Racing for a huge trophy sponsored by the Estonian Consulate in Denmark Ireland's Sophie Browne has won the Consul cup after an intense period of practice at an  international Sailfast training clinic.

The 2012 Consul Cup was dominated by girls occupying the first seven places overall. Tralee Sailing Club's Browne seemed to have an extra gear throughout the three days of racing, scoring a total of 10 points out of six races before she could lift the massive trophy. The trophy was presented by the Estonian Consul of Denmark, Mr. Thomas Graversen.

Runner up was Lærke Graversen who won a tie with Cille Smedegaard who ended up third. 

Browne of both Tralee Bay and Royal Cork became the Afloat.ie/Irish Independent "Sailor of the Month" for January after taking the Silver Medal in the Girls Division in the Optimist Worlds in New Zealand. She added it to the Gold in the Girls, and fourth overall, which she won from an enormous fleet in the last major European regatta of 2011, at Palma, Mallorca in December.

#KERRY SAILING – Tralee Bay Sailing Club will honour Sophie Browne's dinghy sailing exploits at its Fenit clubhouse in County Kerry on March 16th.

The special TBSC Supper Party will kick start the 2012 sailing season and the New Zealand exploits of 14-year-old Sophie Browne at this year's Optimist dinghy world championships will be recounted.

Browne finished ninth overall and was rewarded a home with the January Sailor of the Month Award.

According to commodore Jacqui Browne many TBSC members would not have been in touch with the club since sailing ended last year, so this is a wonderful opportunity for Oppy sailors, dinghy sailors, keelboat sailors, crew members, friends and family to come along and meet up and have a chat about the upcoming events organised in this years sailing calendar.

There will be a cold buffet served on the night as well as a slideshow.

#SAILOR OF THE MONTH – Sophie Browne of Tralee Bay and Royal Cork is Afloat.ie/Irish Independent "Sailor of the Month" for January after taking the Silver Medal in the Girls Division in the Optimist Worlds in New Zealand. She added it to the Gold in the Girls, and fourth overall, which she won from an enormous fleet in the last major European regatta of 2011, at Palma, Mallorca in December.

Sophie in action abroad in Palma (top) and at home

 

It's some going when you're just fourteen. Sophie is back at school now, trying to make up for lost study time. But if she gives it the same total dedication she put into each sailing campaign during recent years, she'll sail into a good leaving cert in due course.

Dedication is the name of the game, and the Browne family in Tralee are a byword for it. Normally, the adjudicators for the Sailor of the Month are very reluctant to make the award to the most junior helms. They grow up so quickly, there's something ephemeral about it all.

But even at only fourteen, there's nothing ephemeral about Sophie's success. Other kids may think too much about the glitzy side of championships, but Sophie Browne is well aware of the sheer hard work and unglamorous dedication which goes into that podium place.

After the big regatta in Palma in December, the European Optimist squad went out to New Zealand with high hopes. But the pre-Worlds and the Worlds were salutary experiences. Thoughtful observers were well aware of the rising talents of southeast Asia, and South America too, as well as New Zealand and Australia, but for most it was a daunting learning experience.

It's Singapore which is most clearly setting the pace. Kimberly Lim from the vibrant city-state was both top girl, and the new world champion. Sophie Browne was second in the girls, but was back in 13th overall. Yet she was still one of the best of the Europeans – the top British sailor, for instance, was back in 21st.

It's the first time a 14–year old helm has taken the monthly sailor title. We've had younger sailors sharing a title as crews on a Mirror dinghy, but this is the first driver. And we're certain sure it won't be the last we'll hear of Sophie Browne of Tralee Bay in international sailing.

#optiworldsnz – Tralee's Sophie Browne got no chance to improve on her 13th overall when the last race of the Optimist World Championships in New Zealand was abandoned yesterday due to lack of wind. The only Irish competitor in the 208-boat competition has impressed all week with a plucky performance that kept her inside the top ten of the world's toughest youth fleet until the penultimate day, when she dropped from ninth to 13th.

