In an historic victory at Howth Yacht Club yesterday, Peter Bayly and William Atkinson of Lough Derg YC won the Datalex Mirror World Championships, giving Ireland its second consecutive title in this class.
A broken tiller in the penultimate race cost Carrickfergus SC's Nick Meadow and Sam Trott second place which allowed Australian's Trevor Mirsky and Justin Jacob to pounce.
A first place in yesterday morning's first race was enough to secure the championship for Bayly and Atkinson, though the helm decided to start the final before later retiring having established a 17-point advantage. The maximum points for this was eradicated by a second discard that came into force yesterday.
In the final analysis, Irish crews dominated two thirds of the top 20 boats in the 136-strong fleet and 2001 will be remembered as the best ever world championships for Ireland. Team coach David McHugh commented that the result was a direct result of the effort put in by the Irish class association, especially the winter training scheme.
Weather for the final day freshened considerably though this still did not prevent eight black-flag disqualifications in the opening race.
Irish national champions Chris and Catherine Forrestal from the Royal Cork YC maintained their top-10 position when they ended with fourth overall. Going into the final day, there had been an expectation they might be able to overtake the Australians and make it a top-three placings for Ireland. However, the pair did well to fend off David and Jake Gebhard from Britain, who beat them by two places in the final.
Bayly is one of a host of young sailors retiring from the class, possibly to pursue a campaign in the 420 dinghy, the official ISAF Youth Dinghy. A host of other potential champions wait to step into his shoes within this class.
Although never completely clear, given the multiplicity of dinghy classes in Ireland, talented youth sailors tend to emerge from either the Mirror or Optimist fleets and progress to staging classes such as the 420 or Laser single-hander before considering future Olympic potential.
Final race-winner Des Clayton of the Royal North of Ireland YC is also retiring from active competition as he has been elected president of the International Class Association. His son Christopher, with Peter Todd crewing, beat him by one place to 16th overall.
Meanwhile, at the Optimist European Championships, Japan's Yashushi Kondo won the overall title at Las Palmas, Gran Canaria yesterday. Ireland's Simon Mitton finished in 51st place out of a fleet of 152.
Elsewhere, the 420 Junior Championships saw John Downey and Mark Rose place 14th overall thanks to a second place yesterday. Spencer Mitton and Richard Frank were 50th while Ruan Minehan and Nicholas O'Leary were 66th.
