Former Irish Olympic 49er sailor Matt McGovern has rejoined the Irish Sailing team as coach in the two-handed skiff class.

McGovern, who represented Ireland in the 49er at London 2012 and Rio 2016 with Ryan Seaton, retired from active competition in February last year and subsequently took up the role of high performance manager with the RYANI.

He will now assume coaching responsibilities for the two Irish Sailing 49er teams, which include his former skiff partner Seaton’s duo with Seafra Guilfoyle. The pair placed sixth in the World Cup medal race at Enoshima, the site for next summer’s Olympics, this past August.

Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove, 2018 U23 49er World Champions and Volvo Irish Sailors of the Year, will also benefit from McGovern’s Olympic experience.

Irish Sailing head coach Rory Fitzpatrick said: “It’s great to have Matt join the coaching team. An accomplished athlete, he’ll bring a wealth of experience to the whole team. He is also one of the most organised and prepared athletes.

“In our Performance HQ we have a picture of him and Ryan in the workshop — it’s placed there as a reminder of Matt’s attention to detail, and something we want to inspire the younger athletes with.”

McGovern joins the team ahead of Ireland’s next bid for a place at Tokyo 2020 in the 49er Worlds this December.

Sky Sport will broadcast live all six days of December’s 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 world championships in Auckland, New Zealand, which is believed to be a world-first for an Olympic class sailing world championships it has been announced by the 49er and 49erFX world president Marcus Spillane from Cork.

Spillane is also a member of Irish Sailing's Olympic Steering Group charged with assisting Irish Sailors to reach medal winning positions in the Olympic Games so he will have added interest in ensuring Ireland's 49er crews, Ryan Seaton and Seafra Guilfoyle and Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove will be in the best possible position to compete for the final chance of an Olympic berth at Tokyo 2020.

Unfortunately, the championships will not now include Annalise Murphy and Katie Tingle who quit their fledgeling campaign last week.

Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove are New Zealand bound Photo: Afloat

As many as 400 of the world’s best sailors, including New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke and Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, are expected to compete at the Royal Akarana Yacht Club from December 3-8.

Not only will world titles be on the line, but many countries will be using it as an Olympic selection event so the stakes will be high.

Sky Sport will screen live all six days of racing – six races a day – and also produce a daily highlights package, which will also be shown on free-to-air partner Prime TV.

On-the-water gyroscopic cameras will capture all the racing action, including state-of-the-art drones, and there will be comprehensive analysis and interviews from the boat park before and after the racing presented by a team of sailing experts.

Tracking and animation will also be provided by Animation Research Ltd, who are world leaders in graphics visualisation.

“We’re proud to be the host broadcaster for this great event, and we look forward to bringing sailing fans racing coverage from December 3-8 on Sky Sport,” Sky head of sports production Brian Hitchcock said.

The scale of the production is believed to be a world-first for an Olympic class regatta and will enable New Zealand fans to get close to the action. Negotiations are also progressing to distribute the feed internationally.

The 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 are arguably the most exciting of all of the Olympic classes, with the boats reaching speeds in excess of 20 knots.

Burling and Tuke have made a successful comeback to the 49er after a couple of years focusing on the America’s Cup and Ocean Race, winning last month’s Olympic test event in Japan, and will be looking to add a fifth world title in December.

“We are thrilled to have Sky Sport New Zealand broadcast our upcoming world championship,” 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 president Spillane said. “The 2019 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 world championships are likely to be the most competitive regatta in all of sailing this year.

“To have a passionate New Zealand audience and our global fanbase be able to watch the whole thing is wonderful for the sport.”

The regatta is one of the highlights on the upcoming sailing calendar, which also includes February’s RS:X world championships in Auckland as well as the 2021 America’s Cup.

“It’s a great time to be involved in sailing in this country,” Yachting New Zealand chief executive David Abercrombie said. “With Sky Sport’s partnership, we have an opportunity to further inspire our young sailors through sharing content, telling stories and showing live just how exciting sailing, and in particular, 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 sailing, can be.

“As a passionate nation of sports enthusiasts and sailors, we look forward to what promises to be an exciting week of competition and thank Sky Sport for their commitment to work with us in showcasing sailing and Auckland and New Zealand.”

