Training: so much was covered at training that a report is pretty much impossible to writte down! we trained pretty hard in various conditions and valauble lessons were learnt especially on waves techniques.

Day 1: 3 races in 8-12 kts, big waves and oscillations. 383 boats from 14 countries launched from the marina and headed to the bay of Palma. 21 Irish (16 ISA squad members and 5 extra travelers).
The Irish started well with Sophie Browne continuing her lead up to the worlds starting her event with an excellent second. Peter McCann sailed a solid race eventually scoring 7th. The younger sailors were still a bit anxious and other results were not as high.
The second race was better with Peter and Jil in the top 10 of their race, douglas scoring 4th in his. Sophie and Megan were not far in 12th respectively.
The third race almost created our first race win when Ronan Cournane took an early lead. He settled with 3rd. Other top ten included Adam in 8th and Harry W in 9th.
Overall, Sophie is in 9th, Peter 12th, Harry W 26th, Daniel 30th and Douglas 31st

What a second day it was in Palma! sunshine and breeze at the menu... and big waves, or should I say massive waves... The breeze was just up enough for great surfs and the Irish surely retained the lessons learnt in Dublin and in the pre event training because they surely made the optimist look like a laser downwind with great speed and really sailing on the right lane overtaking the opposition as if they were sailing a different boat. Anyway, it was to be a good day overall with Sophie winning the first race in style before scoring a further 2 top 10. Peter Would have been on 3 top 10 as well if he had not messed up the finish of his 3rd race (11th, grrr!)thanks to excellent downwind skills. Ewan was on form starting with a 12th, before disaster striked when inside top 10, on a monster surf he lost control, part of a tooth and went for a swim...he retired and in shock talked to Soren. blood cleaned, tooth checked, relaxed and he went back for a fight scoring a 16th in the final race. Conor was the downwind master but saw one of his superb display ruined by an OCS (that was a 5th!). His 12th on the final race restored his smile. Jil finished her day on a high catching up from a mid thirties into 7th, she was indeed unstoppable after finding the fast lane on the run. Megan started with a solid 10th. Harry, Sean, Daniel and Douglas were consistent between 20th and 30th and the "smallies" sailed pretty well so after 6 races Ireland is placing 18 sailors out of 21 inside the top half. 3 races to go but the spirits are high!

Day 3... Definitely lighter! It was shifty and coming from the town in the first race. that meant flatter water and with the land heating up, sea breeze started to make the wind swing to the left in the middle of the race. Ronan Cournane was on the ball and went on to win his race. The other Irish were also on form with Douglas and Daniel taking 5th in their respective fleet. Sean, was also up there in 7th just ahead of Colin (11th) and Cliodhna (14th). Our two leaders missed the permanent shift and were left to fight down the fleet which meant the discard was used!
The sea breeze eventually settled from a south west direction and picked up to 8-10kts. The Irish bagged 3 more top 10 but the entertainment came from Sophie who converted a 18th at the initial windward into a bullet after a strong display on the run and the second beat just about edging out the final 3 boats right on the finish line. Indeed she made the rights decisions picking a couple of right shifts up the second beat gradually catching the front up the race until she placed herself in contention. Megan scored an excellent 6th and Sean Donnelly continued his strong come back overall with another 7th. Peter was once more fighting further back after a poor start. That meant the end of his chances of scoring a second top 10 overall for Ireland.
The last race, as per usual was pretty dodgy on the startline. Sophie was not phased out and had another solid race taking 8th. That secured her 4th overall and top girl, and more importantly gave her great confidence before the worlds. Ronan Wrapped up a great day with a 3rd and harry Durcan added a further top 10 to the Irish scorelines. Peter had to fight once more but this time found enough clear lanes to climb back to 13th which meant he just about stayed within his initial objective of top 15.

That was a great campaign with 16 sailors out of 21 in first half and surely a superb conclusion to a superb optimist season... We are now so close to put an Irish name on one of the major trophy... Can Sophie do the unthinkable in New Zealand. Best of Luck!

RESULTS