SAILING:FOLLOWING LAST weekend's ISA Mitsubishi Youth National Championships on Dublin Bay, the line-up for the Irish team at the ISAF Youth Worlds at Zadar in Croatia in July have been confirmed by the Irish Sailing Association.
More than 300 sailors from 60 nations are also expected on Dublin Bay in 2012 when the worlds are staged here in the run-up to the London Olympics.
Courtown Sailing Club’s Philip Doran will be attending his first World Championship in the Laser Radial Boys’ Under-19 division, while Sophie Murphy from Quoile Yacht Club is confirmed for the second time in the girls’ class.
Emma Geary from the Royal Cork YC and Niamh Connolly from Baltimore SC were also selected for the 420 class and all team members reached the international qualification standard for the worlds prior to last weekend and were the best performers in their division last weekend.
Meanwhile, the series was also a test event for the 2012 Youth Worlds that will be held in Dún Laoghaire and feedback from ISAF’s Fiona Kidd was very positive after her trip from Canada specially to see the venue on Sunday.
“She saw Dublin Bay at its best,” according to James O’Callaghan, the ISA high performance director.
“Between the combined facilities, it really had the feel of a single venue.
“Instead of being bused to and from the event, the sailors can walk from the hotel and have a short sail out to the race course.”
O’Callaghan also paid tribute to the number of girls who have taken top places in the mixed fleets, notably Sophie Browne from Tralee Bay Sailing Club, who won the International Optimist Dinghy Association of Ireland (IODAI) selection trials and will travel to New Zealand in December.
“Its great to have a girl win the Optimist trials as it indicates plenty of equality in the underage fleets – and teaches the boys a lesson!” he remarked.
The IODAI trials also determined the squads for other key events in the Optimist class diary. Sailors were selected by the trial process to represent Ireland at the European Championship which will be held in Portugal also in July and include Seán Donnelly (Howth YC), Peter McCann (RCYC), Harry Whitaker (RCYC), Eoin Lyden (RCYC), Jil McGinley (RCYC), Cliodhna Ní Shúilleabháin (Kinsale YC) and Megan Parker (Skerries SC).
The team selected to travel to the German National Championships includes Robert Dickson (HYC), Daire Cournane (KYC), Seán Waddilove (SSC), Richard Hogan (HYC), Adam Hyland (Royal St George YC), Ronan Cournane (KYC), Seán Gambier Ross (KYC), Fergus Flood (HYC), Aoife Hopkins and Alacoque Daly (Tralee Bay SC).
In addition 10 sailors were chosen for the Irish under-12 squad to compete in the Optimist UK National Championships.
Whether any of these international events can match Dublin Bay’s weather last weekend remains to be seen but the fresh easterly wind and swell that marked the event brought the best out of the 300 competitors as they toughed out the conditions.
However, the forecast for tomorrow may only allow a brief weather window for the Irish Schools’ Team Racing Championship at Schull where near gale-force southerly winds are expected for Sunday.
A total of 14 teams are expected, including four from Galway, one from Kilkenny and nine from Munster schools.
Weather permitting, a single round-robin of 45 races plus final rounds could be squeezed into a single day.
