Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Keller, Glynn & Cullen Crowned Irish Laser Champions on Lough Derg

27th August 2018
A start of the Radial Championships at Lough Derg Yacht Club A start of the Radial Championships at Lough Derg Yacht Club Credit: Deirdre Horgan

Olympic trialist Aisling Keller was carried from her home waters of Lough Derg shoulder high by supporters eager to crown the 2018 Irish Laser Radial Champion yesterday evening at Dromineer. The Tipperary sailor, who is in a two-way fight for selection against Aoife Hopkins for the single Tokyo place, (who did not compete due to illness) was a clear winner by seven–points in the championships biggest fleet of 46 boats. Second overall in the Radial division was Spanish youth sailor Arturo Moratilla and third Micheal O'Suilleabhain from Kinsale. The first master was Dublin Bay's Sean Craig in fifth place overall.

Glynn Adds Irish Title to Season's Haul

In the full rig, there was also a straight win for men's Olympic trialist, Liam Glynn who adds the Irish title to July's bronze at U21 World level also earned this season. The full rig results ended as they started last Thursday with Belast Lough's Glynn dominating the 23-boat fleet ahead of Daragh O'Sullivan, the only competitor to challenge the former Topper World Champion. O'Sullivan, of Kinsale Yacht Club, took three race wins from nine starts to be only three points behind Glynn at the end of the championships on 14 points. Third on 25 points was the National Yacht Club's Grand Master Mark Lyttle.

Cullen is Irish 4.7 Champion, Valetta is Open Champion

Royal St. George youth sailor Edoardo Valletta, sailing for Italy, is the Laser 4.7 open champion emerging three points clear of Royal Cork Yacht Club's Atlee Kohl, sailing under US Virgin Islands on 22 points. Charlie Cullen of the National Yacht Club and Royal St. George Yacht Club was third in the 38–boat fleet and took the Irish title.

Charlie CullenIrish 4.7 champion Charlie Cullen (centre) with LDYC Commodore John Leech (left) and Race Officer Con Murphy

Overall results are here

Published in Laser
Afloat.ie Team

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

Direct Donation to Afloat button

About the ILCA/Laser Dinghy

The ILCA, formerly known as the Laser, is the most produced boat in the world, with 220,000 units built since 1971.

It's easy to see why the single-handed dinghy has won the title of the most widely distributed boat of all time.

The Laser is a one-design dinghy, the hulls being identical but three rigs that can be used according to the size and weight of the sailor.

The class is international, with sailors from 120 countries. The boat has also been an Olympic class since 1996, being both the men's and women's singlehanded dinghy.

Three rigs are recognised by the International Laser Class Association (ILCA):

  • ILCA 4: sail of 4.70m2
  • ILCA 6: sail of 5.76 m2
  • ILCA 7: sail of 7.06 m2