Tom Coulter is Top Northern Ireland Performer at Howth's ILCA National Championships

29th August 2023

Tom Coulter from East Antrim BC and Portrush YC in Co Antrim topped the 23-strong ILCA 6 fleet at the Howth National Championships Credit: Anraoi Blaney

Of the 15 Northern Ireland competitors in the ILCA Nationals at Howth Yacht Club recently, the best showing was that of Tom Coulter from East Antrim BC and Portrush YC in Co Antrim, who topped the 23-strong ILCA 6 fleet with a string of first and second places and a discarded third. He managed to beat last year’s winner, Fiachra McDonnell of Royal St. George, by one point.

This seems to be the first time in at least 14 years that the trophy for this class has come north. Lucy Whitford, Commodore of East Antrim BC, was delighted with her club’s results; “Tom sailed brilliantly, and it was fantastic to see him win the super competitive ILCA 6 fleet and become Irish champion.

Also, in the same fleet, it was a tight battle between Gavin Doig and Zoe Whitford, with Zoe finishing 13th and Gavin one place behind. And Gavin’s son Freddie competed in his first Nationals, the ILCA 4 class”. She continued, “Everyone at EABC was delighted for Tom, especially as he missed the Worlds and Europeans this season through injury”.

Another NI sailor, Bobby Driscoll from Royal North on Belfast Lough, the 2022 Topper World 5.3 runner-up on countback, performed well to finish sixth in Tom's class.

ILCA 7 national championship racing at Howth Yacht. Club Photo: Annraoi Blaney

In the ILCA 4 fleet, Ciara McMahon from Ballyholme YC on Belfast Lough finished in the top third of the 31-boat fleet at 10th, counting as best results two eighth places. Another BYC competitor, Colin Leonard was never out of the top six and finished in fifth place in ILCA 7.

The Northern clubs that were represented were East Antrim, Portrush, Strangford Lough, Ballyholme, Holywood, Carrickfergus, Royal North and East Down.

Race Results

You may need to scroll vertically and horizontally within the box to view the full results

Published in Laser, Northern Ireland Waters

@ CH Marine website

@ CH Marine Facebook

@ CH Marine NI Facebook

@ CH Marine Twitter

Published in Laser

Tagged under

About The Author

Betty Armstrong

Email The Author

Betty Armstrong is Afloat and Yachting Life's Northern Ireland Correspondent. Betty grew up racing dinghies but now sails a more sedate Dehler 36 around County Down

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):