Although finishing 13th overall, she was second girl overall which earns her the girl's silver medal.

The result is being hailed as a major success by her club Tralee Bay Sailing Club, the first time Ireland has faced world championship competition for over four years. During the week Irish support for Sophie came from all over the world including her club mate, the offshore sailing star Damian Foxall currently racing in the Volvo Ocean Race onboard Team Groupama.

The 2011 World Champion Optimist Dinghy Sailing is Kimberly Lim from Singapore.

The Delta Flag was raised at 10.41, meaning that racing would start at 11.41. It didn't take the 210 sailors long at all to get out onto the water. The wind was very mild, around 10 knots, but the sun came back out again.

Protests from yesterday's racing had been processed and when the updated provisional results were published, there was a change on the leadership board. Ryan Lo had to give up his third position to Javier Arribas who was previously fourth.

The first fleet started the race at 1208, but all reaces were abandoned at 1308. The wind was too light for the strong current and sailors were not able to make progress around the course. At 1350 the Race Committee decided to start race 12 again, but at 1427 the very hard call was made to abandon all races for the day which means that the World Championships are over.

The provisional leader board (for the individual racing) after 11 races shows: 1 Kimberly Lim (SIN) 70 points, 2 Bart Lambriex (NED) 74 points, 3 Javier Arribas (PER) 77 points, 4 Ryan Lo (SIN) 78 points, 5 Francisco Ducasse (CHI) 87 points, 6 Ahmad Syukri Abdul Aziz (MAS) 90 points, 7 Wade Waddell (USA) 96 points, 8 Gabriel Elstrodt (BRA) 109 points, 9 Rodrigo Luz (BRA) 112 points, 10 Leonard Takahashi-Fry (NZL) 114 points.

All our coverage of the Oppy worlds in New Zealand here

#oppiewordsnz – A 14th and a 42nd scored in the penultimate rounds of the Optimist worlds today drop Ireland's Sophie Browne from ninth to 13th overall. Browne needs to move up ten points with a single day's racing left to sail in Napier, New Zealand tomorrow to secure a much sought after top ten result overall. Ireland's only contender at the world's top junior championships is the second placed girl overall in the 208–boat fleet, a magnificant performance for the Tralee 14year–old.

The Optimist World Championships saw wind, rain, fog and therefore poor visibility yesterday. It wasn't until 1350 that the decision was made for the competitors to go out on the water. The wind was 18 knots, it was still raining, and the swells were 2 metres high, but the event organisers were determined to complete three races.

Sophie started out with a solid performance and a fourth place. She continued to sail well and finished 14th in her second race but then slipped back in the third race ultimately finishing 42nd which resulted in her dropping to 13th overall on the leader board.

#optiworldsnz – Support from home including Volvo Ocean Race sailor Damian Foxall urged Sophie Browne back in to the top ten of the Optimist World Championships at Napier, New Zealand today. The 14 year old from Tralee maintained her position at the top of the leader board in one of the world's toughest youth sailing class against a fleet of 208 competitors drawn from 48 countries.

Day four saw racing resume for the 210 boat fleet following a lay day yesterday, and two races were successfully completed. Sophie placed 31st and 5th which, allowing for a discard, which means the Kerry sailor now climbs six places to ninth overall.

Support at home has been building throughout the week and last night from his base in Abu Dhabi Ireland's top offshore sailor Damian Foxall from Team Groupama added his support on afloat.ie 

"Hi Sophie, Well done, great to see you are still forging ahead. Good luck for the rest. Maybe see you in Galway, hi to all the family" the Groupama crew boss wrote last night on this site.

Browne is the sole representative for Ireland at the Championships with racing having begun on New Year's Day.

The 210 competitors from 48 countries have been divided into six groups resulting in three fleets per race and a spectacle on the start line with seventy boats per race. Light winds have unfortunately hindered some racing with only one successful race being completed on both Day 1 and Day 3 however four successful races on Day 2 and two on Day 4 (today) tally an overall of eight solid results for Sophie, allowing for one discard. Sophie has maintained her position at the top of the leader board with all seven of her results in the top 20, three of which in the top 5. She is currently 9th overall with racing continuing until Monday the 9th.

