Three Irish sailors through to Gold fleet at ILCA European Championships in France
by Treasa Cox 18 Nov 2022 15:59 PST
16-21 November 2022
Tom Higgins - Irish Sailing team member © David Branigan /
www.oceansport.ie
After a delay ashore to allow near gale conditions off the Côte d'Azur abate, organisers at the ILCA European Championships were only able to get a single race sailed in the quickly fading breeze earlier today (Friday 18th November 2022, Hyères, France).
The single race was enough for three Irish sailors at the competition to make the Gold fleet cut in their respective competitions.
With the breeze continuing to blow off the land, nearby mountains made for tricky shifting wind direction that could easily help or hinder crews.
Eve McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) had one such encounter in her race today when she found herself on the right handside of the course when a windshift favoured the left.
However, the race was abandoned due to the conditions and she went on to deliver a seventh place, her best of the series so far that moved her up to 35th place, well inside the top 55 boats that now form the Gold fleet in her ILCA6 event.
"We were racing under a mountain (shadow) so it was very, very tricky and absolute carnage to be honest," she said. "I was very happy, I got a good start and I was happy with my overall speed; that's how I should be racing all the time."
It was a similar story for Finn Lynch (National YC) in the ILCA7 event. After dropping back to 20th he was able to play a huge windshift in his favour and recovered to ninth for the day.
"The first two days were very shifty and hard but today was another level with 30-40 degree shifts," he said after racing. "It was very hard to get a counter result so ninth is okay.
After passing the halfway stage of the regatta, the event switches into the final round with two races daily scheduled until Monday afternoon - subject to weather which has proven quite unstable all week.
"It's still race by race - by after the first day of Gold fleet we'll have a better idea of who the guys fighting for the medals are," said Lynch.
Joining Lynch in the ILCA7 Gold fleet will be Ewan McMahon who found form enough in the last race of the qualification round to finish just inside the cut-off thanks to a seventh place in the single race of the day.
"I just wanted to go out and give it my all and not come in with any regrets," he said. "The first day I wasn't performing anywhere close to my potential and I just wanted to go out and prove to myself that I'm well able to race with these guys."
Unfortunately, the third McMahon sibling at the event had a slip in form as Jamie McMahon had a 42nd place and dropped back to 70th overall from well inside the Gold fleet range.
Meanwhile, a penalty applied to Rocco Wright (Howth YC) on Thursday evening saw him slip from the overall lead to second place in the ILCA6 Men's event after he had an eighth place. Nevertheless, just four points separates him from the lead with six races remaining.
Follow the results