See photo albums on the linked days

• DAY1: 10-15kts in the morning, 18-22kts in afternoon. 3 solid hours afloat on speed testing and control adjustment
• DAY2 : 20kts for 2 hours in the afternoon. More speed work up and downwind.
• DAY3 : day off driving up in the Alps including an afternoon on the slope learning how to ski. Entertaining to say the least. Videos pretty funny.
• Day 4 : a long day afloat started in 8-10 kts upwind all the way to Malcesines followed by a long downwind in the building Ora (ended at 18kts back to Torbole)
• DAY5 : a day dedicated to boat preparation, sorting out entries. Clara swapped back to her 4.7 for the event and went afloat for a 90 mins session with Cian and Tadgh. A good day overall!
• FIRST RACING DAY : Humm! 230 boats in each of the two fleet we are racing in ( radial and 4.7). this event is going to be huge. The morning northerly died rapidely leaving hope for a good afternoon. However the south side of the lake was pretty foggy and haze was covering the mountains giving some worries about the ability of the Ora to kick in. As feared, the wind was up and down and struggling to establish itself leading to a long wait afloat. somehow it picked up around 4pm from a direction a little further left than the Ora, but steady enough on the radial course. on the 4.7 course it was definitely more complexe. Marc was off a shinning start on the first raceracing a full lap inside the top 10 before small mistakes there and there dropped him to a 23rd. Colm was about 10 places behind in the same fleet. Georgina went off a superb start but dropped her concentration heading to the wrong mark on the second beat dropping her in the 60s. On the 4.7 course Cian and Tadgh sailed a solid race to finish in the 30s whilst Clara waisted a good start pushing the left side too far and falling into a hole with no wind. It was to be the only race for them with the radial battling in a second one with Colm and Marc mid fleet of their flight once more. Georgina dropped concentration again and will look at improving on this aspect tomorrow. I am now gone for two days back to Ireland, but the routine is in place and all should be fine. Back online Monday!
• Garda end: The 4.7 group (Tadgh, Clara and Cian) showed great promises and surely reminded the ISA national squad not to take their place for granted. Tadgh had a VERY consistent series with all races between 13th and 22nd apart from one. Unfortunately the high discard policy on Ecups worked against him and he was our best finisher in 54th. A top 40 would have been a better reflection of his performance. Out of the 230 boats that would have been pretty excellent. Cian was next in line. less consistent he however scored two top 10 (an 8th and a 9th) in lighter breeze to end his challenge 66th and 7th U16 (out of 80). Both Tadgh and Cian beat 5 out of 6 of the "official" national team. Clara found the going tough and never found pace. probably a bit phased out she finished 210th.
  The radials had high and lows and found the fleet pretty hard. None managed to secure the coveted ISA international criteria in their quest for ISAF youth worlds selection. Colm was the closest (97th and 54th youth boy) and he scored a couple of solid mid twenties. The high discard did not suit him either. He has made good progress in the breeze but there is still a lot of work to be done to see the front of such a fleet. Mark was next in 158th. he started strong and sailed more comfortably in the lighter races. A lot more work has to be done in stronger breeze. Georgina had her baptism of fire in radial in probably the hardest ecup of the year and in a way handled it OK. she ended up 182nd but showed promises with a solid 18th on the last day and a couple of good mooves on the windy races.

We arrived yesterday and today we hoped to sail. Humm! the wind decided otherwise ( flat calm all day) and we took the chance to do a bit of boat maintenance, register, do measurement, launch the RIB and relax.

After 3 days racing, we have now 6 races on the board. the team started slow with average results. Tadgh was the first to score high with a 2nd in the 3rd race unfortunately OCS as his port flyer was slightly miss-timed. Colm was solid in the mid fleet. Yesterday was finally a great day with Colm nailing the starts and the difficult laylines scoring a 7th and 2nd. Tadgh was also working well and scored a 20th and a 4th. Today is very light and it looks pretty difficult to get a race... so the results might stand.

Colm in action in race 3.

Eventually we had one race. Mark was leading at the first mark eventually dropping to 6th ( unfortunately OCS). Colm tried his best to recover from a poor start to end up his challenge in 22nd just one ahead of Georgina. Overall Colm was our best finisher in 21st ( and 12th youth)

We have arrived in a very sunny La Rochelle. It is pretty light but we are clocking hours afloat. we alternatively work on speed and settings within ourselves and with the french regional squad on starts and tactics.

