The National Yacht Club's Mark Lyttle stays second going into the final two races of the 2022 ILCA 7/Laser Grand Masters World Championships in Mexico.

Canadian Allan Clark won the first race of the day – as a typical ILCA 6 sailor, the lighter wind suited him. The fleet’s leader of the week, Australian Brett Beyer, won the second race and continues to hold first overall. Ireland’s Mark Lyttle still sits in second and Spain’s Jose Maria Van Der Ploeg in third.  

Two final races are scheduled for Tuesday.

For full results, see here

The National Yacht Club's Finn Lynch kept the defence of his 2021 silver medal very much alive when he added a fourth place on Tuesday to be in the top ten overall of the ILCA7/Laser World Championships in Mexico.

Lying eighth overall with one day of the qualification round remaining, consistent Lynch had a 13th place in the second race of the day, his worst of the series so far at Puerto Vallarta. 

Unfortunately, Howth Yacht Club's Ewan McMahon's 'problem with his ankles' continues to limit his ability to hike his dinghy. He finished 45th and 41st places leaving him outside of contention for Gold fleet.

Howth Yacht Club's Ewan McMahon is continuing to race while battling an ankle problem. Photo: John Pounder/Vallarta Yacht Club

French sailor Jean-Baptiste Bernaz currently leads the championship overall while Tokyo 2020 Gold medallist Matt Wearn from Australia sailed ashore prior to Monday's race and is out of the competition due to illness.

Results are here

The Laser or ILCA7 is the Men's single-handed event for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Qualification for the Marseille regatta in just over two years' time will be at next year's combined Sailing World Championships in The Netherlands with another opportunity at the 2024 worlds.

Finn Lynch will seek to repeat or better his 2021 World Championships silver medal in Monday's first races of the ILCA7/Laser World Championships at Riviera Nayarit, Mexico, in a fleet of 125 sailors from 45 nations.

Lynch (26) and second Irish Paris 2024 campaigner Ewan McMahon (21), along with Irish coach Vasilij Žbogar arrived in Mexico a week ago.

As regular Afloat readers will know, last November's silver medal was a career-high for Lynch and Ireland's best-ever men's Laser result. The result also provided the Carlow man with much-needed funding. On Monday, he embarks on his silver medal defence with Sport Ireland podium funding of €40k per annum in his hip pocket.

The National Yacht Club ace is also boosted by some promising early season results that saw him take fourth in Palma in April (while nursing an arm injury). Admittedly Lynch did not make the medal race in Hyeres later in April but still managed a top 15 finish, both high-quality results setting him up well for this week's successful world championship defence. 

Two Irish ILCA 7 campaigners, one Olympic place

Overall, It's an optimistic scenario at this stage in the Paris 2024 triennial. What's more, Ireland has the added spice of up and coming talent in Howth's McMahon.

McMahon has rapidly become Ireland's second most successful men's Laser sailor after Mark Lyttle, the Dun Laoghaire solo ace who sailed first for Ireland in the Laser in the 1996 Olympics.

Howth Yacht Club campaigner Ewan McMahon

Lynch v McMahon

As with all venues, each race track has its own characteristics. In Riviera Nayarit, the intriguing question – in an Irish context – is, with solid and steady breezes the norm, will these conditions suit Lynch or McMahon best over a 12-race series?

Lynch tends to put together an incredibly consistent series, and recently he has been coming through as the week progresses, ticking off one rival after another as they knock up a big score.

It's a winning formula, and the trickier the conditions, the more the talented Carlow man seems to thrive.

This week's challenge for Ireland's number one might be that steady sea breezes could be a leveller.

Could the regatta be more of a speed test than regattas in European or venues with more unstable conditions?

Indeed, the younger MacMahon is a tall athlete with excellent boat speed (especially downwind). In this regatta, any tactical or experience deficits (expected at his age) might not be such an issue.

From various reports (including comments from his coach), McMahon still has to improve his upwind tactics and position on first beats, convert good speed, and get into top-10 windward mark rounding.

