Royal Cork’s Andrew Kingston is new ILCA 6 Senior National Champion
The National Yacht Club hosted the ILCA (Laser) National championships on August 23rd to 25th and Royal Cork’s Andrew Kingston is the new national champion of the ILCA 6(Radial) class. This has been a very competitive class for a long time in Irish sailing and previous winners include current Olympian Finn Lynch and former Olympian Annalise Murphy along with Royals Cork’s Johnny Durcan, Luke McGrath, Micheal O’Sulleabhain and Jonathan O’Shaughnessy. Royal Cork sailors have now won this prestigious event on five occasions out of the last ten years. This years event featured Eve McMahon who was fresh from her Olympic campaign in Marseilles and eager to challenge some of the best Irish ILCA 6 sailors.
There were a few notable abstentees from the Royal Cork team this year at the championships, however we still had fifteen sailors competing.
ILCA 7: Michael Crosbie, Michael Doherty, Olin Bateman, Conor Kelly.
ILCA 6: Andrew Kingston, Shane Collins, Megan O’Sullivan, Rob Jeffreys, Dara Jenkins, Liam Duggan.
ILCA 4: Eolan Miles, Rachel Hyde, Daisy Walsh, Mike Egan, Rory Whyte.
The championship racing area was just to the northwest of Dun Laoghaire harbour in strong breezy conditions across the three days. Unfortunately, gusts of 30 kt+ meant all races were cancelled on the final day. On day one, the wind was a steady 18-20 kts off the land which resulted in some significant shifts and a decent dublin bay chop which led to some high speed racing and thrilling downwind gybes. The ILCA 7 fleet got three good races completed before the weather deteriorated and a downpour killed off the breeze. This resulted in a shortened third race for ILCA 6 and the ILCA 4 fleet were sent in before their third race.
In the ILCA 4 category, Riona McMorrow Moriarty, from Tralee Bay Sailing Club held off a determined challenge from Joseph Robinson from Ballyholme YC across five completed races in a fleet of thirty six. Riona was carrying just half a point advantage going into the final race, but scored a bullet to finish on 5.5 points overall. Eolann Miles (RCYC and GHSC) rued an early UFD score in the second race and with the series reduced to five races, he just missed out on a podium finish with two second place finishes on day two.
In the ILCA 6 Category, a strong fleet of fifty one sailors meant a very packed start line with a mixture of ISA academy sailors, current Olympic sailor, top masters sailors all competing from the first gun. Bobby Driscoll (Ballyholme YC) sailed a fantastic first race and cross the line ahead of Eve McMahon who had just got ahead of Andrew Kingston in third. Sienna Wright and Sean Craig (master) followed quickly afterwards with Rob Jeffreys (RCYC grand master) coming in ninth(2nd master). The second race was another exciting finish with Andrew holding off Daniel Palmer from Ballyholme by a boatlength with Eve McMahon coming in third just ahead of Bobby Driscoll. The third race of the day turned out to be a bit of a damp squib with the race shortened to finish on the second downwind after a downpour killed the breeze. Eve had been in a very tight race again with Bobby and just pipped him at the shortened course finish line. On day two, the breeze had recovered and was again holding steady above 20kts and at times sustaining close to 25kts. However, it was mostly sunny and gusts were less of an issue than the wind shifts from the land. Racing was again high speed and exciting with the final gybe and reach to mark five always sailing on the edge. Here’s Rob Jeffreys holding on around mark 5.
A pair of black flags shortened Eve McMahon’s regatta in races four and five and so it came down to four academy sailors to battle it out. Sienna Wright had a second, first and third on day two to establish her place in third overall. Bobby opened the door a little to Andrew with a black flag in race 6 and a fifth in race 4. Daniel Palmer who had been lying in fourth after four races had two black flags to also finish his regatta and so it was Andrew Kingston who led the fleet at the end of day two at 13 points after winning the final race of the day.
At the end of day two, the top three were at 13,14,15 points with a ten point gap to fourth position and so it was setup for an exciting day three. However, the weather gods intervened and after gust in excess of 30kts were measured when committee boat went out to setup the course and as the forecast was not favourable, the race officer abandoned racing on day three which left Andrew on top one point ahead of Bobby Driscoll and new national champion. Andrew had come second to Bobby at the Irish Youth National championships held at Royal Cork in April this year. Shane Collins finished strongly with a second place in race 6 in the silver fleet and finished first in the silver fleet for the regatta. Rob Jeffreys who had an excellent day one was pushed into third overall master on day two, and was ready to fight his way back on day three before racing was cancelled.
The ILCA 7 fleet was also a very competitive fleet with only one point between first and third. Dan McGaughey(Ballyholme YC) at twelve points beating Fiachra McDonnell(RstGYC) at thirteen alongside Tom Coulter(East Antrim/Portrush YC). Ewen McMahon had been leading after day one with three bullets, but did not sail on day two. Michael Crosbie(Royal Cork) sailed his first racing series in the ILCA 7 class and had a very decent outing in eighth place with very consistent results.
Royal Cork had won the team prize for the championship for the past five years, but were well beaten by Ballyholme this year with their 2nd, 2nd, first results across the fleets.
After at AtHome weekend, ILCA coaching returns to Saturdays with some exciting racing planned for September. The ILCA Summer Sprint series returns on September 8th in Iniscarra and then the spring finale is on Sept 22nd in Crosshaven.
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