MGM Boats Laser Masters Breaks Records & Goes Virtual at Royal St George Yacht Club

11th June 2021

Dun Laoghaire's Sean Craig of the host club is racing in the Radial fleet Credit: Afloat

The MGM Boats Laser Master Championships kicks off Saturday morning at the Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour and was setting a number of precedents before sailors even took to the water.

This year’s event has seen record entries with a total of 63 boats registered from Laser sailors aged 35 and upwards. For the first time since this competition format was introduced in 2009, with 35 entries there are more Radial rigs competing than the original Standard rig, with 28 entered.

An unprecedented total of nine ladies are competing for the new Ladies Radial Trophy. With the upsurge in interest in the Laser class over the past couple of years, it is perhaps no surprise to see a total of 17 adults in the new Novice Cup format.

With such a large fleet and a range of formats, it is expected that the competition will be intense right through the fleet. In the Standard rig, previous winner Nick Walsh from RCYC and Howth’s young gun Paul McMahon are hotly tipped, with the forecast favouring McMahon.

Dun Laoghaire expects to control the Radial fleet with Sean Craig and Conor Clancy expected to dominate over the two day event. In the ladies category, Shirley Gilmore and Judy O’Beirne are considered to be the ones to beat this weekend.

In keeping with Irish Sailing’s guidelines for events, the event organisers have confirmed that the event is going virtual. Race officer, Harry Gallagher will be delivering a virtual briefing to all competitors via Zoom. Arbitrations and protests will also be facilitated via Zoom by the Protest Committee, lead by Cxema Pico.

Prize-giving on Sunday will be live streamed on the Dun Laoghaire Laser Instagram page and presumably there will be plenty of virtual cheers for the winners. All in all, it looks like that aside from sailing and socially-distanced outdoor dining on Saturday evening, this will be a truly virtual event.

Full details of the event including results are available at the Virtual Race Office on the RSGYC website.

Published in Laser

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Published in Laser

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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):