SAILING:AS DÚN Laoghaire stages trials for June's ISAF Youth World Championship in Croatia this weekend, the real focus for the Irish squad selected by Monday evening is a medal on home waters when the event is here in 2012.
With one year left to prepare, the hope is Irish juniors will have done enough to be in the hunt at an event dubbed the Youth Olympic regatta. Competitors must be under 19 in 2012.
If last weekend’s results from the massive Dutch event at Braassemermeer are anything to go by, then Ireland might well be in with a shout.
Ireland finished top country at the Easter regatta, with Seán Donnelly fourth and Adam Hyland fifth overall in the gold fleet. Cliodhna Ní Shuilleabháin took the first bullet of the event for the Irish and finished 22nd, just behind Chloe Eggers who was 20th overall.
Ireland won medals at the Youth Worlds in 1996 when Laura Dillon and Ciara Peelo took bronze, but since then, in spite of some fine individual performances, Irish teams have struggled to make the top-10.
Dublin Bay will be the racetrack for over 300 sailors from 60 nations after the Government lent its support to the Irish bid secured at the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) conference in Madrid in 2008.
After three years of planning, this weekend’s Mitsubishi youth regatta, with 250 boats, is serving not only as Ireland’s selection trial but also as a test event for 2012.
Confirmation of the €750,000 event for next July establishes the capital’s waters as an international course and one that could yet play host to other world ISAF events, a marvellous prospect for an Irish port.
The bid was won by the Royal St George Yacht Club. Flag officer Brian Craig, who staged the Dragon Worlds at the venue in 2007, has chaired the organising committee.
The scale of the event dictates that neighbours the National Yacht Club and Royal Irish Yacht Clubs are co-hosts and the east coast town is behind the massive event.
Being a strong supporter of the Youth Championships, Ireland has only missed one in the last 20 years, and until now has been the only participating country that hasn’t played host to the event.
Racing will be in four dinghy classes (Lasers, 420s, 29ers and multihulls), and windsurfing is also included. Up to 300 volunteers will be required to run the regatta.
“Our main objective is to get an Irish sailor on the podium in Dún Laoghaire,” Craig said.
“Securing the event is one thing, identifying young Irish sailing talent capable of such an achievement is another.”
Craig’s thinking, of course, is if Irish success can be produced in Croatia or on the bay in 2012 then it is a solid stepping stone for the Olympics in 2016.
Tomorrow also marks the start of Dublin Bay Sailing Club’s (DBSC) season, with a fleet of up to 200 cruisers, one designs and keelboats racing in 17 classes.
Heading out beyond the Burford bank, a separate 20-boat Irish fleet will race to Holyhead in the first offshore of 2011, while in Howth a 25-boat SB3 class races for the East coast title, bringing an impressive total of over 500 boats out on to the bay for the first weekend’s racing of the summer season.
