ISA Youth Pathway Nationals and IODA Optimist Trials Day 1

by Gail MacAllister on 10 Apr 2015 This is an exciting week for Ireland's young sailors. The Royal Cork Yacht Club are hosting the ISA Youth Pathway Nationals and IODA Optimist Trials from Thursday ninth to Sunday twelfth April.

The IODA Optimist Trials will run over four days from Thursday to Sunday. This is a qualifying event for the Optimist sailors to represent Ireland in 2015 - the top five at Optimist Worlds in Wales, next seven at Optimist Europeans in Poland and a number of sailors chosen for a development team that will sail at the French Nationals.

The Optimists are not entering the ISA Youth Pathway Nationals.

The 420s and Laser Radials are competing in the ISA Youth Pathway Nationals for Thursday to Sunday, while the Toppers and Laser 4.7s are competing Friday to Sunday only.

Normally this is a qualifying event for the Youth Worlds, which are usually in the summer, but the 2015 ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship are in Malaysia in December which is a little too far away. Still an important event for all the classes as the Lasers compete for the honour of ISA Youth Pathway Nationals Champion, the 420 sailors are qualifying for the Junior Europeans and Worlds, while the Toppers are qualifying for the ISA Summer squads which will build up their skills for the Topper Worlds in Lake Guarda.

This is an open event for All Topper, 420, Laser 4.7 and Laser Radial sailors and no qualifying is required to enter, which gives sailors a chance to compete against each other on an even playing field.

An incredible day for our sailors today with blue skies and a consistent eight-nine knots oscillating through 40 degrees, and race officer Alan Crosbie did an excellent job of realigning the course for the Lasers and 420s.

Looking at the results after three races for each of the classes in both events today, it is great to see the girls performing so well.

 Results: