Ciara Peelo wins place for Ireland at Olympic Regatta
March 28, 2008
Ciara Peelo, a member of the ISA Olympic squad, has won a place for Ireland at the Olympic Regatta by placing 29th overall from a 116 boat fleet at the women’s laser radial world championship in New Zealand. With just six nation places available at the Olympic games in this class, Ciara’s result meant that she secured the sixth and final place.
Volvo Ocean Race 2008. Ian Walker to skipper Irish Entry
December 13, 2007
Irish entry Green Team has been confirmed as the seventh entry to the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race. The Yacht, designed by Reichel Pugh and being built by McConaghy Boats in China will be skippered by British Olympian Ian Walker.
Walker has been at the helm of very successful Irish Yacht Patches, in the TP52 series for the last three years.
The objective is to have the boat commissioned in June 2008. With a stopover in Galway at the end of the Atlantic leg in May-June 2009, towards the end of the race, expect a great deal of interest in Green Team.
National Yacht Club to host first World SB3 Championships in 2008
December 3, 2007
The National Yacht Club will host the first ever World SB3 World Championships on Dublin bay from 20th to 26th September next year. Over 120 boats from around the world are expected to compete.
Artemis Wins. Patches takes second in Rolex TP52 Global Championships
October 2, 2007
Patches has taken second place in the Rolex TP 52 Championships. Swedish yacht Artemis, with Russels Coutts on board finished in first place with 23.25 points, well ahead of Patches in second with 50 points. Artemis, after a sixth place in the first race, went on to display incredible consistency by placing 1,1,2,4,1,4,2,2, in the subsequent races.
Patches leads Rolex TP 52 World Championships
September 25, 2007
Eamonn Conneely and his team on Patches are leading the TP 52 World Championships after the first days racing. (The event organisers get my award for the most difficult to remember domain name that I have ever seen) Patches has an account of the first two races on its site.
Photo from earlier this year by Thierry Martinez. Sailing Photographer.
2007 Dragon World Championships Live
September 3, 2007
Photo: Gareth Craig. fotosail.com
Race two and three of the 2007 Dragon World Championships take place on Dublin Bay today. The organisers are providing pretty much live updates on the Championship web site.
With winds gusting to 29 knots yesterday morning, the first race didn’t get underway until 15.10.
Irish Yacht Chieftain wins Fastnet Race
August 16, 2007
Congrats to Ger O Rourke and his crew on their Cookson 50 on winning the Fastnet Race 2007. Chieftain finished the course at 19.43 last evening with an elapsed sailing time of 55:04:43. Chieftain is having a busy season. It came second in the Atlantic HSH Nordbank blue race from Newport to Hamburg in June.
This follows a very successful 2006 including winning the Sydney to Hobart.
This years Fastnet Race was no picnic with heavy weather and rough seas off the South West Coast of England on the way to the rock. Of the 271 starters, 193 had retired from the race as of last evening.
Here’s an interview with Ger O Rourke with the Irish Sailing Association from earlier this year.
Howth. Sailing in after the race
July 31, 2007
It was a beautiful evening this evening in Howth as the Tuesday evening racers made their way back to the Harbour at the end of the evening.
Latest Irish news from ISAF World Sailing Championships in Cascais Portugal
July 6, 2007
Photo: via Scandia.Star. on Flickr
The World Sailing Championships are taking place in Cascais Portugal. You can find full results on the Cascais2007 website, (impressive site) but here’s a summary of the Irish performance to date.
Star
Maurice O’Connell & Ben Cooke, finished 8th and 6th to reach 12th overall.
Max Treacy & Anthony Shanks, finished 6th and 23rd to lie 38th overall.
O’Connell & Cooke qualified for the gold fleet of the top 30 boats. After a rest day, they will resume competing for a high finish and a nation spot for Ireland at next year’s Olympic Games, with 11 on offer at this regatta. Despite a strong effort Treacy & Shanks will race in the silver fleet and cannot finish higher than 31 st overall.
Finn
Tim Goodbody and Aaron O’Grady are competing for Ireland in this event. 19 of the 26 nation sports at the 2008 Beijing Games will be allocated at the end of the regatta.
Tim Goodbody placed 10th and 13th in his section to lie 21st overall.
Aaron O’Grady placed 25th and 14th in his section to lie 37th overall.
Laser Radial
The 3rd and 4th races took place in the Laser Radial. With 107 entries from 50 countries the fleet was divided into two.
Claudine Murphy, finished 9th and 26th to lie 53rd overall.
Debbie Hanna, finished 33rd and 25th to lie 54th overall.
Annalise Murphy, finished 49th and 27th to lie 61st overall.
Ciara Peelo finished 38th and 21st to 63rd overall.
The Irish competitors race today for a place in the gold fleet.
Laser
150 sailors from 60 countries are competing in the class, meaning the fleet is split into three races. Races 3 and 4 took place yesterday.
Roger Craig finished 22nd and 23rd to lie 65th overall.
James Espey, finished 27th and 31st to lie 100th overall.
Races 5 & 6 today will determine the gold fleet.
Allinghi win the America’s Cup
July 3, 2007
After an unbelievable race, Alinghi won the race today by one second and thus the America’s Cup 5-2.
While approaching the top mark for the last time on port tack in todays race, Emirates Team New Zealand were penalised for not keeping clear of Alinghi on starboard. That gave Alinghi a 12 second lead around the mark, but then a major windshift allowed ETNZ back into the race passing Alinghi, but they still had to do their penalty and..just didn’t make it across the line before the Swiss.