Ireland's student match racers are through to the quarter finals of the University Match Racing World Championships, finishing fifth after the round robin series. The final races in the round robin are now over with some big changes in the final ranking as a result. France only needed to close out a single match and the Italians 2 from 4 in order to progress automatically but both teams failed to do so, leaving DITs finest in 5th spot and through to the quarter finals with out the need for sail off.

The two GBR teams lead the pack followed by AUS1 and Singapore. The Irish have had close races with all these teams during the first phase and should feel confident going into the knock out stages where mental toughness begins to play an increasing role.

The automatic qualification gives the team chance to get a break from the super hot afternoon sun, nurse their injuries are prepare for their racing to resume around 5-6pm. In the mean time Italy, France, Australia 2 and Greece sail off for the two remaining places in the quarters while Greece 2 and the two Polish teams pack their bags for the trip home.

Ireland's team at the World University Match Racing Championships suffered a major setback yesterday, with one of their crew members injured in race one. Richie Bruton, pitman for the Irish team, took a serious blow to his knee in the first race of seven yesterday, and had to be removed from the boat for treatment.

Shore manager Dee O'Rourke, who worked with the Delta Lloyd Volvo Ocean Race team, stepped onto the boat for the remaining races, having to get up to speed on the boat in a day of racing in up to 22 knots. O'Rourke performed admirably, but the team suffered a number of losses on the water in extremely close racing, and may still have to sail a playoff for a quarter-final slot.

Team captain Marty O'Leary described the racing yesterday:

"Next two races were against Australia womens' team and Singapore, we lost both these by the smallest of margins. We were pretty happy to be still able to put up a fight given the circumstances and it's very hard for both the super sub who had to step in half way through a world championship and be expected to be up to speed and in sync with the rest of the team, 

"In the next two races against Austrailia mens and Greece, we finally started to gel together and had two great wins where we controlled the whole race from start to finish."

"The final race was against France, and we wont he pre-start and lead at windward mark, but another gybing battle was on the cards, (these battles are literally killing us slowly!!!).

"We rounded the leeward mark neck and neck, and alot of tacks followed, far too many to count. France just got their nose ahead by the finish."

"Racing was again on until 7pm, we are the first team finished the round robin, we are on seven wins out of 12.

"The few loses today really hurt us, at this stage it is pretty close weather this is enough to bring us into the top six, but most likely into the top eight anyway, the other teams still have a few races to finish out the round robin, but it's out of our hands now."

Results are HERE (pdf download) and the round robin stages will be finished today.

Ireland's Student Match Racing team got their World Championship campaign off to a good start in Crete yesterday, with five wins from six races yesterday giving them the overall lead.

Marty O'Leary, team captain, emailed a bulletin yesterday, with team spirits sounding high.

"Racing started this morning, a little late due to sorting all the boats out, new sails were bought for the event so few small problems there, 

"We got in 8 full flights, which is 32 races, we had six races today, against, Denmark, Poland, the womens' olympic team, GBR, Italy and Greece.

"We came out mainly unscathed, with five wins out of six, which should leave us as overnight leaders, only losing to GBR on the finish line and a very exciting race were we trading penalties and lead numerous times, along with a few broaches for good measure.

"GBR won by about four or five inches in the end. The other races had their moments too.  

"[We have] another long day ahead of us tomorrow with eight more teams to race, as there are 14 different teams from 11 nations."

There is an event website HERE but little detail has been provided to date.

Update:

Results are a downloadable pdf HERE.

There's also some commentary from day one HERE. Interestingly, the website gushes about the performance of the Singaporean team.

"The most astonishing team today is Team Singapore, making no tactical mistake, but waiting until the other team which she is competing with is making the mistake. This team is sailing perfectly, everyone knows his place on the boat, we can easily see that they trained a lot, and their position in the air (which is also important) is nearly perfect, as every competitor is covering the air of the other without bringing too much resistance. They are really the best ones in sailing today."

Whatever about their 'position in the air' (gotta love that translation) their position on the scoreboard shows that they won three of their six races, two less than Ireland. 

The scoreboard also ranks teams in terms of their percentage wins. Team GBR currently lead, on 100%, but having only sailed three races to date.

The organisers of the first Ireland v the World Match Racing Invitational have come up with some innovative spectator packages for what promises to be a hard-fought event in Scotsmans Bay, Dun Laoghaire. Spectators can pay to 'hotseat' aboard the boats as they race, watching the action from right beside the skipper.

 

The blurb says: "An exciting part of the entertainment package will allow individuals to actually experience the racing as it happens by sailing on board with a team in the ‘hot seat’ position. When in the ‘hot seat’, the individual will experiencethe thrills and tension of the race as it happens along with the competitors. This will provide a really memorable and authentic experience for your guests.

"The event takes place over the same weekend as the DunLaoghaire festival of World Cultures so your guests will get a great view of the festival from the water and Dun Laoghaire will be buzzing."

