Eighty Laser/ILCA dinghies from twenty clubs around Ireland returned to the sunny South East venue of Dunmore East this past weekend for the 'Connaught' Championships at Waterford Harbour Sailing Club.
Although the wind God didn’t deliver the usual breezy/wavy conditions that is standard to this region, the sun shone on this glorious venue for the entire weekend providing for a beautiful setting. Waterford Harbour Sailing Club put on a first class performance of volunteer coordination and support ashore making it a truly magical weekend of sailing and socializing for all, topped off with a barbeque on the Clubhouse balcony on Saturday night as the sun set.
Race Officer, Con Murphy, and his very able team of hard-working support crew aboard the flagship and ribs had their work cut out for them in a strong ebb side and light unstable breeze for the duration of the weekend. Not ones to be put off by a challenge, however, they managed to get the full complement of six races in over the entire weekend.
ILCA 4
In the ILCA 4’s, Daniel O’Connor of the RStGYC continued his rich run of form and took home first prize with Daniel Palmer of BYC and Krzysztof Ciborowski of RStGYC in close second and third respectively with a point between them. True to recent form, Ava Ennis of RStGYC was the first girl, followed by Megan O’Sullivan of RCYC and Lucy Ives of CSC. Lucy just pipping Isabel McCarty of RCYC for third-placed girl on count-back. Four of the top ten places consisted of girls, a testament to the sailors, their club programmes and fun competitive draw of the ILCA class to all, no matter their gender.
ILCA 6
In the considerable and ever-competitive ILCA 6 fleet, the usual suspects of Rocco Wright and Luke Turvey of HYC took home first and second, while Sam Ledoux of NYC took third, with just four points separating the three of them showing just how tight the margins were. Becky Lowney of RSGYC/WHBTC was the first girl in tenth overall, with Sophie Kilmartin of RSGYC/MYC second and Anna O’Connor of RIYC/RSGYC third. Sean Craig, Marco Sorgassi and Hugh Delap, all of RStGYC, were first, second and third placed Masters.
ILCA 7
In the ILCA 7’s, Rory Lynch (BSC) and Chris Bateman (PWWC) battled it out for the entire weekend, ending with an equal share of points and Lynch winning it out on count-back. Nick Walsh (RCYC) was third and first placed Master with Darragh Kelleher (SSC) second placed Master and Dan O’Connell (ISA) third.
Results here
