Slow start fails to dampen spectacular Cork County Council IFDS World Sailing Championships in Kinsale

Three new world champions were crowned at the most picturesque setting of Kinsale on Friday as the Cork County Council IFDS World Sailing Championships came to a conclusion after a successful week.

The championships did get off to a slow start with the calm conditions suiting the many tourists attracted to the region but not the sailors.
After Sunday's practice race, the scheduled opening to proceedings on Monday never took place due to the light winds. Wednesday's racing was also lost but a full programme on Thursday and Friday, allied to Tuesday's action, assured a competitive event.

There was an hour's delay to the commencement of proceedings on Tuesday and when the 18-boat fleet finally got going in the Sonar class did get under way, the race had to be abandoned mid-way through the first leg as the wind died once more.

That was a temporary delay though and after one general recall, the class managed three races. The French crew skipped by Bruno Jourden ended the day on top of the classification after winning the first race and following up with fifth- and second-placed finishes.

Australian Colin Harrison was in second, with London Paralympics bronze medallist, Alexsander Wang-Hansen of Norway in third.

The three Irish boats had mixed fortunes with local clubman, Providence Team Ireland member and IFDS president John Twomey being penalised for an error with an OCS score of 19. A fourth-placed finish for Twomey and his crew of Anthony Hegarty and Ian Costello elevated them to 12th overall at the end of the day.

Twomey's Kinsale clubmate Paul McCarthy, and his crew of Brian O'Mahoney and Paul Ryan, lay one spot ahead after a consistent run with Tralee's Jacqui Browne, Amy Kelehan and Austin O'Carroll in 18th. With the loss of Wednesday's action, Thursday was only the second day of racing and the 10-12 knots south-westerly wind was a welcome to everyone. Jourden tightened his grip on top spot with two wins and a second, with Udo Hessels (Netherlands) climbing to second and Harrison dropping to third.

Ireland's 10-time Paralympic Games competitor, Twomey broke into the top 10 in seventh, with a series of consistent results - a third, fourth and seventh.

Unfortunately, the 57-year-old dropped two more places by the end of the final day of the championships, despite showing further consistency with three top 10 finishes of eighth, ninth and 10th.
McCarthy couldn't keep up his early good form and a series of finishes towards the end of the fleet saw him drop to 16th, while Browne ended up in 18th.

Jourden was a convincing winner of the gold medal having won four of the nine races and been second in three more. With fifth his discard score, the French man was always comfortable. The Dutch crew skippered by Hessels cemented the silver medal with Harrison claiming the bronze.

In the two-man Skud 18 fleet Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell of Britain became world champions of their sphere, while German, Heiko Kroger scooped the gold in the 2.4mR class.