Both Finn Lynch of Dun Laoghaire and Eve McMahon of Howth will be keen to capitalise on their outstanding seasons at the final ILCA event of the year when they compete at the EURILCA Senior European Championships in the ILCA 6 and 7 (formerly Laser and Laser Radial) in Hyères in France
The two front runners are among six Irish competing on the Cote D'Azur that includes McMahon's two brothers, Ewan and Jamie.
There are 177 in the ILCA 7 men's fleet from 44 countries and another 111 in the women's ILCA 6 fleet from 38 countries.
World Sailing Youth World Champion Rocco Wright is a fourth Howth sailor competing. He competes in the ILCA 6 (Laser Radial) Men's fleet along with Tom Higgins (Royal St George YC) of Dun Laoghaire in the ILCA 7.
As regular Afloat readers know, Finn Lynch reached second in the world in the World Sailing rankings, due to his silver medal at the ILCA7 World Championship in Barcelona in November 2021, which he then followed with a consistent set of 2022 results, including fourth place at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma in April and his sixth place at the 2022 ILCA 7 Men's World Championship in Mexico in May.
Hyères regatta will be Eve McMahon's last competition of the year after a hat-trick of gold medals at the ILCA6 (Laser Radial) Youth European Championships in Greece, the World Sailing Youth World Championships in the Netherlands, the ILCA6 (Laser Radial) Youth World Championships in Texas, and finishing with silver at the U21 ILCA Youth World Championships in Portugal in August. More recently, she won the silver fleet at the Texas-based ILCA 6 Women's World Championships.
Amongst the competitors are Olympic medallists and world champions Agata Barwinska POL, Michael Beckett GBR, Lorenzo Brando Chiavarini ITA, Marit Bouwmeester NED, Elliot Hanson GBR, Pavlos Kontides CYP, Zac Littlewood AUS, Emma Plasschaert BEL, Tonci Stipanovic CRO, Hermann Tomasgaard NOR and Matthew Wearn AUS.
Racing begins on Wednesday, 16 November and concludes with the medal races next Monday, 21 November.