ILCA / Lasers 2024 Review part II of II
Welcome to Part II of our year in review.
After the early season action, there are new laser sailors to welcome and many might not be ready for full regional events. The ILCA Ireland competitors are now spread across all ages from Youth to great grand masters. It is a fantastic opportunity for Youths to mature in that setting, but coming directly from Oppies or Toppers, it can be intimidating. With that in mind, we looked for an intermediate competition between club racing and full regional events and the summer sprint series was born. The series gives opportunities to sail in some of Cork’s finest harbours in a very friendly atmosphere with normally a bbq to finish. In 2024, Glandore was cancelled, but the other events at Kinsale, Bantry, Iniscarra and back to Royal Cork all went ahead very well with full the five sprint races completed at all events. The winners of the series were Mike Egan in ILCA 4, Robert Jeffreys in ILCA 6 and Olin Bateman in ILCA 7 (0.5 points ahead of Sean O’Herlihy in very tight finish).
More information can be found here
ILCA Sprint Series
During the summer, we had several sailors entering International events. Eolann Miles competed in the ILCA 4 worlds in Viana and picked up more invaluable experience in large seas and light winds. A number of tough days on the shore waiting for wind. He was disappointed n overall result, but picked up important areas for improvement. When at these international events, we always ask the sailors to keep their eyes open, to watch for different ways to rig the lines, to see how the top sailors prep their boat and themselves and watch for the most effective start line techniques. Our coaches have fantastic experience on these international events and can help prepare sailors.
The European Youths at Ballyholme: End of July/Aug
Who knew that Northern Ireland gets a summer ? In dramatic fashion, the warmest stretch of weather came in to kick off the start of the ILCA 6 European Youth championships. With over two hundred and twenty sailors, the Ballyholme club was besieged, but was well able to cater for the quantity of sailors and boats.
The event was truly international with over 220 boats from all corners of the globe as you can see from this pict. There were three days scheduled for qualifying and after several weeks training in medium to strong winds during June and July, the summer decided to arrive for the start of the regatta. Temperatures in the 20s with a little fickle offshore breeze put a lot of pressure on the Irish fleet and restarts with mark moves frustrated the race committee. Day two was cancelled due to a complete lack of wind and day three did eventually start with a breeze of 5-6kts, but remaining very shifty. As a consequence, the gold fleet was full of Italian and Greek light wind sailors.
With the fleets decided, the wind decided to come back and the sailros suddenly switched to full on surfing in 20+kt breeze. Video here shows a reach to the finish line.
Best of the RCYC fleet was Andrew Kingston who was 2nd Irish sailor and finished in silver fleet. Other RCYC Sailors were Bella Waterman, Megan O’Sullivan, Michael Doherty, Sean O’Herlihy, Dara Jenkins and Shane Collins.
There was a significant Irish presence at the event and all enjoyed the week of sailing at Ballyholme YC.
The UK Nationals
The Irish Nationals @ The National YC
At Home Passage Race
There was another lrge turnout for the AtHome passage race. The ILCAs sailed from Monkstown this year as the winds were not favorable to get down from the city. It is a great experience for our ILCA 6,7 sailors who went around the spit back lighthouse as a handicap v the ILCA 4s.
Strength and Conditioning with Faye from ISA coming to Crosshaven RFC. The ILCA class is a physically demanding boat to sail and perform well and strngth and conditioning play an important role in building up sailors endurance and stamina. We invited Faye st LEger from the ISA to Cork for a session with our Youth sailors to give them an idea what to focus on in the gym. We leveraged Crosshaven RFC. Many thanks to John Coackley who organized the use of crosshaven RFC gym.
Sprint finale at Royal Cork,
October league
The October League had LRO Tim McCarthy on duty and the fleet had started regathering after a busy September. ILCA, Toppers and 420s all sailed together. Conor Lynch has showed amazing form in the laser since moving from Optimist during the summer and he powered to a win in ILCA 4. However, another recent optimist mover, Blake Vaughan has also showed some amazing form and finished a close second to Conor. Blake
Frostbites
End of Season awards.
TY Camp in Malta
We had seven Royal Cork sailors at the TY Sailcoach camp in Malta. Dara Jenkins, Eolann Miles, Sam Tanner, Shane Collins, Fionn Hayes, Alexa Creighton and Daisy Walsh headed out for two weeks of December sunshine and warm water coaching. Decent waves, varying wind all added to an excellent experience. More details on the TY camps can be found on sailcoach.com. There are a number of camps run during the year.
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