Sunday we raced in Royan. 30 radials from the french regional squad ( and one German girl) entered the event. Colm sailed well to take 3rd position overall. Tadgh enjoyed the light breeze and the bigger sail to take 6th. I sailed as well in the radial ( did not enjoy the light breeze, must say) to take 9th, one ahead of Mark. The girls were slightly further back mid fleet: Georgina 15th and Clara 17th.

Album Training La Rochelle.

Final event of the tour! Day one was epic launch in chaos on the single slipway allocated to all the sailors and spending over 7 hours afloat until dark basically! Colm and Tadgh looked pretty determined this morning and it showed straight away in the races. on the 4.7 course, it is after a long wait that they raced the unique race. Tadgh was off a solid start in the middle of the line, rounding the top mark 17th. by the second beat he was back to 15th and it is with abnegation he linked with the group ahead and pipped a few more before the finish line to secure 10th. Colm in the radials showed the same fighting spirit On the initial race, he was upthere on the first beat rounding the top mark in 7th but fell in a hole on the reach and having stayed low, he got shafted by sailors coming back from behind. after the second beat, he was back up to 10th and this time it is a capsize ( not looking behind for a massive pressure coming) that threw him back to 16th on the line. the following race was a dog fight every minutes where he kept climbing positions up to 16th on the line. A Race I surely liked a lot! Mark had a solid race to start with in the 20s before struggling off the line in the second and racing an anonymous mid fleet race. The girls went back to their poor starting skills and there was no miracle. Georgina showed fighting spirit when the fat lady had sang and climbed places all around the course.... after the first beat ( both time disastrous). Clara showed a better understand of wind phases but her course corners are still very approximatives.

Today start at 11.30... Wind are light again! The day will be tough again.

£ races for the 4.7 and two for the radials. shifty, gusty and brains overheated! Tagh was not on a good day and if he saved a little his initial race finishing 28th, the 2nd and the 3rd were absolute disasters ( tangled for ages with another sailor and a costly capsize upwind ended chances of a decent result!). In the radials, Georgina was on course to give the coach a smile with a cracker on the line and picking the right phase with the initial shift, but a couple of mistakes dropped her outside top 10. she eventually scored a valuable 24th ahead of Colm who had collected a rule 42 penalty and recovered from pretty much last to 34th. Mark was mid fleet and Clra despite a good first half of her race dropped back in the 70s. The second race in the radial was painful to watch. Mark did not manage to capitalise from a superb start and a solid race losing 7 places on the final little beat ( panic button looked pushed!) to take 24th. Colm and the girls were struggling at the back of their fleet. Hopefully today will be a better day. start at 12.30.

Full results after 4 races. Radials and laser 4.7

The second half of the championship started with another disater for Tadgh, but that was surely the sound of revolt and he scored thereafter 3 solid races more in Line with his abilities. Clara was very close to score the race of her life when she rounded the top mark in 3rd on race 6, unfortunately ruined by a bit of febrility and a messy last mark rounding. Colm faded a little but eventually secured his international criteria placing him on the hunt for the ISAF youth worlds place (5 Irish made the criteria). Mark inconsistency dropped him too many places to join Colm.

Full results

A very worthwhile exercise for the sailors! Loads were learnt in terms of sailing but also in terms of life skills. Colm achieved the coveted ISA international criteria keeping him on the hunt for an ISAF youth worlds place. Tadgh has become a force to keep in mind in the breeze in the 4.7 class.

Munsters! Not the greatest event by the admittance of the sailors with several hick-ups ( like a 15 minutes race or results all over the place and mistery BFDs....). Mark was the best finisher in the radial with a race win and an 8th overall. Colm had a poor first day taking 10th overall. Clara was 32nd and Georgina 40th. Tadgh recorded 2 race wins but only finished 7th. Cian was only a few points ahead but it was enough to clinch 3rd.

The program got a very positive publicity at the youth nationals with Georgina taking the bronze in the girls ( 16th overall). She was definitely in the game holding on to silver for two days but eventually edged by both favourites for the title. Mark and Colm comfirmed their progress both finishing inside top 10 with a couple of great scores. Clara found it tougher but showed moment of good sailing. This should transfer positively for the rest of the season. Tadgh unfortunately let the podium disapear after a disastrous second day. He took a creditable 6th after a solid final day.