There are 16 Hotseat options open on the Saturday only, as the races will be in the round robin stages. For €200, spectators will be treated to a lunch in the club, a full briefing and a trip around Dublin Bay before jumping into the hot seat for their race at 1500hrs, followed by a BBQ and drinks after.

Other spectator packages, for €100, provide the lunch and BBQ option, and allow the spectator the honour of firing off the starter's gun to set the racers off.

 

For more information or to book the packages or any combina-tion of the Spectator packages detailed below, please contactJohn Sheehy on 086 8053775  or log on to www.matchracing.ie/challenge

 

Marty O'Leary’s well-oiled machine convincingly won the first Trial for one of  the last two spots on the Irish Team for the upcoming International Match Racing  Challenge.

O’Leary beat Stefan Hyde’s team two nil in the best of three sail off.

This was a good warm up for Marty and crew who will represent Ireland next  week in the World Student Match Racing Championships on behalf of their  University, Dublin Institute of Technology.

Racing in Scotsman’s Bay in an oscillating breeze of 10 – 15 knots, O’Leary  won both starts and sailed cleanly from there to win both races.  The first  race was decided in the last 30 seconds of the pre-start when some good crew  work from the DIT team allowed them to block Stefan Hyde out past the Committee Boat.

The first beat saw some frantic tacking by Hyde and crew but the slick crew  work from the student team if anything allowed them to pull further ahead and  win the race by delta 50 seconds.

The second race was a much closer affair, with a fired up Hyde almost  succeeding in pushing his younger rivals over the start line.  The two crews  then sailed on starboard up to the port layline which allowed Hyde’s team to  stay close. However, another good hoist from the DIT crew ensured that there  would be no passing lane for Hyde. Despite the gap closing to two lengths  at the first leeward mark, O’Leary went on to win by delta 40 seconds.

The second trial for the final spot on the Irish team will take place next  Monday evening where skippers Mary O’Loughlin, Martin Mahon and Graham Elmes  will fight it out for the coveted space.

The International Match Race Challenge will take place on the weekend of  24th – 25th July 2010 in Scotman’s Bay, Dun Laoghaire.

Six Irish teams captained by Irish No. 1 John Sheehy will take on six teams  from around the World captained by World No.2 Mirsky Racing.  Live commentary  will be provided on VHF over the weekend.

July will see three significant milestones and firsts in Irish match racing. The month starts with the first Irish team to enter the World University Match Racing Championships in Crete on the 5-11th.

On the 20-26th a team from Howth Yacht Club will take on the under 21s Governers Cup in Newport Beach, California.

The Royal St George Yacht Club will then run the first Ireland vs The World match between six Irish and six International teams on the 24th and 25th.

The World University Match Racing Championships is now in its fifth year, attracting teams from all well-established European match racing countries and the USA and Singapore. The Irish Universities Sailing Association is sending a team based around the DIT team that dominated this winter team racing and won the IUSA Student Match Racing Championships. Marty O’Leary will skipper the team with Simon Rattigan at sheet hand, Richard Bruton at Pit & Trim and Teddy Byrne on the bow. The team have had access to Flor O’Driscoll's J24 in the run up to the event and took part in the Leinster Match Racing Open, placing fourth.

In its 44th year the under-21 Governors Cup is run by Balboa Yacht Club and is seen a major indicator of up and coming keelboat talent. Previous winners include the likes of Terry Hutchinson and the keelboat development programs in the US, Britain, Australia and New Zealand all send teams. Currently in New Zealand attending the Royal New Zealand Yacht Club Sailing Academy, Ryan Scott has entered the event under the burgee of Howth Yacht Club. Codie Banks and Daniel Pooley make up the rest of the team.

As this will be the first time that Irish teams have attended these events it’s difficult to gauge how well they will do. As these are certainly events that Irish teams will do again in future bringing home the experience and what it will take to succeed in future will be as important as the result.

Coinciding with the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures the Ireland vs The World international sailing challenge will be the flagship event of the Irish match racing calendar. World Number Two, Misrky Racing, will captain an international side made up of teams from France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, England and Gurnsey. The Irish team will be captained by Irish Number One John Sheehy and will be made up of three teams from the Irish Match Racing Tour and three from qualifying events to be held over the next week.

The two sides look well balanced and at this stage it is anyone's guess who will win.

The Weir & Sons Leinster Match Racing Open, to be hosted by the Royal Irish Yacht Club on June 12th and 13th, looks like it will see a real influx of talent from the college team racing scene. Rick Morris caught up with Marty O’Leary.

 

IUSA Student Match Racing Champ, captain of the dominant DIT team on the student team racing circuit, on the winning team at the ITRAs and quarters at UKTRA and the Wilson. That’s some year already before the rest of us have got the boat in the water. I know you’re a pretty laid back guy but you must be pretty happy?