The final day highlighted a brilliant advance up the leader board for 2018 Junior World Champions, Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove of Howth Yacht Club. The duo started out the regatta with their worst two results of the week, a 21, and then a 14, which ended up being their worst two races. They built improving momentum throughout the week and finished with a 5, 1, 3 to win the final day and grab the bottom rung of the podium. They only just hung on to that third place finish fending off a protest in the final day from the Polish in fourth place overall.

Also moving up on the podium were the British pair of James Grummet and Daniel Budden. They sailed a consistent week, only counting top 10 finishes, and when the Australian team of Hansen and Hoffman suffered two poor races in a row on the final day they were able to grab the silver.

But the week belonged to McHardie and McKenzie (NZL) from New Zealand. The pair were the highest-ranked team entering the competition and hardly made any mistakes during the week. They won 5 of the 14 races and discarded a 10th place, their worst result of the week. The duo are part of an extremely talented squad of New Zealand emerging 49er sailors who also had a top 10 finish at Kiel Week. Now they move on to train at the Olympic venue in Enoshima, Japan. New Zealand will be hosting the 2019 World Championship in Auckland so they’ll be playing host to the fleet in a few months time.

Claiming the U21 prize were 4th overall Mikolaj Stanijul and Kuba Stzorch (POL) who were in medal contention all week. At ony 18 years old each, this duo has a bright future ahead.

A second Irish pairing Sean Donnelly and Adam Hyland were 14th in the 53-boat fleet.  Results are here

Ireland’s Olympic sailors will return home to training in Dun Laoghaire to put into practice the lessons they’ve learned during a week of challenging conditions at the 49er European Championships where the teams competed in the silver fleet divisions. The Irish crews are still a long way off the pace that will be required if Tokyo 2020 qualification is to be achieved later this year.

Full results are here

After very strong conditions earlier in the week, the regatta ended with a bit of a whimper today, when a lack of wind in Weymouth Bay meant that there were no silver or bronze fleet races.

With 18 races already completed over six days, the race officer made the decision not to force any races in very light conditions for the silver and bronze fleets, although there were final races in the gold fleet competitions.

Irish Sailing 49er coach Ross Killian said: “It’s been a long regatta with seven consecutive race days. The wide variety of conditions has challenged our sailors, we’ve had very windy races and very light races. Steady breeze and shifting breeze, big waves and flat water. An all-round test really."

“Across the 18 races sailed the Irish results were up and down, areas that need work have been highlighted during the course of the competition, so now we will tailor or training to focus on those areas.

“We are bringing the equipment home tomorrow and will be working from the new Performance HQ in Dun Laoghaire for the next block of training. It’s a great thing that we can work together as a three-boat team at home while recharging the batteries. It’s been a busy start to the season with Palma, Genoa and the Euros one after another with little turnaround time in between.”

The lack of action today meant that in the men’s 49er class, Ryan Seaton, from Co Antrim, and Cork’s Seafra Guilfoyle finished highest of the Irish in 43rd place overall, after placing 2nd and 28th in Saturday’s two races. They were just one spot ahead of Dublin duo Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove after their 29th and 9th place finishes on Saturday.

Also in the 49ers, Dalkey brothers Seán Donnelly and Tadgh Donnelly finished 33rd and 26th in Saturday’s silver fleet races to claim 57th place overall, while the new Cork pairing of Mark Hassett and Johnny Durcan claimed 4th and 11th place in the bronze fleet races to finished the regatta in 88th place overall.

There was also no silver fleet races in the women’s 49erFX, which meant that Annalise Murphy and Katie Tingle finished the competition in 51st place overall after their 22nd and 9th placings in Saturday’s races.

In the 49er gold fleet, 49erNew Zealand pairing Peter Burling and Blair Tuke claimed victory, holding off the challenge of Britain’s Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell.

The 49erFX competition was won by Brazil’s Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze, ahead of reigning World Champions from the Netherlands, Annemieke Bekkering and Annette Duetz.

The next regattas for the Irish Sailing team will attend will be Kiel in Germany in late June and the 49er Junior World Championships, in early July.

There was consolation of sorts for Annalise Murphy and Katie Tingle who posted their best results of the week at the European 49er Championships in Weymouth Bay today.

Racing in the 49erFX silver fleet, with lighter, easterly winds of around 10-knots, the Dublin-Cork pair improved with every outing and claimed 9th, 3rd and 2nd place finishes in the day’s three races.

