Solid day for Ireland's sailors in leaders' groups after day two of European Championships
Despite tricky conditions on the second day of the ILCA European Championships today (Tuesday 12 August) in Marstrand, Sweden, all three Irish sailors are holding strong overall positions.
Eve McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) enjoyed a bounce up the leader board to fifth overall after she was able to drop her opening race disqualification score from Monday. She sailed well to score a tenth place plus another second. This leaves her just five points off the lead after four races in her ILCA 6 women's one-person dinghy event.
"We had wind of between seven and ten knots but very up and down and very patchy but (still) a beautiful sunny day though tricky," said Irish Sailing coach Vasilij Zbogar. "Eve did two solid races which, considering she had to be very careful on every small detail after the black flag, it's a really good performance."
McMahon's priority will be to keep up the momentum and avoid any big mistakes ahead of the final round for her 90-boat event.
Her older brother Ewan McMahon also had a second place in the ILCA 7 men's event but had to use his discard to drop a weighty 31st place after he got caught out in a windshift as the light winds again started to fade towards the end of racing.
McMahon now lies sixth overall on a narrow two-point spread to first place in the highly competitive 153-boatclass that is split into three fleets for the qualification round that ends after Wednesday's racing.
His team-mate Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) lies 15th overall and 12th European after a solid day with a fifth and tenth places to trail McMahon by eight points.
Once the qualification round ends, the top third of the entire fleet will compete in the Gold fleet for the final series with both Irish boats currently well placed to achieve this.
Both Irish men are reaping the benefits of recent intensive training on their starting tactics but both will need to refine this further in the coming days according to Irish Sailing coach Ben Walkemeyer.
Qualification racing continues on Tuesday and Wednesday to decide the Gold fleet cut-offs for the final round that start on Thursday culminating on Saturday to decide the podium.