Five of the Northern Ireland Sailing Team sailors were in action at the U21 ILCA Championships in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, providing them valuable experience in a hugely competitive fleet.
Zoe Whitford, Autumn Halliday, Tom Coulter, Bobby Driscoll and Daniel Palmer all took part in the event between 25 and 29 August, which was a young squad made up mostly of sailors competing their first senior ILCA competition.
Bobby Driscoll and Daniel Palmer were also competing in their first major ILCA 7 competition. In a windy week, this was undeniably physically attritional, however it will be key to their overall development.
After a tough qualifying series, Bobby Driscoll finished the event strongly as top Irish U19 boat, with Ballyholme Yacht Club’s Daniel Palmer finishing just two places behind him.
Tom Coulter put together a solid series, qualifying for the Gold Fleet, with a number of strong performances including a 2nd place in the final series.
ILCA 6
- Zoe Whitford – 60th
- Autumn Halliday – 70th
ILCA 7
- Tom Coulter – 39th
- Bobby Driscoll – 101st
- Daniel Palmer – 103rd
To view the full results, click here.
Speaking after the event, RYA Northern Ireland Performance Manager, Andrew Baker, said: “With the World Championships coming to Ireland and sailing on ‘home soil’, it was too good an opportunity to miss. A number of our ILCA 6 sailors made the jump up to the ILCA 7 (Men’s Olympic boat). Having a very limited time in the more physically demanding boat with a higher level of competition would be a big enough challenge in itself but to do it on a week that regularly saw over 20 knots was testament to our guys.
As I always point out, we are quick to look at the score line and draw our conclusions form that, but at the transitioning level it is important the sailors set achievable process goals that are not always results based. Simply taking part in this event is a huge learning curve for the guys and sets them up for a solid winter of training.
“You must go to an event and either win or learn. No one is going to step into a new boat or a higher level of competition and win straight away, so guess it’s going to be all about the learning and how to learn fast.”
The ILCA class will be one of the classes which will compete at the John Minnis Youth Championships on 13 and 14 September in Ballyholme Yacht Club.
This competition promises to be a fantastic event as it is Northern Ireland’s largest annual multi-class sailing competition. If you would like to enter this competition, click here.