They now lie 45th overall out of 57 boats.

Seaton & Guilfoyle are 43rd

In the 49er silver fleet races, Ryan Seaton and Seafra Guilfoyle came 8th, retired and 25th to lie 43rd overall out of 98 teams. Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove are in 48th place after posting results of 26th, 14th and 20th.

They were two places ahead of brothers Seán and Tadgh Donnelly, whose impressive 6th place in the second silver fleet race was bookended by 35th and 26th place finishes.

The men’s race is divided into gold, silver and bronze fleets, and being in the middle class means that Ireland’s sailors will not be able to finish higher that 26th overall.

The much hoped for Irish breakthrough into the Gold fleet of the 49er European Championships – that would have been such a boost towards Tokyo 2020 qualification –has failed to materialise for any of the four competing campaigns in Weymouth tonight and they will now complete this week's series in the silver fleet of the 49er and 49fx classes.

There will be some consolation that a former Dun Laoghaire teammate from the Rio 2016 cycle is lying second in an inspirational performance in the 49erFX, even though the Royal Irish Yacht Club's Saskia Tidey is now racing for Team GB.

Belfast Lough's Ryan Seaton and Cork Harbour's Seafra Guilfoyle maintained their mid-fleet position scoring two counting races with a 7th and an 18th place recorded to lie 38th from 96.

The team will now aim to take as much as possible out of the Weymouth competition in the hope of improving scores later this season. None of the Irish crews has yet secured a Tokyo berth and this can only be achieved in December at the World Championships in New Zealand.

Rio Olympic medallist Annalise Murphy and partner Katie Tingle were back in action after their battles with the high winds of the day before. The pair recorded a 25th, 22nd and a 26th in racing today which see them set to continue the regatta in the 49fx silver fleet. 

Brothers Tadgh and Sean Donnelly of the National Yacht Club are lying one place behind U23 World Champions Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove of Howth Yacht Club having scored a 17th a 6th and a 21st placing today. Dickson and Waddilove recorded a counting 14th and 23rd. Both will join Seaton and McGovern to compete in the silver fleet.

Full Results

49er duo Ryan Seaton and Seafra Guilfoyle continue to lead the Irish teams, scoring a 17th, 9th and 14th place yesterday to lie 37th in the fleet of 96 boats at the European Championships in Weymouth.

Guilfoyle, who was ill during the week leading to the event, continues to recover his strength and the pair are looking forward to the last few races of the opening section of the regatta.

U23 World Champions Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove, from Dublin, recorded similar results to their first day placing results of two 13th places and a 15th to lie 44th overall, while brothers Tadgh and Sean Donnelly, from Dublin, are in 53rd after they improved on Monday’s performance by scoring a 15th, 16th and a 12th over yesterday’s races.

They’re not long back in the boat after their two-and-a-half year holiday in the America’s Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race, but already Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are back at the top in the 49er after firing three bullets in a row today. “Nice day out,” smiled a typically straightforward Burling, checking carefully over every part of the rig after a testing outing for the 96-boat fleet.

It’s not that it was uber-windy, but the easterly breeze had kicked up some big waves in Weymouth Bay, offering plenty of opportunity for an unwanted high-speed pitchpole. The Antipodeans are muscling in on the European party, both Kiwis and Aussies enjoying the big breeze, big wave conditions. The only European team in the top four is Spain’s Diego Botin and Iago Lopez who were almost as dominant as the Kiwis in their third of the qualifying draw, scoring 2,1,1. “It’s so nice to be racing in good conditions again,” said Lopez. “Today was a great day for 49er sailing.”

The Spaniards are just a point off the Burling/Tuke lead, and just two points adrift of the Spanish are the Aussie brothers Will and Sam Phillips who scored three second places behind the unstoppable Kiwis. “Got to be pretty happy with that,” said Will after snapping at the heels of the reigning Olympic Champions all day. “Still a long list of things to work on, but we’re getting there with our starting and boat speed was pretty solid.” His favourite bit of the day was the two-sail blast back across Portland Harbour, back in the relative safety and comfort of the flat water after the lumpy challenge of the Bay.

