ISA Senior All Ireland Sailing Championship

Ireland’s most prestigious annual national sailing event, the ISA All Ireland Sailing Championship, will take place from Friday the 5th to Sunday the 7th of October in Lough Derg Yacht Club in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. The invitational championship, which began in 1947, will see 21 of Ireland’s leading sailors compete over the three days in the ISA’s fleet of J80 keelboats for the title of 2012 Champion and the ISA Helmsman’s Trophy.  

Returning to the regatta to defend his title will be 24 year old reigning champion George Kenefick from Cork who narrowly beat three time Olympic sailor Mark Mansfield to the win in 2011. Mansfield will also be competing at this year’s event but he will need to win one of the three spots available through Friday’s qualifier if he is to compete against Kenefick once again for the title. Also returning for a second consecutive year will be 2011 bronze medallist and 2012 Olympic 49er sailor Ryan Seaton who will be one to watch. The youngest competitor at the event will be Fionn Lyden, fresh from winning the ISA Junior All Ireland Sailing Championship in Schull last weekend.   

Following a review of the event earlier this year, the championship qualification process has undergone some changes. A total of 16 boats will compete across two fleets of eight on Saturday. 13 of these places are allocated prior to the event; one to the reigning champion, two Wild Cards and 10 to particular classes based on their attendance figures at national championships. The remaining places will be filled following an eight boat qualifier on the Friday. There the top three boats will earn their place in Saturday racing.

The top three boats from each fleet on Saturday will progress to Sunday’s final fleet with two places remaining for the top two boats from a two race repechage on Sunday morning.