How the Oppie sailors got on in the Topper worlds

With the topper worlds held in Tralee, location of the next oppy nationals, a few of ours decided to try the TBSC waters testing how well they could transfer onto a more powerful boat for 2 weeks.

Following the example of Erica Ruigrok, Patrick Daly, Ali Dix, Eoin Keller, Michael Magowan, Eoghan Cudmore, Conor Lyden, Jonathan Connor and the youngest sailor of the fleet Daire Cournane borrowed, bought or chartered toppers, put a minimum training and lined up in the 176 sailors fleet.

If it was a watch and learn situation from the top sailors in the breeze, our "oppies" surely did not go un-noticed with Ali, Eoghan, Conor and Eoin securing a gold fleet finish and Daire ending a superb championship by a 4th in the silver. The event was full of surprises with Ali holding on to a bronze medal in the ladies for 3 days despite a growing pain in her ankles. She will remember these amazing gains on the breezy runs of day 4! Eoghan entered the event with a superb 9th and Conor gave us some great starts! The star of the show was however surely Daire posting a 40th on the last race of the qualifying series in 15-18 kts of wind. That was only the beginning as he posted a 35th in wind in excess of 20 kts for the first race in the silver before being forced to retire with gear failure... And came the 4th in lighter air!

Most importantly, it was a great learning experience and all the sailors enjoyed the event afloat and ashore.

Overall, 176 entries

Female, 65 entries

5th Ali Dix (3rd junior)

45th Erica Ruigrok

U12, 13 entries

6th Daire Cournane (also youngest sailor)

7th Erica Ruigrok

10th Jonathan Connor