Irish squad shine at RS Feva and Tera Worlds 2010
31 July
Carnac France, July 31st 2010. If one had to design the perfect regatta, then the waters off the coast of southern Brittany, in July, with warm sea-breezes that blow from 1pm to 7pm daily at between twelve and twenty-two knots, probably fit the bill. These were the conditions that greeted the 140 entrants to the RS Feva Worlds, held under the auspices if Yacht Club de Carnac, in the last week of July.
140 entries must make this one of the largest fleets to have come together anywhere in Europe this summer, especially for a two-handed dinghy. The RS Feva has been growing in popularity for many years. It has the excitement of a powerful main and asymmetrical spinnaker but the economy of a polypropylene moulded hull. The signature green panel in the main is becoming a common sight at many clubs around Ireland, and with good reason.
Eight nations were represented at the competition, the largest contingent being from the UK, which has a very active domestic fleet, but significant fleets were also in attendance from Ireland, Italy, Denmark and Sweden. The event was raced over six days, kicking off with a practice race, a six-race qualifying series and a nine-race championship. In the end only one race was lost from the schedule and the fleet was broken equally into 70-boat Gold and Silver fleets after the two-day qualifiers.
Seventeen entries made up the Irish Squad, with nine boats from RSGYC, six from RCYC and two from NYC. From the practice race it was apparent that the Irish entries had come to chase medals. Eleven of the squad made the Gold fleet and six the Silver. By the end of the week Ireland had three finishers in the top ten in both fleets.
Specifically, Dermot Lyden and Peter Stokes from RCYC came fourth overall with top-three finishes in three of the championship races, missing third overall by only one point. They were closely followed by Vikki Cudmore and Amy Harrington, also from Cork, who came 5th overall and won the prize for top-ranked Ladies crew. Brendan Lyden and Marc Cudmore, their Cork team-mates finished 8th overall. All week Irish boats were a common sight in the top-ten finishers in this fleet with Sean Donnelly and Chloe Eggers (NYV/RSGYC) picking up a 2nd, Annabel Elliott and Amelia O'Keefe (RSGYC) an 8th and Katherine Geoghegan and Chloe Crosbie (RCYC) a ninth in various races. The overall winner in the Gold fleet, and the new world champions, were Britain's Owen Bowerman and Charlie Darling, who will be visiting Dublin in late August to compete in the Irish Feva Nationals, an open event being held at RSGYC.
In the Silver fleet, Sarah Hyland and Enya O'Connor had a magnificent start to the championship series, lying first overall at the end of day one. However consistently strong results from Luca Carlini and Stefano Costini of Italy and some of the British and Swedish boats made the top of the Silver fleet a highly competitive place to be. By the end of the week Richard and Daniel Gilmer (RSGYC) were top ranked Irish boat with a sixth overall, Sarah and Enya (RSGYC) were close behind in seventh and Myles Kelly and Robert Cahill, also from the "George", finished ninth.
The RS Tera, a one single handed junior boat, also had its world championships in the same week. This fleet is divided in two based on rig configuration. In the Tera "Sport" division, a 3.7M rig designed for juniors from 30kg, Eoin Lyden from RCYC, the only Irish entrant, sailed an excellent series with close competition from Brice Yrieix from France and Ugo Zunardi from Italy. However Eoin prevailed and was crowned the new World Champion to the delight of his older Feva compatriots.
While the results speak volumes to the emerging quality amongst our junior sailors, all agreed that the Irish squad also took the honours for great team spirit and general bonhomie at the event. They were ably supported by their coaches, Mark Kelly from RSGYC and Phil Walker from the UK, now a formally adopted Irishman!. After one of the days racing, when boats were put away, protests heard and competitors had hit the beach for a swim, a large group of Irish parent were seen gathered on the harbour wall, sipping muscadet (€4 a bottle!), shucking oysters and enjoying the sunset.....The perfect regatta.
David Kelly
RSGYC Feva Class Captain
