McMahon and Lynch Remain in Contention at ILCA Europeans
Eve McMahon and Finn Lynch made some modest gains on the opening day of Gold Fleet racing at the ILCA European Championships in Croatia, as all three Senior Irish sailors took to the water in bright skies and a steady 9–12 knots of breeze. Stable conditions throughout the afternoon allowed three races to be completed across all fleets.
In the Men’s Dinghy Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) was finding form again in the first race of the day with a sixth place. He finished the day with a 14th out of the 58-strong Gold Fleet leaving him fifth overall in the European standings.
Lynch said after racing: “It was a mixed day for me, but I’m still in contention, and that’s what matters at these big regattas. There were some big shifts out there today, but I think good speed can make you look like a genius here. Some of the faster guys who got a good start and minimised their tacks really benefited. The wind will be offshore tomorrow, which brings a new challenge, so I’m excited to get back out there.”
In the same fleet Ewan McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) had a strong start to the day with a ninth place but failed to hold on to that momentum and recorded two subsequent mid-fleet results. This leaves him 13th overall amongst the European challengers.
In the Women’s Dinghy fleet, Eve McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) delivered another consistent performance, recording a best finish of 10th place to move up to sixth overall in this European Championship. The Olympic campaigner also continues to hold third place in the Under-23 championship rankings as the regatta enters its final stages.
Reflecting on the racing, Irish Sailing ILCA 6 Coach Vasilij Žbogar said, “It was a beautiful day to be on the water, but still quite tricky. The wind was irregular, which made it hard to predict. We’re continuing to produce strong average results but we haven’t quite managed to break into the leading 10 at the top mark consistently, and that’s preventing us from turning solid races into good scores.
“The positive is that we have avoided any bad results, so there are no high scores in the discard which could prove very important over the next few days. We now need to find the formula that gets us consistently into the top five. We’ll debrief and work through that this evening. There are still two more days of racing left, so everything remains open and there is still plenty to play for.”
Development sailor Fiachra McDonnell (Royal Irish Yacht Club) narrowly missed out on Gold Fleet sailing but is still getting valuable competition experience under his belt and recorded a sixth place as his best today and leaving him 11th overall in Silver Fleet.
Racing continues tomorrow in Kaštela with two more days of Final Series and Gold Fleet racing. Tracking will be available for Gold Fleet here: MetaSail for web | MetaSail for web and full results can be found here: Results - 2026 ILCA Senior Europeans