Royal St George Yacht Club's Tom Higgins Takes Connaught ILCA/Laser Championships with Straight Wins

19th July 2021

The Wexford Laser event was capped at 100 sailors and was fully subscribed within days of opening

Royal St George Yacht Club Sailor Tom Higgins put in an impressive performance to win all five races in the ILCA 7 (Laser standard) fleet and lift the winner's trophy at the Connaught championships. The event was hosted by Wexford Harbour Boat and Tennis Club in light breezes and hot and sunny weather.

To manage COVID risk, the event was capped at 100 sailors and was fully subscribed within days of opening. The large number of sailors who then went onto the waiting list in the hope of getting a place in the event attests to the popularity of the ILCA fleet in Ireland. With many high-performance sailors returning from international events, the standard was particularly high and made for exciting racing.

Second and third places in the ILCA7 (Laser standard) fleet were awarded to Jamie McMahon and Ewan McMahon, respectively. The two brothers from Howth Yacht Club managed to squeeze local sailor, Ronan Wallace of WHBTC, into fourth place. The master's category was won by Ross O'Leary of Royal St George, and the first youth sailor in the ILCA 7 was Kei Walker, also from the Royal St George.

In the ILCA 6 (Radial) fleet, the young Michael Crosbie of RCYC put in an impressive performance to lift the winner's trophy. Crosbie has recently returned from European Youth Radial Championships in Croatia, where he placed 32nd. Irish Academy sailor, Aoife Hopkins of Howth YC, finished second with young rising star, also of Howth Yacht Club, Eve McMahon finishing in 3rd. Eve also recently returned from the European Radial Youth Championships in Croatia where she finished with silver.

The scene at Wexford Harbour Boat Club's dinghy park for the Laser 'Connaught' Championships

The first master in the ILCA 6 (Radial) fleet went to Sean Craig, who finished 9th overall. Craig, of the Royal St George, has had a fantastic season so far, being recently awarded the Afloat.ie "Sailor of the month for June 2021". He has been on top form, winning the Masters champs and the Ulster Champs within the last couple of months.

First prize for Lady Master in the ILCA 6 went to Shirley Gilmore of the Royal St George, who finished 15th overall, facing off strong competition from Alison Pigot of the National YC and placing impressively in a very strong fleet.

In the ILCA 4 (Laser 4.7 Fleet), the top 2 positions went to RCYC sailors, with James Dwyer finishing in first place and Darragh Collins taking silver. Krzysztof Ciborowski of Royal St George finished with Bronze.

The winner of the ILCA 4 fleet for the girls was Eimer McMorrow Moriarty of TBSC, with Isabel McCarthy of RCYC taking the second position and Hannah Dadley Young of Ballyhnolme YC placed the third girl.

Full results can be seen here

Published in Laser, RStGYC

@ CH Marine website

@ CH Marine Facebook

@ CH Marine NI Facebook

@ CH Marine Twitter

Published in Laser

Tagged under

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.

You might also want to read...

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):