Rio 2016 bronze medallists Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel were fast out of the blocks in the morning, winning their first heat, but ran out of steam as the day progressed. “I was getting tired,” smiled Heil, sounding like a broken man. They pitchpoled in race two but recovered to a still respectable 10th place. “I was losing concentration because we were getting tired.” Then they capsized again in the final race of the afternoon, this time only managing an 18th. Despite their topsy-turvy moments, the Germans hold on to 7th place overall.

Austria’s Benjamin Bildstein and David Hussl struggled in yesterday’s conditions but got their mojo back on day two, scores of 1,1,5 lifting them to 12th overall. Great Britain’s Chris Taylor and Sam Batten had just put together a good set of results – 7,4,9 – and were enjoying the ride back home across the harbour when their forestay snapped at the top terminal. “The rig dropped back but the boom sat on the leeward wing and sort of supported the mast until we had time to re-tie the kite halyard as a temporary forestay,” said Taylor. So no real harm done, and a big day’s sailing that has planted a big grin on every face of the 49er fleet.

49er Top 5 – Full Results
1            NZL       Peter Burling, Blair Tuke                             7
2            ESP       Diego Botin, Iago Mara Lopez                      8
3            AUS       Will Phillips, Sam Phillips                          10
4            NZL        Logan Dunning Beck, Oscar Gunn            12
5            GER       Justus Schmidt, Max Boeme                     18

North-South Olympic sailing duo Ryan Seaton of Belfast Lough and Seafra Guilfoyle of Cork Harbour led the Irish charge and are in 35th place after four races on the first day of the 96-boat 49er European Championships in Weymouth today.

Illness and injury continue to plague this campaign, unfortunately, with Guilfoyle only passed fit for the important championship at the weekend.

U23 World Champions Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove of Howth Yacht Club are 49th while Dun Laoghaire brothers Tadgh and Sean Donnelly of the National Yacht Club are 60th.

Full results are here.

Six races remain before the fleets are split into the final series but consistent good scores will be key over the coming days if Ireland is to make the gold fleet cut.

Kiwis leading the charge around a square course

Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn from New Zealand started with a 4th followed by a trio of bullets in their third of the qualifying fleet, which totals 96 international entries from nations as diverse as Oman and India. After a discard, the Kiwis top the leaderboard with 3 points, one point ahead of their fellow Kiwis and training partners, Pete Burling and Blair Tuke, returning to the same waters where they won an Olympic silver medal at London 2012 seven years ago.

Dunning Beck said the key to success was pretty straightforward – get a good start, do minimum tacks upwind, one gybe downwind. Sailing a square course, with one tack and one gybe, sounds easy enough except that everyone’s fighting for to do the same, simple thing. Which makes it not so simple. Maybe it’s the strong training program back in the New Zealand summer that’s paying dividends now for the Kiwis.

Still, it’s early days in the regatta, and on equal points with Burling and Tuke are Spain’s Diego Botin and Iago Lopez.

It was a pretty impressive day for the Phillips brothers from Australia, particularly in the first three races with scores of 1,2,1 before a less memorable 15th in the last race of the afternoon. “Nice to be back in Weymouth,” said Sam, crewing for brother Will. “You don’t miss many days sailing in Weymouth, it’s nearly always good here.” The Phillips missed most of the 2018 season after Sam broke his foot in a bone-crunching nose-dive at 35 knots in the now-defunct SuperFoiler circuit which lit up Australia just over a year ago. The Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma a few weeks ago was their first competitive 49er outing together in a year, so to find themselves near the front of this world-class fleet after the first day is a welcome return to form for the brothers.

Just behind the Phillips brothers are the Rio 2016 bronze medalists from Germany, Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel. Just a week ago the 2017 European Champions, Dylan Fletcher and Stu Bithell, were racing at 47 knots across San Francisco Bay in a SailGP F50 catamaran, but the Brits are pleased to be back on home waters with a “boring” opening day, according to Fletcher, which puts them in sixth overall. “Nothing special, just solid, which is fine for day one,” he said.

The 18-race series is forecast to have strong winds over the early part of the week. Racing continues tomorrow.

This week's 49er 2019 European Championships, to be held in Weymouth from 13-19 May includes the 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra17 and Ireland is competing in both the men and women's division of the  Olympic skiff class. See details of the Irish Olympic Sailing team competing here.

There are more potential winners than any 49er event in history. Returning to the waters which hosted the 2012 London Olympic Games sailing regatta, any one of twenty teams from around the world have the proven ability to take their place on the top step of the podium.

