Cork Harbour's Nicholas O’Leary captains a squad made up largely of Irish Olympic campaigners – including Rio silver medalist Annalise Murphy – in a bid to be crowned the world's best sailing nation in a new competition called the SSL Gold Cup starting in Switzerland this week.
The Irish team comprises Harry Durcan, Cian Guilfoyle, Annalise Murphy, Robert Dickson, Simon Johnson, Finn Lynch, Sean Waddilove, Peter O'Leary, Oisin McClelland and Stephen Milne.
The SSL Gold Cup 2022 will start on May 19th with the Qualifying Series in Grandson, Lake Neuchatel (Switzerland). All teams ranked from the Top 25 to 56 in the January 2022 SSL Nations ranking will meet in eight groups of four teams each. There will be five stages of the Qualifying Series running from May 19th to July 17th.
Annalise Murphy, Robert Dickson (centre) and Sean Waddilove are part of the Irish Green Armada team that compete in Switzerland this week
The SSL Gold Cup Irish team jersey
After three to four days of racing, only the top two teams of each group will go through to the Final Series that will take place from October 28th to November 20th, 2022, to defend their national colours.
The event director is noted Polish Star helmsman Mateusz Kusznierewicz.
The SSL Gold Cup will be raced in the SSL47. 11 sailors on each national team, including women and men, will be selected through their national SSL ranking but also their Captain’s choice, with no financial nor technological barriers.
All the sailors come from Olympic classes, Match-Racing, America's Cup or other noted keelboat circuits.
All nations, from Sailing leading countries like Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand or USA will race at the same level as the small ones such as Guatemala, Slovenia, Tahiti or Estonia.
In its advance billing, the pre-event promotional team are in overdrive: Sailing has finally its own World Cup! Like football in 1930 and rugby in 1987, the SSL Gold Cup is designed to crown the best sailing nation of all! The World's Top 56 countries, selected on their SSL Nation ranking, will battle their way through to raise the coveted and only Sailing World Cup trophy.
In relation to the Irish team, the event programme says " With a rich maritime history, Ireland consistently punches above its weight on the world stage, and their sailing is no different. With Olympic medalists, Volvo Ocean Race winners, America's Cup sailors, and offshore sailing coming from the Emerald Isle, there is a long history of sailing success. Through this varied pool of sailing, inspiration and talent is rife, and above all the respect for what it takes to succeed in the sport is widely appreciated.
Green Armada captain Nicholas O’Leary
The Irish team motto we learn is: "From all walks of the Sport of Sailing (The Green Armada) brought together to battle it out with the best in the world of Sailing"
The Irish crew travel on Tuesday for two days of training and straight into four-boat fleet racing for a round of qualifiers. The top two teams go through to the next round.
The SSL (STAR SAILORS LEAGUE) is the global inshore sailing circuit launched by Olympic athletes in 2012, by sailors for sailors. Its main philosophy considers the athletes (not the boats) as the “Stars” and it aims to showcase the annual global sailing championship with its over 15’000 regattas; it determines and celebrates the world leaders in sailing promoting the inshore regattas to the global audience.
The three main components of the SSL Circuit are the SSL Ranking published every Tuesday, updating the position of over 100,000 leading athletes, thus highlighting the world’s top inshore sailors. The SSL Finals taking place every year around November-December, it’s the annual final of the SSL Circuit among the 20/25 best athletes of the ranking, to crown the champion of the season. And the SSL Gold Cup, the ‘ultimate’ championship of the circuit with 56 nations among World Sailing members, to crown the best sailing nation.
In a mechanical sport where the race for technology sometimes gets in the way of the race for glory, the SSL aims for equal competition where the talent of the sailors is at the forefront and the champions become heroes that inspire new generations of sailors.
The SSL is a World Sailing Special Event since 2017.
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