It was busy at the breakfast table this morning with sailors keen to get back onto the water after a day of sight seeing.

Sailors went onto the water at the scheduled time to start the first race at 1025, but with winds between 1 and 4 knots, there was not much sailing.

"We made the call to send the sailors back to shore at 1245" according to Gerald Martin, Principle Race Officer. "No racing had been done, and it didn't look like anything was going to happen any time soon as there was hardly any wind" Mr Martin continues.

Sailors were called back onto the water by 1310, but it wasn't until 1535 before the first race of the day started. The leader board changed after the seventh race: Ryan Lo who held the first position was disqualified from race 7 and dropped to place 7. Bart Lambriex from the Netherlands who finished second in race 7 took over the leadership position.

Wind increased to 8 knots by the time the eight race started, and the race committee managed to do all three fleets. It was a long day for the sailors with many headed back to shore just before 1900.

Bart Lambriex finished 15th in the eight and last race but managed to keep his prime position om the overall scores, followed by Ahmad Syukri Abdul Aziz from Malaysia with Javier Arribas solid in place three. The first female sailor is Kimberly Lim from Singapore on place four.

Whether there will be any sailing tomorrow depends entirely on the weather. The weather prediction at 2200 are very strong winds: up to 31 knots, heavy rain: 13.9 mm/hr and very high swells. We expect the Race Committee to make a call first thing tomorrow morning.

The provisional leader board (for the individual racing) after 8 races shows: 1 Bart Lambriex (NED) 40 points, 2 Ahmad Syukri Abdul Aziz (MAS) 48 points, 3 Javier Arribas (PER) 48 points, 4 Kimberly Lim (SIN) 59 points, 5 Miel Verstraete (BEL) 61 points, 6 Ryan Lo (SIN) 68 points, 7 Leonard Takahashi-Fry (NZL) 68 points, 8 Maria Vittoria Marchesini (ITA) 70 points, 9 Sophie Browne (IRL) 73 points, 10 Rodrigo Luz (BRA) 78 points.

#optiworldsnz – After three days of individual racing the focus changed at the OptiWorlds today with the first day of team racing seeing 40 national teams sail in warm sun and light airs but for Ireland's Sophie Browne, the sole Irish competitor in Napier, it is time for a break from racing, she is next back on the water on Saturday for race seven.

"Each team has four sailors so some countries were excluded from today's racing" according to Pete Dawson Chairman of OptiWorldsNZ.

Team racing allows sailors to enjoy the short tactical duels, each team sails at least two races. Then the losing team is knocked out of the competition. When not racing, the sailors are rafted up and eating with their team mates, often from other countries.

There was also a strong contingent of shore based supporters including their national flags as the sailing took place within 100 meters of the beach with commentaries provided and ice creams close at hand.

At the end of the first days' racing a heat between China and Spain remains to be sailed with the following teams progressing through to the second days racing: USA, Peru, Malaysia, Sweden, Norway, Brazil, Croatia, Singapore, Thailand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Argentina and Poland. Tomorrow's racing will see 16 teams contest the competition, with New Zealand knocked out of the competition by Spain today.

"Team racing is all about tactics with the aim to ensure that your whole team (4 boats) incurring the lowest number of points" says Mr Dawson.  "Each race is a knock out duel with the losing team being eliminated from the competition".

As a consequence it makes an ideal spectacle for the public to enjoy as the races are of a short duration and the results are immediate.  There is even a race score board on the beach for the public to see who is winning and with cool drinks and ice creams close at hand, who can resist?

Racing conditions for tomorrow are predicting another warm day with northwest breezes.  Racing starts at 10.00am. Friday is a Lay Day and the individual racing continues with race 7 on Saturday.