In past Olympic cycles, the 49er fleet has had stand out performances by a number of teams which ultimately resulted in Olympic medals and top professional skippering positions in the America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race.

In the Rio 2016 cycle, New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke dominated the class, winning four World Championships in a row on their way to Olympic Gold. Preceding Burling/Tuke, Australian’s Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen were the form boat during the lead into the London 2012 games which also culminated in Olympic glory. Preceding that were the reigns of Chris Draper (GBR), Iker Martinez (ESP), and Chris Nicholson (AUS) all of whom went on to helm America's Cup or Volvo Ocean Race teams.

In 2018 and 2019, the 49er class has seen a plethora of event winners and no one team dominating. Whoever manages to emerge will truly be one of the best sailors today.

The most noticeable recent performance was by Great Britain’s Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell (GBR), who won the Trofeo Princesa Sofia regatta in Palma with a lead large enough to wrap up the event prior to a medal race being sailed. While Fletcher & Bithell have had large amounts of time away from the 49er this year due to their involvement with SailGP, this does not appear to have any effect on the British duo.

“Palma was an awesome regatta for us.” Says Fletcher. “We have been pushing for a performance like that. Weymouth is our home and we know it very well, Stu [Bithell] won his Silver Medal [in the 470] here at London 2012. We are feeling good and excited to have everyone back in our home town. The 49er fleet is incredibly strong at the moment, so we are coming here to just put our best foot forward and we know that if we do that we will be hard to beat.”

The rest of the British squad also have ambitions on home waters, none more so than James Peters and Fynn Sterritt. The duo have had a wildly up and down quad so far. They were flying high in the middle of last summer with a 5th at worlds and then winning the 2018 Test event, and critically, ahead of Dylan and Stu in both cases. They did so after spending months on the sidelines as Sterritt recovered from an injury which kept them off the water until just before Worlds.
So riding high into 2019, they entered Palma, as a British test event qualifier and suffered from a dire performance that put them into silver fleet. A controversial OSC call was their final downfall, spelling the end of their chances at a good finish in Palma.

With Dylan and Stu winning Palma, their chances of getting to the Test Event this year took a serious tumble. The test event spot for the British squad can be critical, as it's been practice for any team medaling at the test event to be given the Olympic berth. So, staring into this championship, one of the top 49er teams could already be staring down the last moments of their Tokyo campaign.

Reigning Olympic champions Burling & Tuke (NZL) have only recently stepped back into the 49er after taking time away from the class to compete in the America's Cup and The Ocean Race. The 4x World Champions are already back in form with their two international events in 2019 resulting in a 3rd and 7th place. Their fellow New Zealand teammates of Isaac McHardie & William McKenzie, Josh Porebski & Trent Rippey, and Logan Dunning Beck & Oscar Gunn have all placed in the top ten in 2019, showing that the New Zealand squad will be a force to be reckoned with. Discussing the New Zealand Sailing Team's recent success, McHardie said “I would have to put it down to the squad of 49ers we have working together. Also now with the likes of Pete and Blair back there is a lot of experience in the squad. As the younger team, we are very lucky to be apart of this tight group.”

The German Sailing Team will once again be looking to put on a strong performance, with their cumulative results including a string of podium placings in 2018-2019 as well as an extensive range of top 10 finishes spread out among their pairings. With an Olympic bronze from Rio 2016, 4th at the 2018 World Sailing Championships and a win at the recent Miami World Cup Series, Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel be in with a good chance of a podium. Jakob Meggendorfer & Andreas Spranger will be looking to bounce back from two poor results in Palma and Genoa, while Tim Fischer / Fabian Graf and Justus Schmidt / Max Boehme will once again be expected to finish inside the top ten.
As a country who has already qualified for Tokyo 2020, thanks to Fischer & Graf’s bronze medal at the 2018 World Sailing Championships, the focus is now firmly on Olympic selection. All four of these teams will be looking to use the Euros to claim the test event spot and be in pole position for the Olympic berth.

Among the teams capable of success at the 2019 Volvo Europeans are Spain’s Diego Botin & Iago Lopez Marra, who won the 2018 Europeans in Poland and have finished in the top ten in all three events in 2019. With their focus firmly on the 49er and qualifying their nation for the Olympics, they will be looking to once again finish the regatta at the top of the leaderboard.

