Day 5... sunshine, light and shifty, very shifty! And two silver medals for Ireland!

Junior fleet. 3 more races were sailed. the squad had their up and down in the difficult conditions but overall the day ended up in smiles. Niamh did not have a great day but kept fighting till the end of the day and was rewarded with a 14th overall and 2nd girl. Ewan had an excellent second race (5th) and caught up to 13th... The other good results of the day included a 4th from Rebecca, a 6th from James, a 16th from Evie and a 14th from Colin. Harry was surely the come back kid with superb second beats. Overall the U12 had two top 15 and 6 sailors in the top 30. Kate raced courageously in silver in conditions she does not like scoring in the late teens.
http://www.kbsuk.com/data/OptimistIOCAEvents/data/results/2011natjungoldnh.html
http://www.kbsuk.com/data/OptimistIOCAEvents/data/results/2011natjunsilvernh.html

Senior fleet. The smile was not far with Peter scoring a 7th and a 2nd and hoping to discard the 42nd collected on the final race. Unfortunately he was BFD on the 2nd costing him over 40 pts being unable to discard the 42nd. He however finished 13th overall in a disappointing event overall for our top sailors. Sean and Cliodhna added a top 10 each to their series but will also go home with the feeling they could have done better. Cliodhna was also 7th girl! Doug overall sailed well and his showing his progress towards the top of the fleet with yet another good results in the second race. Conor Kneafsy had a good day but settled with 2nd overall in silver with Anna Kelly and Bill Staunton also in the top 10 after good finishes in the difficult conditions.
http://www.kbsuk.com/data/OptimistIOCAEvents/data/results/2011natsengoldnh.html
http://www.kbsuk.com/data/OptimistIOCAEvents/data/results/2011natsensilvernh.html< /p>

Regatta Racing. With 86 entry, the main regatta fleet was very competitive with shorter but intense races. After 13 races, the best finisher was Grace O Beirne in 17th. Consistency was not her modo, but she scored several top 10 including a 2nd.
http://www.kbsuk.com/data/OptimistIOCAEvents/data/results/2011natregracingnh.html

Regatta coaching. He is one to keep an eye on for the futur. discreetly under the shadow of the top fleet, Jamie McMahon had a great event in the 64 entry of the regatta coaching fleet. The 9 year old collected two bullets and picked up second place overall.
http://www.kbsuk.com/data/OptimistIOCAEvents/data/results/2011natregcoachingnh.htm l

Mini racing. One Irish entry in the miniracing fleet. 9 year old Natasha Hemerick progressed all week and collected 10th overall after scoring a lovely 5th on the 3rd race.
http://www.kbsuk.com/data/OptimistIOCAEvents/data/results/2011natminiracersnh.html

British Nationals Day 4
Finals underway, and what a great day it was! Sunhine, hiking weather ( 12-15 kts)and surfable waves... The 4th race was on everyone's mind but did not come so we settled with 3 superb races.
2 bullets for Ireland. It was not to be in the premier fleets, but however kept the camp smiling. In the Junior Silver, Kate eventually found speed and litterally killed any opposition on the final race of the day taking a comfortable gun.
The rest of the team:
Junior: It was not a great day at the office for the leaders with Niamh wasting a lot of energy playing catch up in race 1 and 2 she unfortunately paid on race 3. If the top girl is now well ahead, Niamh is still 13th overall and on course for a podium finish. She needs to keep a cool head today! Ewan sailed well with a 10th and a 15th but the third race was unfortunately BFD. Evis had a solid 13th on the second race. It was tough out there but the U12 did their best learning valuables lessons.
Seniors: Peter woke up, and despite still a bit rusty in some of his decisions, 3 solid finishes (10-4-2) helped him to climb towards a potential top 10. The rest of the gold representative had a tough day afloat scoring mid fleets. In the silver, Bill and Conor K now lie 2nd and 3rd after a solid day afloat.
British Nationals Day 3
The qualifying series just concluded in gorgeous sunshine and still light winds. The Irish are not really making an impact ( just yet) on the overall provisionals, but the top 10 keep popping from various sailors showing the depth of our fleet.
In junior, Niamh Henry continued on her good form with another two top 10 (6-10) and places 13th overall just a couple of points off top 5 ( it is tight upthere) and still well in contention for top girl. she now lies 3rd only 3 points of the spanish leader. That will keep the Irish on their toes for the remaining two days.
The other sailors had a more mixed day. Harry scored another top 10 and the rest of the squad was scoring inside top 20... It meant all Irish part from 5 made it to gold and will be looking at improving on their positions today.
In seniors, the results were solid, except for Cliodhna who did not manage to shift gear after a poor first start. Sean (2-10), Conor O B (10-6), Peter (12-10), Doug (3-9) are looking ahead after catching up several positions yesterday. All 5 made Gold. the rest of the team will look at silver fleet top positions.
Today, the breeze seems to be a little higher touching the double digits... We have readjusted masts rakes and looking forward to a couple of races hiking out!
British Nationals Day 2

