A slowly fading southerly breeze on Lake Garda today - declining from an initial 10 knots - favoured early fleet leaders in the three day finals of the Optimist Worlds 2021, and the USA’s Gil Hackel found extra speed to log an impressive first and second to put him ahead of the winner of the qualifying championship, Thailand’s Weka Bhanubandh, who posted 17-11 but holds on to second overall.

Continuing in third is Brazil’s Alex Di Francesco Kuhl with a 12-12. while Ireland’s Rocco Wright of Howth Yacht Club - lying fifth overall going into the finals - had to re-include his previously-discarded 19th from the qualifying series, for although he took a 10th in today’s first race, he was one of the victims of the fading breeze in the second, and notched a now-discarded 51st. However, currently on 40 points, he stays in the top ten at 9th overall in a total fleet of 259 boats.

The nine-day Optimist Worlds currently under way on the marvellous Lake Garda have a programme which would be demanding for mature athletes at the peak of their career-developing stamina curve. But the young sailors seem game for it all, as the three days of initial qualifying races - which concluded yesterday (Sunday) with Ireland’s Rocco Wright comfortably into the Gold Division at 5th overall - have now seen the 58-nation fleet squaring up for two days of intensive team racing.

Not all of the 58 nations taking part have enough boats present to form a full team, but a remarkable 48 including Ireland have made the cut for participation in this novel aspect of the World Championshjp programme. However, although the Irish squad had their moments in initial racing against Peru and Norway, they aren’t into the final listings going into tomorrow (Tuesday’s) final Team Racing stages, in which Group A are providing Italy, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey, Spain USA, Singapore and Finland, while Group B are sending forth Thailand, Belgium, Croatia, Brazil, France, Portugal, Argentina and Lithuania. And then on Wednesday, it’s straight back to the very serious business of the final three days of the Worlds proper.

The Optimist Worlds currently getting into their stride on Lake Garda (they conclude on July 10th) find Howth's Rocco Wright to be the target helm, as his countdown to the big one has been wellnigh perfect. In mid-June he took Bronze in the Meringa Cup series on the lake, and then last weekend in a fleet of nearly 300 boats from 31 nations with Lake Garda in fine sailing form, he won overall by an astonishing 9 points, convincingly making him Ireland's outstanding junior sailor in June.

Howth’s Rocco Wright is continuing his successful countdown to the Optimist Worlds 2021 with a runaway big-fleet win on Lake Garda. Promoted as the best warmup opportunity before this week’s World Championships, the 46th Trofeo Optimist d’Argento ended on Sunday at the Circolo Vela Torbole with 31 nations participating and nearly 300 entries. The young Irish sailor led the charge from the start, and won overall by an extraordinary 9 points, ahead of top American sailor James Pine - brother of Nathan who won in Howth at the Irish Nationals in 2019.

The World Championships start on Lake Garda on Wednesday, June 30th and runs until July 1.

Rocco Wright (13) of Howth Yacht Club is Sailor of the Month (Junior) for January after twice taking silver in major Optimist regattas in both the southern and northern hemispheres. Early in the month in Sail Melbourne 2020 in Australia in a total fleet of 255 boats, he was overnight leader going into the final day. But a series of sometimes flukey winds produced its most fickle day of all to conclude with, the positions were inverted, and he did well to hold on to second overall.

In Alicante in Spain at the end of the month, conditions were breezy and almost wintry for the Euromarina Trophy and an astonishing total fleet of 401 boats. Here again, he was the overnight leader going into the final day’s three races. With a ninth and a first in the two initial contests, things were looking good, but this time gear failure resulted in a DNC in the last race, and he’d to concede the overall lead to Italy’s Alessandro Cortese but stayed ahead of another Italian helm, Lisa Vucceti, who was also top girl.

Optimist ace Rocco Wright of Howth found it was tough at the top when the 185-strong 11-nation fleet gathered at his home port for the Irish Open Nationals in August. After he’d won the first race, he was a marked man, and had to be content with fourth overall by the finish. But back in July, he’d taken 10th overall in the Worlds, and then in October, he notched second overall in the North Americans, giving him Ireland’s best international performance in 2019.

Ireland had reason to celebrate at the Optimist North American Championship this past week with a podium finish among two top-five places.

Howth Yacht Club’s bright Oppy star Rocco Wright finished second just two points behind winner Gustavo Campos from Brazil — and James Dwyer Matthews of the Royal Cork/Kinsale wasn’t far behind in fifth place.

Ironically, the two were also separated by three spots in the final standings of this summer’s Optimist Worlds in Antigua.

In 83rd place, Clementine Van Steenberge (National Yacht Club) topped the girls who comprised the rest of Team Ireland in the Bahamas last week. Full results are available HERE.

In other youth sailing news, the National YC scored top results in the Junior Helmsman’s event in Schull last weekend.

Representing the Laser Radial, Clare Gorman with crew (and brother) Conor Gorman were second overall after taking the medal race, while Clare was also named first girl.

Rian Geraghty-McDonnell and crew Nathan Van Steenberge representing the 29er class were third overall.

Howth Yacht Club’s Rocco Wright scored a tremendous result for Ireland as he placed 10th in the Optimist Worlds in Antigua earlier this week.

He was followed closely in the final standings by 13th-placed James Dwyer Matthews of the Royal Cork/Kinsale in the event won by the new three-time champion Marco Gradoni of Italy.

The rest of the Irish team are also to be commended for their finishes in a field comprising 255 young sailors: Sam Ledoux (National YC) was 70th overall, Luke Turkey (HYC) 100th and Ben O’Shaughnessy (RCYC) 159th.

In the glow of that achievement for the nation, the International Optimist Dinghy Association of Ireland (IODAI) has decamped to Waterford Harbour for the Optimist Munster Championships from today, Saturday 29 July.

The event is open to all boats of the IODAI across Regatta, Junior and Senior fleets, with the Notice of Race, Sailing Instructions and Supplementary Instructions available on the Waterford Harbour Sailing Club website.

The International Optimist Dinghy Association Ireland (IODAI) shared a photo yesterday (Sunday 30 June) of the five-strong team headed to Antigua to represent Ireland at the 2019 World Championships later this week.

Rocco Wright (Howth YC), James Dwyer Matthews (Royal Cork/Kinsale), Ben O’Shaughnessy (Royal Cork), Sam Ledoux (National YC) and Luke Turvey (Howth YC) will be supported by team coach Dara O’Shea at the event, where racing gets under way this Saturday 6 July.

They will be hoping to best the European team’s impressive performance in Brittany last week, placing 11th overall in a field of 300 sailors representing 50 countries.

It was a strong seventh-place finish overall for Howth Yacht Club’s Rocco Wright at the International Palamós Optimist Trophy, which concluded yesterday (Sunday 17 February) on Spain’s Costa Brava.

The youngster remained in medal contention among a 110-boat gold fleet all the way till the final day’s racing, following a phenomenal week where he was rarely out of the top three of his groups.

James Dwyer Matthews of the Royal Cork and Kinsale Yacht Clubs also had a strong showing bettering his performance in last month’s Torrevieja Trophy, placing 12th overall.

Jessica Riordan (Royal St George YC), Anna O’Connor (Royal Irish YC), Lucia Cullen (NYC/RStG), Rachel Flood (NYC), Trevor Bolger (RStG) and Peter Williams comprised the rest of the Irish contingent on the Costa Brava during the week.