The provisional leader board (for the individual racing) shows: 1 Ryan Lo (SIN) 14 points, 2 Bart Lambriex (NED) 23 points, 3 Javier Arribas (PER) 25 points, 4 Wade Waddell (USA) 32 points, 5 Leonard Takahashi-Fry (NZL) 33 points, 6 Peter Lin Janezic (SLO) 40 points, 7 Philip Meijer (NED) 41 points, 8 Ahmad Syukri Abdul Aziz (MAS) 41, 9 William Marshall (USA) 44 points, 10 Miel Verstraete (BEL) 44 points.

#OPTI – Ireland's Sophie Browne stayed on course for a top result at the Optimist World championship in New Zealand yesterday counting four more top 20 results in the 210–boat feet to be plced  seventh overall after five races sailed.

The young sailors race in six groups so even after five races there are still a lot of ties and uncertainties but there is no doubting the performance of Browne so far.

Her father Donal who travelled with her to New Zeland sent us this message this morning:

"Sophie is going very well and she is keeping very cool, conservative, playing it straight up the fairway, playing the percentages and trying to control some of the very serious oposition. It is early days in a long regatta and its just another day at the office! Sophie is really enjoying the kiwi experience here in Napier"

The sole Irish competitor is now on equal points with sixth overall. The Tralee Bay sailor counts a very consistent set of scores of 4,12, 17, 5 and 14, and only 29 points off first place on the nation leaderboard currently held by Holland's Bart Lambriex.

You could hear a sigh of relief when all 210 competitors got up this morning: the sun was out, and there was a bit of a breeze. During the day, the wind changed and the clouds came back in, but at least the rain held off.

The race committee decided early on to try and get four races completed today in order to catch up with yesterday's delays and abandonment of the second race.

First race started at 10.25am with only 6 knots breeze. Later in the day, the wind got up to 20 knots, but was not staying around for long. A few of the flights had to be abandoned, but overall the race committee is pleased to have called four races for each of the three fleets.

Provisional results after five races show Bart Lambriex from the Netherlands placed first, Wade Waddell from the USA is placed second and Philip Meijer also from the Netherlands is placed third.

Ryan Lo who was in second place yesterday, holds the fourth position.

Best New Zealand sailor is Leonard Takahasi-Fry, who is now in sixth position, climbing from 23rd yesterday.

It was a long but very good day for sailing. Sailors left the harbour at 9.30am to start the first race at 10.25am and returned around 5pm.

The weather for tomorrow is promising to be fine with southerlies dying out, with wind speed around 12 knots. The lighter winds are usually favourable for the lighter sailors, and this competition isn't over yet. The Optimist World Championship finishes on January 9th.

All our coverage of Sophie Browne at the Optimist World Champs here

#OPTIWORLDS–  Sophie Browne – Sailing

• Sails from Tralee Bay Sailing Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club.

• Started sailing at 5 years of age.

• Sailing on the Optimist circuit in Ireland for a number of years.

• Has sailed a full winter training programme as well as all of the regional events in Ireland, the British National Championships and the Irish National Championships for the past few years. Travels approximately 2 hours to the Royal Cork Yacht Club on a regular basis for coaching and training for different events.

• Has been working very hard at her sailing programme with her coaches over the past couple of years and has been selected for the Irish Sailing Association National Optimist Squad 2009/10 and 2010/2011.

• Winter Training & ISA Optimist Programme 2010 / 2011 - Fastnet Marine Outdoor Education Centre, Schull in West Cork.

• Has participated at the Irish National Championships seven times.

• Has participated at the British National Championships for four years, 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010.

• Reprensented Ireland at European Championships 2010 Poland, which placed Sophie in the top third of the fleet.

• Irish Team - the European Team Racing Championships at Lake Ledro in Italy in August 2010 placed 6th overall.

• Placed 1st Junior Irish girl and 8th overall at the Irish National Championships 2009.

• Placed 1st Senior girl and 8th overall at the Irish National Championships 2010.

• ISA National Squad 2009/10 & ISA National Squad 2010/11.

• Winner Team (Denmark) 2010/2011

• ZHIK Ascender Team 2010/2011.

