Irish Eyes are Smilin’ in the Star Class

by Lynn Fitzpatrick on 24 Jan 2008 There are some new Irish lads in the Star. Peter (Gunns) O’Leary and Stephen Milne have spring boarded from the Laser to the Star. O’Leary, who was sixth at the ISAF Youth Worlds in 2001 and Irish Sailor of the Year in 2007, jokes, “I’ll sail anything that floats.” He wants to “achieve greatness and follow in the footsteps of (his) family members,” while Milne says, “it would be great to represent Ireland at the Games and a fantastic reward to achieve something so special.”

O’Leary comes from a long line of sailing O’Leary’s from West Cork. As a matter of fact, O’Leary and Milne’s coach is Anthony O’Leary. Milne also 22, started sailing at the late age of fourteen. It wasn’t long before he found his way on to big boats. Both love sailing the men’s keelboats with an Olympic presence since 1932 - the Stars. Why wouldn’t they? They are sailing in a hand-me-down from Ian Percy and O’Leary steered his way to a 20th in his first Star regatta, a 93-boat fleet at the 2007 Eastern Hemispheres on Lake Garda.

The Irish have their work cut out for them this season. Prof O’Connell and Ben Cooke narrowly missed qualifying the country for the Olympics at the 2007 ISAF World Sailing Championships in Cascais while Maxwell Treacy and Anthony Shanks led the silver fleet at the Worlds. The O’Connell/Cooke team is sidelined during the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta while O’Connell recovers from an injury. By putting in lots of hours in the gym and on the water and wishing on four-leafed clovers, the Luck of the Irish may bless the Paddies and one of the Irish Star teams may follow Finian’s rainbow to the Pot o’Gold in Qingdao, provided that they perform well at the 2008 World Championships in April.