After Palma's April regatta, Zbogar said, "The results don't show it, but it's only some small mistakes keeping him out of the top 20". "He isn't losing any places on the downwind, but we need to work on executing the upwind legs better."

The Hague 2023 and Paris 2024

It sets up an increasingly competitive scenario where the two Irish sailors will attempt to qualify Ireland for the single place in Paris 2024 at the first opportunity in The Hague in August 2023. It's still not popular in some circles to mention that it is a qualification standard Ireland failed to make for Tokyo.

From this tiny Irish squad of just two, what happens if we have two sailors right on top of their game in the World's top 20?

Does the dynamic change? Does Lynch have to start considering his Irish competition in earnest, possibly negatively impacting his own programme?

Early answers to these questions probably lie on the Vallarta race track and the defence of Ireland's best-ever men's Laser result starting this Monday.

Monday and Tuesday will form the qualifying round of the regatta with two races daily scheduled that will decide the Gold fleet finalists before the final result is decided on Saturday.

Update: Sunday, May 22 8 pm:  Ewan McMahon is reported as 'unwell'. The Irish camp says he is under the care of the squad physio but the 21- year-old has already missed two days of training. 

No Irish representation in the medal races at the Semaine Olympique Francaise (French Olympic Classes Week) in Hyères is a disappointment for Irish Olympic sailing efforts but there is consolation in the two top 15 finishes achieved in what is the second biggest regatta since Tokyo.

Laser/ILCA7

Carlow sailor Finn Lynch finished 13th overall in the ILCA 7 (Laser) after coming fifth in both races yesterday demonstrating he has the speed even if nursing an arm injury, missing the medal race by just 12 points.

His 21-year-old rival for Paris 2024 Ewan McMahon (Howth YC) moved up again in the fleet to finish 23rd overall, a result that confirms he is an exciting prospect and Ireland's second most successful full rig sailor since Mark Lyttle, Ireland's inaugural Laser helmsman at Atlanta 1996. 

The pair are now in preparation for the World Championships, a highlight of the year where Lynch will defend his 2021 silver medal in Mexico in May.

49er

With less wind than on previous days, Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove (Howth YC and Skerries SC) finished in 15th place in the 49er class after the day’s three races. Rivals Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan (Royal Cork YC) finished in 30th place overall.

Full results here

The regatta concludes today Saturday 30 April.

On painkillers and sailing with a swollen arm, Ireland's Finn Lynch secured his medal race place when he moved up to fifth place overall at the end of Gold fleet racing in the ILCA7/Laser single-handed fleet today at the Princesa Sofia regatta.

After another breezy day on the Bay of Palma The National Yacht Club sailor had a fifth place in the opening race of the day and followed with his worst result of the week, a 22nd which then became his discard.

The result marks the end of 10 races for the 163-boat class with the top ten placed boats going forward for a brief race on Saturday to decide the podium places.

The best place that Lynch can achieve is fourth to match his previous best at this regatta in 2019.

"Finn has put together a really solid event this week," said Lynch's coach Vasilij Zbogar. "He's had an issue with a swollen arm so it’s hard to sail but all credit to him, he didn't want to give up even on painkillers for two days."

"The upside is that we'll get some medal race practice after a long gap but the downside is that a medal isn't an option so fourth is the target."

British sailor Michael Beckett is  guaranteed a medal and hilled about carrying an 11 points lead into his medal race, ahead of Germany’s 2020 world champion Philipp Buhl and Australia’s Tokyo gold medallist Matt Wearn:

Beckett said, “I love the medal races. It is good to have a points gap. Last time I did this regatta I was 21^st and this is a great regatta and everyone is back after the Games. I have done a lot of work with the squad and this week I have been fast and it has just felt as good as I have felt in training.”

Ireland's other sailor in the ILCA7 event is Ewan McMahon Howth YC) who placed 32nd overall after the ten race fleet series ended and who is going to work on executing the upwind legs better.

