry, and it’s a supportive family background and comprehensive back-up structure that enables Eve McMahon’s formidable natural sailing talent, impressive personality and focused intelligence to make the leap from being a schoolgirl to becoming an acknowledged international sailing star, on the cusp of adult competition.

“It’s for real….” Eve McMahon welcomed back home through Dublin Airport from Texas by her parents Vicky and Jim

She is into an entirely new chapter in her sailing career and lifepath. But for now, the fact that an 18-year-old can achieve that one glorious month of unrivalled across-the-board success on two continents makes her “Sailor of the Year 2022” at every level.

Ireland’s Olympic sailing team has started the New Year with a fair wind in its sails, having welcomed a new addition to its fleet of commercial vehicles in the shape of a new Mercedes-Benz Vito van.

The second of its kind to be added to the fleet, the Vito will soon be put through its paces transporting the team’s boats and equipment to international training camps and competitions throughout Europe in destinations such as Portugal, Italy and, significantly, the Olympic sailing venue of Marseille.

No stranger to the Irish sailing community, Mercedes-Benz has supported a number of water sport activities over the years, most notably in its sponsorship of Ireland’s Olympic medal-winning sailor Annalise Murphy in her preparations for the Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games.

Fittingly, the predominant user of this new vehicle will be Howth Yacht Club’s Eve McMahon, the current Youth World Champion in Murphy’s old class the ILCA 6 (formerly Laser Radial) who is hotly tipped for Olympic success of her own, at Paris 2024 and beyond.

Howth Yacht Club’s hotly tipped Olympic prospect Eve McMahon has been named among the five nominees on the shortlist for RTÉ Sport Young Sportsperson of the Year 2022.

McMahon has enjoyed an outstanding season on the water. RTÉ says: “The 18-year-old Howth YC sailor, who completed her Leaving Certificate in the summer, retained her world title as she won gold at the ILCA6 Youth World Championships in Houston, Texas.

“The victory added to the golds she won at the Allianz Youth Sailing World Championships in the Netherlands, and at the European Youth ILCA6 Championship in Greece earlier in July to clinch a hat-trick of golds.”

She joins a veritable who’s-who of young Irish sporting talent, including track athletes Israel Olatunde and Rhasidat Adeleke, U20 rugby union standout James Culhane and light heavyweight boxer Lisa O’Rourke.

The RTÉ Sport Young Sportsperson of the Year will be announced live on RTÉ One on Saturday night, 17 December.

In the ILCA6/Laser Women's European Championship in France, Eve McMahon of Howth YC produced a good overall result in one of her first events as a senior after moving up from three Gold medals at World Youth level this season.

A light breeze allowed all three ILCA 6 fleets to complete the first race, but after the wind dropped and never returned the fleet was sent ashore by the Race Committee, concluding their competition.

McMahon delivered her goal of a strong finish when she placed 13th, lifting her to 21st place overall in a fleet of 95 to end her season as Ireland's sole campaigner for Paris 2024.

2022 EurILCA 6 Women Senior European Top 10:

1. Agata Barwisnka POL 44 / Gold
2. Maud Jayet SUI 48 / Silver
3. Marit Bouwmeester NED 50 / Bronze
4. Matilda Nicholls GBR 52
5. Emma Plasschaert BEL 55
6. Daisy Collingridge GBR 68
7. Pernelle Michon FRA 87
8. Maria Erdi HUN 93
9. Wiktoria Golebiowska POL 101
10. Louise Cervera FRA 106

In the women's ILCA6/Laser European Championships in France, Ireland's only female competitor, Eve McMahon (Howth YC) has highlighted the tricky conditions. "It's not a good thing for a sailor to say, but I think that with these conditions, you just have hit a side (of the course) and say a prayer - it's absolutely mad out there! There's no playing through the middle, so you just have to chance your luck."

McMahon reckoned she was rounding marks in good positions but then dropping back so learning to manage the fleet will be a learning priority at the start of her senior career.

A 20th and a 34th leave her in 34th overall in the 55-strong Gold fleet event for the ILCA6 women’s title.

Consistency is paying off at the ILCA 6 Women’s championship, with two sailors now on top of the fleet with 50 points: those are the reigning 2021 Senior European champion Agata Barwisnka POL (2-8-17 today) and the ascendant Marit Bouwmeester NED (8-2-5). The third place is for Maud Jayet SUI (1-6-12) with 52, closely followed by Emma Plasschaert BEL (6-22-8) with 54. Matilda Nicholls GBR (3-11-14) is fifth with 61 units.

The Open European Trophy’s overnight leader Sarah Douglas CAN (22-16-28), is ranked sixth now with 66 points.

Provisional ILCA 6 Women European Top 10 after 9 races:

1. Agata Barwisnka POL 50
2. Marit Bouwmeester NED 50
3. Maud Jayet SUI 52
4. Emma Plasschaert BEL 54
5. Matilda Nicholls GBR 61
6. Daisy Collingridge GBR 75
7. Pernelle Michon FRA 93
8. Hannah Snellgrove GBR 101
9. Marie Bolou FRA 102
10. Maria Erdi HUN 103

Download results below

The National Yacht Club's Finn Lynch scored a 16th-39th-32nd dropping him to 32nd place overall in a light wind three race penultimate day of the ILCA/Laser European Championships in Hyeres, France.

Three more races were held today by all the fleets, with shifty and patchy 8-12 knots of breeze. There were many ups and downs that made the sailing conditions very tricky for all the 350 competitors, with significant changes in the standings.

"We just didn't find the right mode to get in front of the fleet at the beginning," commented Vasilij Zbogar, Lynch's Laser coach. "The truth is... I don't know; we were going so well before the event, but now we have different conditions.

"Finn mentally was prepared well and is feeling well. We're struggling a little bit for speed in these conditions for the set-up we have could be a little bit better."

Zbogar, a triple Olympic medallist, pointed to Lynch's improved performance in the upper wind range earlier in the week, calling it a "huge step forward." Normally, the Rio veteran would be expected to perform well in the conditions of the past two days.

"I'm not feeling great - I need to be doing better," Finn Lynch said after racing ended. "There is a lot of luck involved in these conditions, but I need to be better so that I can afford to have bad luck."

For the remaining two races, Lynch will be aiming to finish on a high with individual best results though both the podium and, most likely, the top ten are beyond his reach.

It was not a good day for the overnight leader and reigning 2021 Senior European champion Michael Beckett GBR (22-25-2), losing the top spot for the first time in the event. He’s now in second place but only 2 points behind the new leader Pavlos Kontides CYP (4-3-1), who’s counting 32.

Finland’s Kaarle Tapper FIN (5-23-3) is now third with 50. 7 points after him is Jonatan Vadnai HUN (8-18-17) on fourth.

Lorenzo Chiavarini ITA (6-17-13) and Sam Whaley GBR (24-6-10) are tied in 66 points on places fifth and sixth.

Provisional ILCA 7 European Top 10 after 10 races:

1. Pavlos Kontides CYP 32
2. Michael Beckett GBR 34
3. Kaarle Tapper FIN 50
4. Jonatan Vadnai HUN 57
5. Lorenzo Chiavarini ITA 66
6. Sam Whaley GBR 66
7. Niels Broekhuizen NED 72
8. Tonci Stipanovic CRO 74
9. Hermann Tomasgaard NOR 75
10. Jean Baptiste Bernaz FRA 85

Download results below