Day 5 Results on http://www.nyc.ie/sovereignskitopperworlds2011/results/ Patrick Crosbie is surely one of the most talented sailor of his generation. The Cork sailor added a line to an already rich sailing carreer. At only 15, Paddy has raced two oppy Europeans, numerous international events and was runner up at the 2010 opti nationals. His tranfer onto the 420 was also very successful with a victory at the ISA youth nationals in 2011 and a deserved lead at the unofficial 420 ranking... And now scoring a amazing 3rd at the Topper world to conclude a short campaign in the boat. Paddy started straight away within contention ending the qualifying series in 11th. It was in gold he revealed his cards scoring two bullets, moving up to 2nd only dropping to 3rd being on the wrong side of the final shift of the final race. Barry McCartin and Alan Ruigrok were happy coaches with a string of excellent results from the Irish, Laura Gilmore finishing 5th and top girl, Erica Ruigrok 15th and 4th girl and Tim Brow 10th just to mention the top!

Final Results

1st, SPAIN
2nd, ITALY
3rd, TURKEY
4th, Croatia
5th, Switzerland
6th, France
7th IRELAND
8th Poland
9th Germany
10th, Sweden
11th, Belgium
12th, Slovenia
13th,Denmark
14th, GBR
15th, Norway

The story of the Europeans

Day Four
Tough day with massive shifts and breeze going from 2 to 20 kts...
Our first match against switzerland was another very entertaining contest with good team racing in 5-8 kts. Peter Was sitting out the match watching the nail bitting finish. It was a team effort with Sean succeeding on his final move just before the line securing the win for Ireland.
Then the long wait started. Peter remained ashore whilst the OOD moved location to attempt continuing racing. The breeze turned around by 180degres and was coming down in gust. it seemed soft enough so I kept Peter in... Mistake as just for our start against the French the breeze picked up to 18 kts and depite winning the start the Irish could not resist the french superior speed. Sean's penalty just before the windward sealed any hope in turning it around on the downwind legs and despite Eoin keeping it alive just before the last beat preventing the french holding a 1-2-3, no team racing moves could be done in the big breeze and we got beaten.
Team Ireland ended their campaign in 7th with a total of 11 wins and 12 losses. The losses have to be put in perspectives as we met the top teams twice or 3 times during the course of the event. The team needed a bit of time together to get going but it must be said they were a lot stronger by the end of the regatta and would surely have benefitted from team racing together before coming to Ledro. Lets keep this in mind for next year.
Team Ireland
Peter McCann
Sean Donnelly
Eoin Lyden
Megan Parker
Cliodhna O Sullivan
Top 3 1st Spain
2nd Italy
3rd Turkey
PS: we did beat Spain in the phase 1 and Italy in gold league

Day Four ( morning)
Clouds! this is not good as the thermal will struggle to set in. The program is still relatively dense with the silver fleet to conclude and the final positions to decide.
So far we have sailed 21 matches, won 10 and lost 11. We finished the phase one in 7th joint point with 8th (Poland) and made Gold. In gold we collected a further 3 wins to finish Gold in 6th, but combining phase one and gold we remained in 7th.
Today we are racing a small round for 5th, 6th and 7th place. As the points of Phase one and gold carry forward, we can only move one place up by winning our two match today. A defeat will keep us in 7th. Switzerland and France are the opposition. It was good matches in the previous two rounds, so we anticipate a last burst of excitement... Lets hope the wind shows!


