The ISA Squad in Palma Report & Results

The " trofeo ciutat de Palma" has now been  the destination of choice for young Irish sailors before the christmas break for the last number of years. The ISA squad has also chosen the event within their winter program. This year was no exception and the 16 sailors ISA squad was joined by 3 sailors to compose the largest Irish entry to date at the event joining 361 boats from Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Nederland and France.
The squad was coached by Ross Killian and Thomas Chaix whilst the other 3 joined a danish international group lead by Dennis Paaske.

After a training day in the bay sussing out the winds and getting used to the conditions, the event started under a gorgeous sunshine and 8-12 kts of breeze from the south west which provided large waves entering the bay. Sean Ganbier Ross and Conor Murphy were the fastest to show Irish numbers upfront. They were rapidely imitated by others and the day concluded with Sean Donnelly´s 6th. The joy were short lived for a few as we realised the OOD had been very sharp picking a very large number of OCS on each of the 3 races of the day. Conor saw his 11th slashed but also collected another one putting huge pressure to the rest of his event. Seafra collected two as well as Adam cancelling a few good races. By the end of the day, our leader was the consistent Daire in 50th followed by Sean Donnelly in 63rd.

The second day started well with Patrick delivering a solid race into 2nd. Daire was not far in 12th confirming his good start to the event followed by Sean Waddilove´s 17th. Peter had to retire after a gear failure putting pressure on his event as he had collected a ocs on day one. On the second race it was to be Sean Gambier Ross turn to post a solid 14th just followed by 10 year old Ronan Cournane in 15th. Cian, Daire and Conor concluded the day well inside the top 25. Daire climbed to 36th overall and Patrick made his way up to 69th.

The wind shifted North west to display very shifty and gusty conditions for the last day allowing only 2 races to be sailed. After a poor second day, Sean Donnelly came back on form to post a 7th and a 22nd. Peter found some pace and also had a good day with a 22nd and an 8th. Daire posted a second low finish he could unfortunately not discard before coming back on top with a 19th.

Overall, with 8 races sailed in 5-12 kts, shifts, waves and a great quality fleet, the sailors had many opportunities to learn and progresss and if the event was important in terms of funding, the team did well as a whole picking the valuable sport council cards (10) but more importantly the lessons learnt will help them to continue winter progress and give coaches objectives for future clinics and weekends.

Final results after 8 races (1 disc)
49th Daire Cournane
90th Patrick Crosbie
98th Sean Donnelly
107th Cian Byrne
116th Sean Gambier Ross
133rd Seafra Guilfoyle
146th Sean Waddilove
156th Peter McCann
161st Eoin (mini) Lyden
169th Ruairi Finnegan
184th Sophie Browne
186th Adam Hyland
194th Conor Murphy
200th Robert Dicksson
211th Ronan Cournane
228th Erica Ruigrok
236th Cliodhna O Regan
274th Megan Parker
293rd Philip Brownlow
/361 participants

By Thomas Chaix