McMahon's younger brother Jamie placed 25th in the Silver fleet after a promising start to the series on Monday when he scored top 20 results in his qualification flight.

The medal race final for the ILCA7 class takes place at 10 30 (Irish Summer time) on Saturday 9th April.

Full results here

Some clever sailing through minimising race course errors has put Finn Lynch into sixth place overall in the Laser/ILCA 7 class at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Mallorca today.

The National Yacht Club ace scored eighth and 14th in fresh winds today on the Bay of Palma, scores that give him a highly prized sixth place with just two races remaining in the Gold fleet series.

With the possibility of further improvement tomorrow, Lynch has the prospect of a medal race finish in his first event towards Paris 2024. 

Howth's Ewan McMahon slipped to 30th overall after placing 39th and 21st, his brother Jamie lies in  80th place in the 160-boat fleet.

Best of the Laser Men today was Olympic Champion Matt Wearn who continues his comeback from 32nd overall on the opening day of the competition. 

The Australian was third in the first race when it paid to go left and struggled a bit more in the next when it paid to go right, still scoring a reasonable 12th. Michael Beckett (GBR) was only a point less consistent than Wearn with 14th in the first race and narrowly missing out on a race win against Filip Jurišić (CRO) to finish second. “I got the day half right,” said Beckett, “which was probably about all that anyone managed today. It was hard to read the pattern of the breeze so that was a pretty good day out, really.”

A race win for Philipp Buhl (GER) puts the 2020 World Champion just two points behind Beckett’s lead, with Wearn now 15 points off the top. France’s Jean-Baptiste Bernaz, the overnight leader did not race today.

Results here

Ireland stays close to the top of the leaderboards in both the ILCA 7 (Laser Standard) Apprentice and ILCA 6 (Radial) Grand Master 2021 World Championships at Barcelona with four races left to sail by Saturday.

Royal St. George's Sean Craig dropped one place to sixth overall in a 47-boat ILCA 6 (Radial) Grand Master fleet while George Kingston stays fourth overall after two third scored in races seven and eight, in the 13-boat  ILCA 7 (Laser Standard) Apprentice division. Roger O'Gorman is lying 11th in the same fleet.

Two races were completed on Thursday at the ILCA Masters World Championships. Another early start paid off, with the first warning signal at 9:00 and sailors were back on shore and finished for the day by 12:00. For the second day in a row, there’s been sunshine and stable wind, which has been ideal for racing. It was blowing about 8–10 knots this morning with gusts up to 14 knots, but the wind began to die right as the second races were wrapped up.

With two more races in all divisions, the ILCA 7 fleet has a total of eight races locked in. In the ILCA 6 fleet, the Apprentices, Great Grand Masters, and Legends have nine races and the Masters and Grand Masters have eight.

Belgium’s Wannes Van Laer secured his lead ahead of Polish Maciej Grabowski in the ILCA 7 Apprentice division, with two first-place finishes today. Americans Ernesto Rodriguez and Robert Hallawell maintained their lead in the ILCA 7 Masters and Grand Masters divisions, respectively. Spain’s Josele Doreste also held tight to his lead today in the ILCA 7 Great Grand Masters division.

In the ILCA 6 fleet, Great Britain’s Jon Emmett remains unstoppable in the Apprentice division with all nine first-place finishes. French Jean-Christophe Leydet slid ahead to lead the Masters division with first- and second-place finishes today, while fellow countryman Gilles Coadou returned to first place in the Grand Masters division. American Bill Symes also has nine firsts under his belt and leads the Great Grand Masters, while fellow American Peter Seidenberg continues to hold first in the Legends, just one point ahead of their compatriot Jacques Kerrest.

Two races are scheduled for Day 6 with the first warning signal at 9:00. Friday’s weather conditions are forecasted to be similar to those of Thursday, and just two days remaining to determine world champions.

See event website here for full results.