Day Three
Gooooooold!
The attraction of the morning was the dreaded match between Ireland and Sweden with the winner securing Gold fleet and the looser settling with Silver. And what a match it was with the ingredients of brilliant team racing. The match started on a back foot for Ireland with two Swedes taking charge and the other two in the mix including a 4th. Megan was close to a heart attack on shore turning in her head our options, and pressure was on as it was down to our least experienced team racer to turn things around. Cliodhna had to set the trap after the run to allow Sean into 3rd whilst Peter and Eoin were busy dropping the last swede into last. Cliodhna made it perfect! Sean squeezed in, took over from cliodhna in pinning to the left the poor swede who was left with no options whilst Cliodhna got back into racing fast mode. Peter and Eoin kept good composure and despite the leading Swedes slowing down and trying to get involved as they saw the outcome of the match slipping away, they made no impact and Ireland took the win... And Gold fleet it was!
Gold fleet: the excellent, the good, the mistakes, the brain failure!
It started extremely well with Ireland turning a balanced match with Switzerland into an outstanding 1-2-3- 4. The last beat was a model of smartness with the Irish keeping an eye on the wind and taking advantage of a lovely left gust to leave the swiss looking at their transom.
Then Overall they sailed two solid match but with too many penalties and despite Peter entertaining the crowd by trying the desperate maneuver of trying to force the last french onto a black flag penalty after the other 3 french scored a 1-2-3, that was two loss on the scoresheet.
Then the brain failure! Cliodhna had taken her penalties without the empires intervening up to now and against Turkey, she collected a penalty and took only one turn which meant the black flag came out. A very costly mistake as it meant Ireland will be protested tonight with no hope of leniency so deep into the event.
Cliodhna was taken out and Eoin stepped back in for a solid win against Poland followed by a good match against Spain, but once more too many penalties collected to truly have any hope!
The final match was exciting with Cliodhna back in and the Irish turning the match around against Italy snatching the win on the line after great work from Peter and Sean who definitely have learnt and grown as team racers each days. It was entertaining ashore for Megan and I listening to the Italien coach loosing his temper going crazy and throwing his binocular.
So we end up gold with 3 wins and 4 losses. The group is now working more as a unit and had delivered some great moves. each one of them have grown into better team racers and as usual the briefing and debriefing from the empires have been invaluable.
We have missed the semis and lie in 7th. Tomorrow, if times allows we will still be given the chance to improves towards 5th with France (5th) and Switzerland (6th) to overtake, but that will require a clean sheet against them and Poland (8th)


Day Two
Humm! great team racing on lake shadowed by a controversial final decision by the race officer to race a dodgy race and cancel the following one... Of course we lost the dodgy one and were comfortably leading the other one! Where was the luck of the Irish?
Anyway, the team kept their 3 wins from yesterday despite the 4 OCS collected... It started slowly with a good match against Denmark unfortunately lost on the line. But the team showed progress and followed on by a strong win against Spain. They were unlucky to loose against Croatia after a solid work by Peter... We then set for a long wait when the conditions were the best (we sat out 4 flights). The team was polishing their tactics for a crucial final 4, indeed to secure gold, 4 wins were in order! 2 superb races later we were on course to make it. Peter and Sean orchestrated the team well to secure the two wins. Slovenia was next and definitely an achievable target as pretty young (but very light). The wind dropped to nothing and shifted to the left. Ireland was controlling the right and Slovenia eventually squeezed 1-2-3-4... no cancellation of the race despite one of the slovenian making the mark in one tack. Anyway, that was the end of the race! the following one against Sweden started well in the very dying breeze with a solid 1-2-4-6 at the windward, but the OOD decided to cancel it this time with the breeze dying to pretty much nothing.
We protested ( alongside the Swedes) the fairness of such a decision but the OOD would have none of it and managed to dismiss the arguments of both captains. it meant that after 13 match sailed, we have 6 wins and 7 losses... It seems our place in Gold depends on our ability to beat Sweden (also on 6-7). There is indeed only one place left and it will be played by the two teams.

Day One
What a scenery, and as usual, the wind came with 4-8 kts for good team racing.
We were in group B with France, Italy, GBR, Norway, Turkey, switzerland and Germany. Tough job! we raced 7 matches. The team did not particularly go well making small mistakes there and there and mostly not controlling their start with too many individual recalls.
On the water, the team got 3 wins and 4 losses, including a very close one with the French, but it is still pretty confusing as some OCS have not been added to the scores yet and with our dodgy starts, we could end up heavily penalized! fingers crossed we wont.
Hopefully tomorrow, our starts will be sorted and our full potential will be unleashed.