The ILCA/ laser class is celebrating its 50th year of competitive racing in Ireland with the first races recorded in Kinsale in 1975. David Gay from Kinsale was recorded as national champion for 1975 and 1976.

The Olympic Single-Handed Dinghy for Champions

The ILCA is a single-handed Olympic class dinghy sailed by both men and women at all levels — from local clubs to the Olympic Games. Recognized for its simplicity, speed, and fairness, it continues to be the ultimate test of skill, endurance, and tactical decision-making.

The core design has not changed since its original mould and indeed we recently found a boat from 1985 in a barn in Kinsale that was manufactured in Waterford. Although some blocks and lines have changed, the core hull is identical to the current hulls.

The ILCA/Laser class has had long associations with Royal Cork with several championships hosted by the club and a roll of honour (scroll to bottom of article) that highlights some of our winners through the years. The National Championships are raced in fleets ilca 7(Standard), ILCA 6 (Radial) and ILCA 4(4.7).  Previous National Champions include olympians like Peter O’Leary(7), Finn Lynch, Annalise Murphy as well as other top quality local sailors such as Nick Walsh(7), Revelin minehane(6), Luke McGrath(6), Micheal OSulleabhain(6), Jonathan O’Shaughnessy(6), Andrew Kingston(6), Shane Costigan(4), Seafra guilfoyle(4), Jarod Dolan(4), NinO’Leary (4), Johnny Durkan(4&6) Michael Crosbie(4), Oisin Pierce(4) and it shows what level and range of sailors, male and female compete in the ILCA. The ILCA 6 and ILCA 4 national championships have both male and female sailors of all ages competing for the same title with Aisling Keller and Annalise Murphy both winning ILCA 6 and Lucy Ives and Riona McMorrow Moriarty winning ILCA4 in recent years. Eve McMahon won’t make the championships this year (having competed in 2024)as she has started her LA olympic campaign in her ILCA 6 and was recently top of the podium in the LA Grand slam event.

Royal Cork has been very successful in the laser national team trophy that consolidates results across all three classes and won the trophy most recently in 2023 with Jonathan O’Shaughnessy, Michael Crosbie and Liam Duggan. Picture below from 2019 in Ballyholme where Nick Walsh, Micheal OSuilleabhain amd Michael Crosbie won the team trophy for Royal Cork.

The laser class will also have one of our current grand masters (Robert Jeffreys) competing alongside the youths and seniors. It is impossible to find a class with such diversity with a super example set by Monktown’s Denis O’Sullivan sailing his laser into his 80s competing against teenagers and winning a world masters title after only starting sailing at age 40.

Some Great Reading: Laser-masters

Some highlights pasted directly from ILCA Ireland August newsletter.

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This is quite a milestone for the ‘Laser’ class in Ireland. A vintage boat that remains the most competitive single-handed dinghy on the planet is some achievement. And Ireland continues to compete at the top. We have a special note below from our own Marc Lyttle, 7-time Irish Champion, Masters World Champion, former Olympian, current Chair of ILCA UK, member of the EurILCA executive committee and member of ILCA’s world council. For a different persective, we also have a note from Liam Glynn who himself represented Ireland internationally and podiumed at U21 level, is 2018 Irish Champion, and is now Irish Sailing’s ILCA 4 head coach.

A Sport for Life

The Irish Nationals was always the high point of the year, and I sailed 15 of the next 20 until I was 34. We often persuaded sailors we met on our European travels during the summer to come to the event – I especially remember that in 1982 in Galway and 1983 where Phil Douglas won the Open Championship in Crosshaven.

I had a great battle with Bill O’Hara in Ballyholme at this event 40 years ago. The previous year I won for the first time, on home waters, but Bill had only just returned from sailing the Finn in the Olympics in LA so wasn’t the perfect size for the Laser! He was determined to win on home waters – at the time it really mattered to us both. Many years later in 1994 at Dromineer, I broke my tiller extension in the penultimate race. With Bill out of contention, he gave me his extension for the final race – we never wanted someone else to win that title by default.

Much as the Irish Nationals was the premier event and the one we all wanted to win, looking back maybe that wasn’t the most important thing. Instead we learnt resilience and the need to deal with the ups and downs that sport provides – a bigger life lesson. But we also made friends that remain to this day, often on the racing masters circuit. ILCA sailing – truly a sport for life.

Hooked
by Liam Glynn

The obsessive among us search for the winning edge in boat speed taking advantage of the physicality you can have over the light boat and the ability to make quick turns through the waves. This long search for the small margins defines the ILCA class with sailors required to drop into the mental zone where they feel every small change in the boats speed without losing too much focus on the tactical game.

After a couple years out coaching the class I am thrilled to be coming back to compete at the 50th anniversary nationals amongst so many rising stars and seasoned sailors that respect the challenge this class brings. Even more so to be competing at my home club where weekly club racing got me hooked on the sport.

Honour Roll – 50 National Champions