After playing havoc with the ILCA 7/Laser World Championships all week, Mother Nature decided to end the regatta early with Storm Blas preventing the final day’s racing, a decision that handed Ireland its best ever Laser World Championship result but also denied second overall Finn Lynch the possibility of going one better given the on-form Dun Laoghaire ace had the best discardable result and was least at risk from further races.

With two days lost to light winds early on in the regatta, only eight races were completed over the six-day event.

Any hopes of bettering positions were dashed by the huge seas preventing sailors from leaving the harbour at Barcelona Sailing Centre, the Brits taking on the 135-boat fleet had to settle for their day five scores.

Taking the title of top Brit was 23-year-old Welshman and the Irish Sea sailor Daniel Whiteley, who finished eighth in what was his first world championships since becoming a full-time athlete with the British Sailing Team.

Whiteley followed up on last month’s 13th place at the ILCA 7 European Championships with another personal best against the international fleet.

“It feels incredible,” said Whiteley, from Bangor. “I’ve missed racing at the front since I aged out of under-21 regattas, so to be back in the top ten feels amazing. This is the first world championship I’ve been to since 2018 and my first since going full time with the British Sailing Team. To come away with this result means everything.”

Fellow young gun Sam Whaley also bettered his 22nd at the Euros – also a personal best – to come home 15th, obliterating his 2020 result of 64th.

“It’s been a really tricky week here in Barcelona but I’m pretty chuffed to finish the event 15th overall, an improvement of almost fifty places from last year,” the 24-year-old from Swanage, Dorset, said.

“The team environment we have is brilliant and has really allowed us to level up this year. It’s pretty cool to share this success with my squadmates as well as coaches Penny and Matt, who have been awesome this week. I’m going to remember this one for a long time.”

Tokyo 2020 Team GB athlete Elliot Hanson led the regatta at the halfway stage when teammate and recently crowned European champion Micky Beckett picked up the mantle.

However, the pair’s medals hopes were ended when a collision between them on the start line of the final race of day five resulted in Beckett pulling out with a minor injury and Hanson retiring in accordance with the rules.

Beckett finished 13th while Hanson was 17th.

“It’s been good to be back racing after a prolonged break since Tokyo,” Hanson said. “It’s obviously a real shame to end the way it did having led most of the week. An unfortunate freak accident that ultimately took both myself and Micky out of the standings wasn’t in the script.

“I’m happy he’s ok though and look forward to training hard together this winter. Special mention to both Sam and Dan who have been working hard and sailed a fantastic week to both score personal bests.”

Racing at the ILCA7 (Laser Standard) World Championships was again postponed on Sunday 7th November 2021 due to light winds in Barcelona leaving just two races sailed out of the six originally scheduled for the series that began on Friday.

The fleet went afloat on Sunday morning as planned and while two races were started, both had to be abandoned as the already light breeze faded.

The qualification phase of the championship has now been extended into Monday for the 135-boat event that will eventually decide the Gold and Silver fleets for the final round that is due to conclude by Wednesday afternoon (10th November 2021).

Rio 2016 Olympian Finn Lynch of the National Yacht Club is currently fifth overall while Howth Yacht Club's Ewan McMahon is 19th overall from Saturday's two races.

Ireland also has two other sailors competing at Under 21 level. Tom Higgins of the Royal St. George YC lies 49th overall while Jamie McMahon (Howth YC), younger brother of Ewan is in 72nd place.

On Monday, the intention is to sail three races back-to-back for each fleet with a first warning gun at 0900hrs.

There was no wind or racing for day one of the Laser / ILCA 7 Worlds in Barcelona, Spain today. 

A four-boat Irish team, (details here) including 2016 Rio Olympian Finn Lynch, is hoping to break into the top 30 of one of the hottest fleets in the world. 

Lynch (National Yacht Club), Ewan McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) Ewan’s younger brother Jamie McMahon and Tom Higgins (Royal St George Yacht Club) are competing.

Three races are scheduled for Saturday with the first warning signal at 9:30.