Mixed start for Irish youth sailors

The Four Star Pizza ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship got off to a tricky start for the 350 crews of 14-19 year olds from 63 nations. Dublin Bay threw up a mix of light to moderate winds, with shifts and gusts as clouds passed over, while allowing the occasional glimpse of sunshine through.

The stand-out opening day performance among the Irish teams competing came from Cork's Patrick Crosbie and Grattan Roberts in the 420 Boy's class, who lie third overall in what is their first international regatta. They are 11 points adrift of the French leaders Guillaume Pirouelle and Valentin Sipan after posting a 15-2 score in today's two races.

"It was pretty good - better than we expected," said Crosbie, aged 15. In today's second race they had managed to get into second on the first upwind leg. "It is hard to tell," Crosbie admitted of where he expected them to be at this early stage of the regatta. "We didn't know a lot of the boats or what the level was. We are very happy today."

Dun Laoghaire's Finn Lynch lies fourth overall from 45 starters in the Laser Radial Men's class, where he is tied on points with Mexico's Ander Belausteguigoitia, and nine points behind leader Tobias Hemdorff from Denmark.

Sophie Murphy (Laser Radial Girls Class) was let down by an 18th in race two today, when she was 'yellow flagged', penalised for excess 'pumping' on the first reach. With her 8th in race one this leaves her 10th overall on 26 points, but with a considerable amount of work still to do if she is to catch the meticulous Norwegian sailor Line Flem Host, who's 2-1 score today makes her the runaway leader.
Aside from this Belfast's Murphy said she was "happy enough with today. With the Youth Worlds the points are so high - last year if you averaged a tenth you would have won overall." However so early on in the regatta (which finishes on Friday 20th) she won't spectacle on the ultimate outcome. "I'm literally going to take each race as it comes - there's no point not looking at the end result; I really don't want to jinx anything."

Murphy paid tribute to Dun Laoghaire's three clubs who are organising and hosting the Four Star Pizza ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship. "They are doing a fantastic job. I think the professionalism and the organisation that has gone into this event is really second-to-none."

Dublin Bay's Alexander Rumball and Rory McStay lie 10th from 15 in the 'open' SL16 catamaran class, where Belgium's Henri Demesmaeker/Philip Hendrickx and Australia's Paul Darmanin/Lucy Copeland are tied in first place on four points.

"We did better in the first race. The second race was really gusty and shifty, as all these gusts kept coming down. We got on the right side of one on the last beat of that race and it brought us up a load," said Rumball, adding that they were seeing the wind shifting in direction by 20 degrees at times.

The Irish team Croatian coach Milan Vujasinovic commented of his team's performance: "I happy. It could be better, but in these really hard conditions, many good guys and girls made a lot of mistakes."

Three more races are scheduled for tomorrow at the Four Star Pizza ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship when more wind is forecast with 15-16 knot out of west.

The 42nd International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Youth Sailing World Championship (AKA the Youth Olympics of sailing) is taking place from 13th - 21st July 2012. After a highly competitive bidding process, Ireland is honoured to have been chosen to host this much celebrated event which is renowned for providing the world with its first glimpse of future sailing stars and Olympians. 350 sailors aged 16 - 19 years of age, accompanied by 150 coaches, from 63 nations representing six continents are sail in ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship. 250 boats across eight classes (including Laser Radials, 420_s, SL16_s and 29ers) will be raced by these sailors.