Success for the Irish at the British Nationals
Thirty Nine Irish sailors travelled to Weymouth and Portland sailing academy on England's south coast this year to compete at the British Open National Championship. The setting was absolutely amazing and in true British organisational style all ran according to plan. The racing conditions were fantastic in wind strengths varying from 9 to 15 kts all 12 races were completed inside Weymouth harbour. For the qualifying series each of the 150 strong junior and silver fleets were divided into flights of aprox 38 sailors who raced against one another. Once 6 races were completed allowing for one discard the top 75 juniors qualified for the junior gold fleet and the top 75 senior fleet sailors qualified for the senior gold fleet. The remainder of the sailors qualified for junior silver and senior silver respectively. The Under 12's Squad performed really well with 4 sailors bringing home silver ware in the junior gold fleet. Daire Cournane (KYC) 3th overall followed by Robert Dickson (HYC) in 8th, Conor O'Beirne in 11th (RSTGYC) and Fergus Flood 15th (HYC). The senior gold also had two Irish sailors in the top 15. Peter Mc Cann (RCYC) in 6th position followed by club mate Patrick Crosbie (RCYC) in 11th position. Our silver fleet sailors also did us proud with dark horse Anna Kelly in 4th position (RCYC), Sorcha Donnelly (SSC) in 8th and Jamie Tingle (RCYC) in 11th place overall. Ashling Keller was the top Irish finisher in the senior silver fleet in 10th position followed closely by Andrew Levie (LDYC) 14th and Donagh O'Buachalla (TBSC) 16th overall. This year’s British National was more competitive than ever with the USA sending their top team (Team USA) to the event instead of the Worlds. Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Swizerland, United Arab Emerates and even Japan had representatives making it an international event. The event was won overall by Top spanish sailor Silva Mas Depares. Ireland were well represented in the Regatta Fleet with Emma Parker (SSC) and Nell Staunton (SSC) in the Racing Regatta fleet and Michael Micheal O'SUILLEABHAIN (KYC), Lauren O'REILLY (GBSC) Rory Collins (GBSC) in the Starter Fleet and and Sarah Levie (LDYC), David O'REILLY (GBSC) and Siofra Collins (GBSC) in the coaching fleets. A great time was had by sailors and parents alike. Our appreciation and thanks are expended to all at IOCA who made this an exceptional event. To read the event Blog and for full results please click here. |
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