Newsletter – June
The summer sun has had lots of Oppie sailors on the water around the country. The light winds have been great for the younger sailors to get going while the older sailors are refining their light weather skills and tactics.
Since the Leinsters in June, our Worlds and European Teams have been training hard. Both Teams and coaches were presented with their amazing gear by Commadore Neil Murphy in Howth at the start of the month.
The Worlds Team (Gemma Brady, Caolinn Geraghty-McDonnell, Harry Dunne, Jules Start and Andrew O’Neill alongwith coach Dennis Paaske pictured above) depart for Spain tomorrow. We wish them all the best and know they will have an amazing time representing their Country and will relish the experience of top flight international competition.
Our reintroduction of Team Racing to the fleet took a big step forward with a training day hosted by RCYC and led by Peter Fagan with coaches Harry Prichard and James McCann in support over the June Bank holiday weekend. Crosshaven didn’t disappoint and over 20 of our fleet from various clubs enjoyed the training in Champagne sailing conditions. Entry is now open for the Nationals and Open Team Racing Championship, to be run on Wednesday 16th of August at Ballyholme. We would encourage clubs to start to look at selecting their teams to compete in this year’s event.
Next up on the racing calendar is the Ulster Championships in East Antrim Boat Club. There is a solid entry of 75 boats for the event and it’s encouraging that Racing Regatta Fleet seems to have well established itself so early in the season.
Those of you who love to keep a close eye on the IODAI website will have noticed that entry for the Irish National Championships is now open. For the main event early bird entries are accepted up to the 22nd of June so get cracking and register now!
Waterford Harbour Sailing Club, in beautiful Dunmore East, will host the Munsters on the 1st & 2nd July and entry for this event will open on the 19th June so keep an eye out for that one too.
And if you need even more sailing Howth Yacht Club are hosing their Dinghy Regatta on the 25th June which will include a Regatta Fleet supported by their local coaches. Details here!
As always, if you’ve any questions or queries please reach out any of the committee members or your local class captain.
See you in EABC!
Paddy Ryan
IODAI President
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