Optimist French Nationals Day 3

What a day! Sunshine and 10-12 knots for the offshore long distance race around the Bay. With a 10 O’clock start, actually on the dot (first time), the Irish in the first group got surprised and missed the start. Unfortunately it was under I flag and Cian and Amy were scored OCS (although Cian came back, he was not spotted and could not succeed in arguing his case in the jury. Hard luck – especially as he had a superb come back using the difficult tide smartly). So the task was left to Tadgh who went for the right side to lead the Irish. 13th at the initial Beacon, his speed let him down and he ultimately dropped in the 30s. In the second start, Alex and Xander were in flying form in the first half of the race well inside top 10 but dropped a few places at the end taking races in the 20s.

Overall the race counted allowing Alex, Conor, Peter, Philip and Cian to qualify for the gold fleet. The rest of the group will fight for silver honours.

The day did not finish there as we had to sail the team racing event. With 24 teams left in the event, it was to be a great afternoon under the great sunshine. RCYC were the first to line up against the Belgium Euro team. It was a nail bitting race ultimately going to RCYC following some great moves from Brendan Lyden. With two Belgium guys running first and second, they had to put the other two at the back which they managed in great style. KYC was presented with a group of French girls and despite their effort could not overtake the hurdle stopping their challenge in round 2. Dublin Bay team were very dominant in their match against a team from Brittany and also learned a few tricks for the next round. In the quarter finals, RCYC had a big task against the Swiss world team and unfortunately they could not put enough pressure and the Swiss ran away with the win right after the start. Dublin Bay were on Fire with Alex and Xander annihilating their French opposition off the line… they never looked back and took a convincing 1-2-3-7. In the semis, the task became very difficult as they had to take the French world team in the dying breeze and despite great effort in the pre-start, they could not stop the French. Overall, the Dutch took the win against the French in a superb final, but the Irish can be proud of their delivery especially the Dublin bay team (Alex, Xander, Tadgh, Katherine) who was the best non-world team out there!

In the division two fleet, Eoin sailed a superb offshore race and should have taken the win before an incident (with a boat not even in his fleet) at the final mark dropped him two places. Sean took 16th. Overall Eoin is 6th and Sean 7th both still in contention for a podium finish.

Coach out (and really tired)