Penultimate Day On Shifty Dublin Bay At Optimist European Sailing Championships

After three days of glorious sunshine at the Optimist European Sailing Championships when Dublin Bay rivalled the Costa Smeralda, yesterday's fog was succeeded by what in Ireland is called a soft day - drizzle and mist - but at least there was reasonable wind.

The new conditions clearly did not suit many of the sailors on the overnight leader board with the notable exception in the girls' Gold fleet of Ebru Bolat, sailing for the Royal Romanian Yacht Club. She had a superb race. In the top pack from the start, on the shifty final beat she and Pia Dahl Andersen (Norway) broke free on the right hand side and Ebru finished 2nd. She is now sure of a medal with a 26 point lead and her only rival for Gold, Spain's Iset Segura, must come in the top two tomorrow to win the event. Martina Müller from Lake Zürich remains in Bronze position but the group behind her is very close and includes Alexandra Stalder (Italy), renowned for having won the 850+ boat Garda Meeting in 2013, currently in fourth place.

In the boys' Gold fleet leader Enzo Balanger from Guadeloupe sailing for France sailed his discard in 20th. He is still ten points clear of his main rival Kasper Nordenram (Sweden) but the main beneficiary of the new conditions were Daniel Toh of Singapore who won the race and German Lennart Kuss from the famous Baltic sailing venue of Warnemund who came 4th.

The new conditions did seem to suit the Irish better than their rivals. In the boys' Gold fleet James McCann, lying 14th overnight, rose to 10th equalling his best ranking so far. In the girls' Gold Clare Gorman who was back in 32nd place this morning sailed an excellent race. On the final leg in shifting winds she sailed a very conservative last beat to finish 14th and raise her overall ranking to 23rd. Gemma McDowell of Malahide and Alix Buckley of Skerries retained their placings in this illustrious company.

In the boys' Silver fleet (52-102 of the 153 boat fleet) Harry Bell had the best day of the Irish boys and lies in the top half of this division and therefore in the top half of the over-all ranking. Among the girls Dara Donnelly achieved an excellent 8th place.

As for tomorrow the sun is trying to break through but this is Ireland and weather-wise almost anything is possible.