NORTHERN IRELAND SAILING TEAM EVENTS CHAMPIONSHIPS CELTIC CUP

The Celtic Cup is a shared event with RYA Wales and RYA Scotland. Hosting is passed around the three nations NI will host 2025.

As a late winter event, it is a chance for our sailors to put in practice their training efforts in a more competitive environment and establish friendship/training groups going into the competition season.

6 x ILCA and 6 x Topper to constitute a team, racing in Junior and Youth divisions.

Northern Ireland Sailing Team triumph in Celtic Cup clean sweep

The Northern Ireland sailing team triumphed in the Celtic Cup, following a tight weekend of racing held at Killyleagh Outdoor Education Centre.

The event is a nations sailing trophy between Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and each nation puts forward their six best Topper and ILCA 6 sailors to compete against each other.

Although the overall points difference between Northern Ireland and their Scottish and Welsh counterparts was very small, the weekend finished with a Northern Irish clean sweep after team victories in the Topper and ILCA 6 class.

After the competition, Northern Ireland Sailing Team member Alex Eadie said: “It was a pretty good day. It was windy to begin with but as it calmed down and everything got a bit better.

“It was very interesting as all the competitors were different sizes and everyone had a different skillset. It was weird because normally you would be competing against the Irish but then you’re trying to team up with them.

“My big learning points from the weekend were to make sure that everything was set up properly and I would say that the most important thing today was clean starts.

“I would definitely be keen to sail in the Celtic Cup again because I don’t think I did as well as I would have liked to. I would like to come back with a bit more experience and do a bit better.”

RYA Northern Ireland Performance Manager, Andrew Baker, said: “A clean sweep is fantastic but I don’t think the scores reflect just how close the racing really was. The other nations were definitely pushing hard and it’s fantastic to see.

“They say you earn the medals in the winter and you gain them in summer. It’s not what you do this weekend but it’s all the training sessions we’ve been doing previously.

“It was pretty windy and hard work this morning. I think at times they had only 30 seconds rest between races so everyone looked pretty gassed! You could clearly see in the results those sailors who had put the effort in with their fitness because talent only gets you so far.

“For a lot of these guys, they’re going to go to the ILCA Europeans or Topper Worlds and it’s very easy to get stuck in your nation or little group. This event spreads that out and just makes life so much easier.”

Conditions all weekend were challenging. Too much wind on Saturday meant that racing was abandoned for the day and sailors had mixed conditions on day two ranging between eight and sixteen knots.

With such high-quality opposition, this is a great achievement for those sailors and coaches involved. This included:

Topper Team

• Adam Green
• Zoe Westhurst
• Ben McCaldin
• Alex Eadie
• Polly Robinson
• James Eadie
• Leo Westhurst

ILCA 6 Team

• Daniel Palmer
• Bobby Driscoll
• Cormac Byrne
• Autumn Haliday
• Freddie Doig

On top of the overall team win, there were some great individual performances across the five races sailed. Adam Green placed 3rd in the Topper class and Daniel Palmer and Bobby Driscoll placed 1st and 2nd respectively in the ILCA 6 class.