 

Ah yeah, fairly happy alright, I have been very lucky with the standard of sailors that I have been able to race with, both with DIT and the George team. The IUSA circuit is also brilliant craic, doesn’t matter if your winning or losing, there is 200 - 250 students competing in each event, with them kind of figure you cant go wrong.

 

The Royal St. George has great ties with West Kirby Sailing club too, which has helped us greatly, as we have been able to train and compete in both the Wilson and the UKTRA's which were held in West Kirby.

 

DITs support towards sailing has also been great awarding 4 or 5 sports scholarships last year alone to the Sailing club and lots of funding and support on top of this too.

 

We’re pretty keen to have people coming out of team racing and into match racing in their early to mid 20s. Aiden McLaverty did the Dublin Open and should stay on Tour and now you are having a crack at the World University Match Racing Champs and entering the Match Racing Tour for the Leinster Open. How can we help make the link between the two disciplines seamless?

 

Yeah its good to see Students entering it as helms, a lot of the crews are made up of students who regularly team race. DIT are sending us over to compete in the Word University match Racing Champs in Crete in July, so it would be mad not to go. The Leinsters will be used to get some training in and learn as much as we can.

 

As it is now, you have John Sheehy, Nick Smith, Andrew Fowler, Conal Cassey, Graham Elms and a few others all on the Tour regularly; these have all done a lot of team racing. The problem isn’t to do with ability. Maybe some lower grade events should be run, grade four or five that teams can progress together just like the above teams did last year. It can be very hard to enter the Tour when everyone is that much further ahead of you already.

 

That looks to be something the clubs with access to the J80s are starting to do. Lough Derg has the Portroe Cup, the Irish are talking about a similar event and there will be an evening of match racing at Howth later this month. May be you’ll see some space open up on the Tour as the better teams move on to do more grade 3 events here and abroad too. Cost is the other thing we need to keep working on. It sounds like things are getting interesting with the development of team racing too. Munster has a really strong thing going on through the schools. Tell us what’s going on at the George?

 

There is alot of team racing going on during the summer in the George, Tuesday night leagues where you just arrive with ur crew and are assigned a team for the night should be up and running again last year after having around 20 full crews each week last year.

 

Oppies are doing some 4 boat team racing too most likely on Wednesdays coached by myself and a few of the other older team racers. We also ran a 2 week team racing course last year in that was a uge success so maybe that will be repeated again.

 

And we hope the get the George Invitational back up and running, this was the Irish Version of the Wilson Trophy, maybe not as big as the Wilson is now, but same idea, with many teams coming overseas to compete in it, so hopefully we will get that up and running again.

 

 

Confirmation has been received from  Dun Laoghaire Harbour  that the Irish Match Racing has the green light to hold the Weir & Sons Leinster Match Racing Open in side Dun Laoghaire harbour. So with plenty of wind shifts to contend with and a constrained starting area it’s likely that racing will be extremely tight with plenty of boat on boat action.

Arrangements are still being made for a live PA commentary. After the grand job he did with the Howth Club Champion of Champions event we are hoping Noal Davidson will come down to MC and do a live Internet feed of the event. The hope is to beam this back to the Royal Irish with racing shown on big screens in the bar all day. Together with a pig roast on the Saturday evening there should be some buzz around the club.

Weir & Sons of Grafton Street have kindly agreed to provide prizes. We’re not sure that they will quite stretch to the Rolex we asked for but having this kind of support for the event does mean that we can properly recognise the contribution of all the sailors to the success of their teams. North Sails Ireland will still be absent from the Leinsters and a clash with the SB3 Northern means that MadMatch Racing will away. How ever John Sheehy and the Royal St George machine will be back in action and no doubt eager to reassert their authority after Team Lazarus moved to the top of the Tour rankings following the Investwise Dublin Match Racing Open.

UK National Youth Champions Team Echo Racing will also be back for another crack as will Casey Racing, Cross Community Alliance, Mahon Racing and Team O’Loughlin. Alex Barry returns to the 2010 Tour for the first time since a strong 3rd place showing at last years Leinsters and it will be interesting to see how he goes but the real interest is in how the two teams coming from this years all conquering George Gladiators team racing team will fair.

Marty O’Leary and Sam Hunt have had a tremendous start to 2010, taking the National team racing title and placing strongly at the UK championships and the Wilson Trophy. The Leinsters will not only see them pitted against each other but also against the skipper who’s team they where part of on the 2009 Tour, none other than John Sheehy.

John Sheehy remains Ireland's top-ranked match racer, jumping twelve slots in the international rankings to 73rd in the world. Closing the gap considerably, clubmate Andrew Fowler's win in the most recent Investec Dublin Match Racing Open takes him 55 places higher to 164th, with North Sails helm Maurice O'Connell moving from 285th in the world to number 190, a jump of 95 ranking places.

The Irish rankings can be seen in full here.