The U12 squad on fire at the Optimist UK nationals

With morning updates from the Olympics each day, the Optimist U12 felt inspired by Ger and Phil's exploit in the 470 and had an impressive championship in Pwehli in Wales.

The UK nationals in gaining in strengh year after year with a record 162 entries from 7 different countries (GBR, IRL, NED, USA, UAE, AHO and MLT) in the junior fleet. Team Ireland was composed by 20 sailors aged from 10 to 12 and coached by the ISA optimist national coach Thomas Chaix and IODAI coaches John White and Fionn Jenkinsson.

After 3 days training in Lough Derg for what was an superb weekend creating the necessery sparks in the group, it was a true team that travelled to Wales following the 15 oppies trailer driven accross by the coaches.

Pwehli offered a 12 races event and despite the rain and early worries about the strong winds and the possibility of loosing races .

The Irish squad started slowly under the lead of Seafra Guilfoyle scoring a 4th in a very windy initial race. A few capsizes costed early valuable points. The second racing day offered the first great smile on the coaches face with a clean 2nd (Seafra), 3rd (peter McCann) and 4th (Rurai Finnegan) in the second start which had followed a 6th ( Patrick Crosbie) in the previous start. This was only the beginning of a long serie of top 10 coming from 8 different sailors from the squad. We had to wait for the second last day to record our first race win with Rurai Finnegan  taking the second race of the day confortably before Philip Brownlow squeezed a second one at the last second in a superb tack on the finish line of the last race of the day.

In the sub ranks, 11 year old Sophie Browne Consistency was rewarded by a 7th place in the girls (out of 40 entries). Peter McCann was second 11 year old in 15th overall and Daire Cournane was 3rd 10 year old in 38th overall showing encouraging promisses for next year in Largs (Scotland).

With 4 sailors in the top 15, it is one of the strongest result for an U12 squad. Furthermore, every single one of these young sailors represented Ireland with pride and made a great name for themselves with superb spirit in Pwehli and we can only look forward to follow their futur progress.

Results (162 entries/ 2 starts of 81 sailors)

8th     Seafra Guilfoyle, RCYC, 50 points, 4, 2, 7, 10, 6, 13, 3, 6, 6, 4, 2, ocs

11th   Rurai Finnegan, WHSC, 76 points, 27, 4, 9, 8, 32, 12, 4, 8, 5, 1, 17, 8

14th   Patrick Crosbie, RCYC, 87 points, 17, 6, 6, 5, 11, 9, 13, 13, 11, 10, 19, 3

15th   Peter McCann, RCYC, 88 points, 18, 3, 15, 7, 8, 4, 10, 10, 16, 8, 15, 8

23rd   Cian Byrne, RCYC, 121 points, 10, 22, 11, 6, ocs, 16, 6, 15, 10, 21, 12, 14

28th   Philip Brownlow, RCYC, 149 points, 15, 10, 3, 3, 25, ocs, 27, 44, 10, 27, 1, 28

38th   Daire Cournane, KYC, 187 points, 42, 20, 16, 20, 17, 10, 8, 14, 16, 24, 50, ocs

44th   Conor Murphy, KYC, 225 points, 33, 13, 22, 13, 19, 33, 47, 33, 24, 28, 15, 25

54th   Sophie Browne, TBSC, 266 points, 43, 31, 30, 17, 38, 41, 20, 49, 20, 26, 20, 23

55th   Craig Campbell, RNIYC, 280 points, 23, 42, ocs, 12, 18, 48, 32, 26, 53, 22, 61, 4

64th   Jack Brien, RNIYC, 318 points, 43, 23, 38, 24, ocs, 45, 17, 54, 22, 41, 76, 11

66th   Louise Magowan, TBSC, 320 points, 38, 41, 38, 40, 29, 51, 21, 55, 33, 17, 12, 69

67th   Erica Ruigrok, RSC/HYC, 321 points, 26, 39, 49, 33, 40, 12, 14, 30, 47, 32, 61, 48

68th   Cliodhna O'Regan, KYC, 332 points, 35, 69, 35, 34, ocs, 24, 40, 19, 55, 25, 25, 40

73rd   Robert Ferris,  HYC, 337 points, dnf, 39, 18, 30, 27, 36, 25, 58, 49, 49, 45, 19

76th   Mark Bolger, RstGYC, 346 points, 28, 51, 33, 45, 34, 27, 48, 15, 35, 59, 36, 45

82nd  Sean Gambier Ross, 364 points, dnf, 21, 46, 29, ocs, 19, 58, 59, 48, 39, 19, 26

95th   Fergus Flood, HYC, 413 points, 28, 55, 43, 36, 35, 57, 30, 45, 61, 42, 59, 42

109th Sandy Aplin, RstGYC, 485 points, dnf, 48, 60, 65, 53, 13, 57, 50, 14, 60, 65, 75

115th Alex Delamer, HYC, 498 points, dnf, 47, 42, 49, 35, 58, 59, 64, 69, 53, 42, 49

A number of seniors (aged 13-15) also made the journey to Wales to race the 147 entries fleet (8 countries: GBR, IRL, SRI, USA, HKG, MLT, NED, BEL) . Alex Rumball was the top Irish in 13th just ahead of Colm O'Regan (15th). Jamie Aplin was 29th followed by Tara Flood (45th), Holly Cambell (63rd), Fiona Daly (69th), Guy Aplin (77th), Xander Morisson (78th), Chloe Crosbie (84th), Chris Phelan (87th), Aodh Kennedy (91st despite winning the second race), Katherine Geoghegan (95th), Leo Hickey (102nd), Michael Magowan (113th) and Lucy Bolger (117th).

Full results on http://www.kbsuk.com/Optimist/IOCAEvents/index.asp?EventID=10