Reigning World Champions Sime and Mihovel Fantela from Croatia are the one significant team not in attendance. Congrats to Sime who had his first child last week, and we wish them well as they bond as a family.

On their home waters, Poland's Dominik Buksak & Szymon Wierzbicki placed second in the 2018 Europeans, with team mates and training partners Lukasz Przybytek & Pawel Kolodzinski leading into the medal race only to finish a disappointing 4th place. These two teams have spent most of the European season training together and the 2019 Volvo Europeans will be their first Olympic selection event for the two competitive Polish teams.

Austrians - Bildstein Hussl (6th Miami - 4th Palma) are a contender. The duo won the 'Warm Up' event for the Europeans here last week, and are looking to take their first major title. It's the same story for Team Tilt, Seb Schneiter and Lucean Cujean from Switzerland. These GC32 World Champions are already qualified for the games, and recently hired Jim Maloney, one of the top coaches to get them into a medal contending position.

Argentina’s Yago and Klaus Lange are finding form at the right time, with their worst result so far this year being an 11th in Miami. Yago's racing has never been better, and he's been racing at the top of the game while becoming the spiritual leader of the #Sailors4theSea movement.

Perhaps the most improved squad of the quad is Team France. Frei and Delpesch were 2nd at the Worlds last year, and Rual with Amoros were eighth. Both teams have had very strong years, and could become the first French team to win a major championship since Frei and Rocherioux won the Europeans in 2012.

With a little over a year until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are set to be contested on the waters of Enoshima Japan, the current 49er fleet is perhaps the most competitive 49er fleet in the class's history. Lacking a dominant team this Olympic cycle and with any number of up to twenty teams currently showing the form to win the regatta, picking a winner will be harder than ever before. Throw into the mix that multiple nations will be using this event as a major qualification event towards their Olympic team selection and it is clear that there is more than just a European title at stake.

49erFX Top 5 – Full entry
1            DEN      Ida Nielsen, Marie Olsen                           11
2            GBR       Charlotte Dobson, Saski Tidey                 13
3            DEN        Jena Hansen, Katja Iversen                     15
4            USA       Annemiek Bekkering, Annette Duetz         18
5            DEN       Martine Grael, Kahena Kunze                   19

49er Top 5 – Full entry
1            FRA       Lucas Rual, Emile Amoros                         9
2            NZL       Logan Dunning Beck, Oscar Gunn             13
3            NZL       Josh Porebski, Trent Rippey                       14
4            SUI        Sebastien Schnieter, Lucas Cujean            15
5            AUS       Will Phillps, Iain Jensen                              16

As Afloat previously reported here, the Irish Sailing 49er and 49erFX teams will be sailing in next week’s European Championships, one of the highlights of the 2019 Olympic sailing calendar and an important benchmark for Irish teams still seeking Tokyo berths with a little over a year to go to the Olympic Regatta itself.

Next week’s regatta will see more than 400 of the best sailors from all over the world battle on Weymouth and Portland’s world-class waters, home of the London 2012 Olympic sailing competition, in pursuit of the European crown.

The Irish team attending the event is made up of eight sailors: 

• Annalise Murphy (Olympic silver medallist) with Katie Tingle, competing in the 49erFX
• Ryan Seaton (a medal race finalist at the Olympic Games in London 2012 and Rio 2016) and Seafra Guilfoyle
• Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove (winners, U23 49er World Championships, September 2018, and 2018 Afloat Irish Sailors of the Year)
• Tadgh and Sean Donnelly, training partners with the Irish Sailing Performance team

Speaking in advance of the event, Ross Killian, Irish Sailing 49er Coach said “All of the teams have put in massive amounts of preparation to get ready for this event, which simply underlines its importance to them, and how keen they are to succeed. It’s another significant step toward the Olympic Games in Tokyo next year.”

At the venue, Howth's Dickson and Waddilove have chalked up a 15th overall in the RYA Warm Up Regatta to set them up nicely for the main event.

Ian Barker 49erFX Irish Sailing coach said “Annalise and Katie are looking forward to the event and to getting out on the water. There’s a lot to sail for at Weymouth and they’re confident that their training and preparation regimes have them ready and prepared for the challenges ahead.”

The week-long regatta takes place at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy from May 13 to 19.