UK nats day 3. Sunshine, chop, wind (almost double digits at time) and 3 races thanks to an efficient work of the PRO and the black flag up straight away.

In the juniors, we have now scored 7 extra top 10 courtesy of the squad. Niamh (7, 3, 8) is now 10th overall and first girl, Ewan (14, 15, 3) made a couple of mistakes but fought well, Evie (9, 6, 24) was on fire for the best part of the day and Harry collected a 10th on his middle race! So far , most of the Irish are well on target to secure a gold fleet selection.

In the seniors, Cliodhna continued her good form with another 2nd and 5th before fading away with 28th she will hope to discard placing her 11th. Peter scored a 4th in the second race of the day but unfortunately he does not seem to be on winning form. Douglas had a good day with 3 top 15 unfortunately seeing one taken away under black flag.

4 races done, 8 to go! The irish girls are showing the way, lets hope the boys will follow tomorrow...


British Nationals Day 1

Light, very light, super light... A long time afloat for one tough race in 5kts dying to pretty much nothing for the senior fleet.

The coaches challenge was won by Ross today in 9 pts ( Courtesy of Cliodhna, Rory (Bermuda) and Sean), ahead of Tom and Katie... Friendly challenge taking our top 3 sailors of our respective groups per race :-). Joke apart, It was a good day overall for Ireland.

In the junior fleet, Ewan and Niamh were at the front of the fleet after a solid first beat. Ewan gained a little to score a 4th and Niamh dropped a little to take 6th. Issy had a smart race gaining a couple of valuable places on the reach and score a 9th. Colin had an excellent start, a good first beat, a dodgy run but kept his composure regaining the ground dropped to end his challenge in 10th.
In the senior fleet, Cliodhna was solid gaining all around to take eventually 2nd in her fleet... For a while it seemed Peter was on course to score a top 3 as well, but he had a bit of a BF (you will have to ask him for the translation) up the second beat and a disastrous finish. Sean Donnelly was solid all around taking 4th.

Tomorrow, 3 races are at the program. The forecast is still very light so we keep out finger crossed racing will be possible.


Pre-Nationals Practice race

If the juniors took it relatively seriously it was the usual shamble in the senior fleet. Conditions were nice witha 8-10 kts race in choppy sea. Ewan was on the ball with a 2nd ( actually 4th afloat but a few BFD ahead). Niamh and Eoghan were fast all day but over at the start. Loghlen was solid all around taking 7th and several other sailors comfortably settling into top 25 positions.
But as per usual the practice race does not deliver much in terms of sussing out the opposition. I was more an exercise to settle into our routine.

The particularity of this year is that several foreign sailors have joined the IRL team making the briefings more colourful and sending the right signal to the kids developing international friendship I have no doubt facebook will maintain. Janaki and Mahesh from India, Rory from Bermuda, Calum from Hong-Kong and Jim from France have joined Ross and Katie's groups. As per Usual, I am supporting the U12 IODAI squad and we will be looking at maintaining our last few years good form.