• In 2011 Sophie is ranked 1st Senior Optimist sailor in Ireland.

• Placed 1st at the Irish Optimist Team Trials to select Irish Team to represent Ireland at the World Championships 2011 at Napier, New Zealand.

• Placed 1st at the Connacht Championships 2011.

• Placed 1st at the Munster Championships 2011.

• Placed 5th at the Ulster Championships 2011.

• Placed 14th at the Leinster Championships 2011.

• Placed 1st Senior girl and 2nd overall at the Irish National Championships 2011 (9 top ten results in 12 races).

• Placed 1st Senior girl and 7th overall out of 450 boats at the French Open National Championships, Coupe International d'Ete Optimist 2011, Plerin, France.

• ISA Junior & Girls All Ireland Sailing Championships 2011 invitee.

• Participated German National Optimist Championships 2011, Kiel, Germany August 2011. Placed 56 overall out of 500 boats, with 5 top ten results out of 9 races.

• Represented Team Ireland at Major International Regattas with between 500- 1000 of the top sailors from all over Europe competing such as :

Regatta Ciutat de Palma 2009.

Regatta Ciutat de Palma 2010.

Regatta Ciutat de Palma 2011. 4th overall -6 top ten results in 9 races.

Lake Garda Meeting, Italy, Easter 2009.

International Regatta Club Nautico de Vigo 2009

Easter Regatta at Braassemermeer, Holland 2010.

Lake Garda Meeting, Italy, Easter 2011.

Monaco Optimist Team Racing 2010.

Monaco Optimist Team Racing 2011 – Bronze medal.

International Pre- Worlds Clinic, Lanzarote 2011.

Sophie is now planning her sailing programme for the remainder of the Season 2011, which will include a coaching and training programme and travel to a number of International events Regatta Ciutat de Palma 2011 & International Pre- Worlds Clinic, Lanzarote 2011 leading up to her participation in the World Championships 2011 at Napier, New Zealand.

#OPTIWORLDS – Tralee's Sophie Browne is in the top ten of the Optimist World Championships in New Zealand after yesterday's first race of the event. The sole Irish competitor produced a top opening result in her blue division of the massive 210–boat fleet and shares ninth on the nation leaderboard with Slovakia's Toni Vrscaj and Thailand's Sarawut Phetsiri.

The Kerry 14–year–old has already completed the pre-worlds event in Napier proving her boat speed at the worlds venue with a credible 21st place overall.

14-year-old Sophie Browne sailing for Ireland in New Zealand. Photo: Brian Carlin

After delays caused by concerns about competitor seeding and light winds, the competitors were led out of the harbour by the Maori waka Nga Tukemata O Kahungunu for the first days racing. This provided a great spectacle to onlookers and followed on from the great feedback received from competitors and supporters following last nights' official welcome and competition opening ceremony.

210 competitors from 48 countries are divided into 6 groups resulting in three fleets per race and a spectacle on the start line with seventy boats per race.  With a light breeze of 7 knots moving around during the afternoon, the first race started at 14.48 (2.48pm) with all three flights getting away for the first race.  A light breeze stayed in throughout the first races with provisional results showing three Singaporean sailors (Jillian Lee Sook Ying, Ryan Lo Jun Han, Elisa Yukie Yokoyama) being tied for first place after the initial races.

There is an intriguing race tracker of Browne's performance here

The results sheet from Napier showing Ireland's top result from Sophie Browne

Singaporean Sailor Jillian Lee Sook Ying, established a commanding lead during her first race.

The first kiwi sailor is Leonard Takahashi-Fry who is placed 23rd after the first race with other New Zealand sailors being Isaac McHardie 37th, Markus Sommerville 40th, William McKenzie 70th and Nathaniel Deverell 76th.

Two of the three second races were started but at 16.48 (4.48pm) racing was cancelled and competitors returned to shore due to a dying breeze and significant swings in wind direction.

The weather for tomorrow is expected to deliver southerly breezes starting at 12 knots and building during the day. The first races are scheduled to start at 10.25am tomorrow.