The laser Ulsters were sailed in Cushendall SBC at the weekend... It was a long drive up to many of the munster based sailors but there was still a large fleet entered. Five B-cademy sailors made the journey to sail in the radial fleet and the light air still over Ireland (Where is the breeze) allowed 5 races. It was to be Eoin Keller's turn to Shine and his solid series gave him a very deserved 2nd place overall just a few points behind Olympic campaigner Tiffany Brien and ahead of B-cademy member Rory Lynch, winner of the final race. Sean Murphy paid his slow start to the event, but his strong finish including a 2nd and a 3rd gave him a deserved 7th just a couple of points off Academy and RYA youth squad members. Ruth Harrington had a good series and despite an OCS took 11th overall. Will Byrne's is still working hard on his light air skills and despite an excellent 9th position in the second race, settled with 20th. It was to be in the 4.7 class that the biggest upset came from with freshly retired optimist sailor Conor Murphy edging out on the final two races his strong opposition to take his first laser win... at his first event!!!

Well done lads... And lady! I hope to see all of you in Kinsale next month for what should be a great clinic.

The optimist teams (development and European teams) gathered in RCYC for a weekend coaching. It was to be a pretty relaxed weekend aiming mainly at preparing the spring program for the group and work on team bonding... George Kingston was assisting me for the occasion. We spent about 8 hours afloat mainly having a bit of fun, working on speed and do a bit of racing (2 RCYC club ligue races), the first one won by Philip Brownlow before John Durcan's great downwind skills edged out the opposition on the second race. The group will race next weekend at the Munsters.