THE Northern Ireland sailing team, featuring four female competitors, triumphed in the Celtic Cup event, following a tight weekend of racing held at Killyleagh Outdoor Education Centre.
The competition saw the top junior and youth sailors from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales battle it out against each other in the hope of being crowned best nation at the end of the weekend.
After some intense racing, Northern Ireland were crowned overall champions.
The Northern Ireland team’s win was comprehensive, winning every team category possible. This was especially pleasing for the team due to the high-quality opposition who had travelled to County Down from Wales and Scotland
Although the overall points difference between Northern Ireland and their Scottish and Welsh counterparts was very small, the weekend finished with a Northern Irish clean sweep after team victories in the Topper and ILCA 6 class.
Royal Yachting Association of Northern Ireland Performance Manager, Andrew Baker, said: “A clean sweep is fantastic but I don’t think the scores reflect just how close the racing really was. The other nations and were definitely pushing hard which is fantastic to see.
“They say you earn the medals in the winter and you gain them in summer. It’s not what you do this weekend but it’s all the training sessions we’ve been doing previously.
“It was pretty windy and hard work this morning. I think at times they had only 30 seconds rest between races so everyone looked pretty ‘gassed’! You could clearly see in the results those sailors who had put the effort in with their fitness because talent only gets you so far.
“For a lot of these guys, they’re going to go to the ILCA Europeans or Topper Worlds and it’s very easy to get stuck in your nation or little group. This event spreads that out and just makes life so much easier.”
Conditions all weekend were challenging and sailors had to contend with the strong tides and variable winds of Strangford Lough.
Welsh ILCA 6 sailor, Flo Tovey said: “It was ‘snakes and ladders’ racing out there really, especially with the tide, waves and wind coming from all over. It was quite hard to pick out your priorities for the upwinds, but I think I managed to do that pretty well in some of the races.
“I’ve been training with the Welsh Squad and GB Youth Squad so it’s nice to get some racing in with the other nations. I was training out in Valencia recently with some of the Irish and Scottish ILCA sailors so it’s nice to come together for some racing with your friends.
With such high-quality opposition, this is a great achievement for those Northern Irish sailors and coaches involved. This included:
Topper Team
- Adam Green
- Zoe Westhurst
- Ben McCaldin
- Alex Eadie
- Polly Robinson
- James Eadie
ILCA 6 Team
- Daniel Palmer
- Bobby Driscoll
- Cormac Byrne
- Autumn Haliday
- Freddie Doig
On top of the overall team win, there were some great individual performances across the five races sailed. Adam Green placed 3rd in the Topper class and Daniel Palmer and Bobby Driscoll placed 1st and 2nd respectively in the ILCA 6 class.
Simon McIlwaine pic
