Good luck to all those competing in the newly named and revamped Irish Sailing Junior Champions’ Cup this weekend ! 

2022 marks the 75th anniversary of the Irish Sailing All Irelands or Helmsman’s Championship. To mark this, Irish Sailing made two decisions – one was to rename the competition as the Champions’ Cup to reflect the more inclusive times we live in, and the second was to update the nomination criteria for better female representation. Although the junior version of the event didn’t begin until later, the same updates are relevant.  

A number of changes to this year’s event includes two places for female helms based on finishing results at selected qualifying events, and a “President’s Choice” wildcard nominee.  

The Junior Champions’ Cup takes place on 24th and 25th of September 2022 at the Fastnet Marine and Outdoor Education Centre in Schull, Cork using the fleet of TR3.6s.  

Ones to watch this year are the Irish Sailing Academy’s and Howth YC sailor Rocco Wright, who won the event last year, and teammate Fiachra Geraghty -McDonnell; and Lucia Cullen with Alana Twomey who won the U17 29er World Championships this summer in Spain.  

There’s strong representation from the Royal St George YC in Dun Laoghaire with five teams competing, and several sibling teams: Fiachra Geraghty-McDonnell with his sister Caoilinn, Trevor Bolger with brother Russell, and Tralee Bay SC’s Riona McMorrow Moriarty with sister Eimer.  

You can find the full list of competitors on the Irish Sailing website, where you can follow results too:  https://www.sailing.ie/Racing/Champions-Cup/Junior-Champions-Cup 

The Junior event will be followed by the 75th Anniversary Champions’ Cup which takes place at Sutton Dinghy Club, Dublin on 8th and 9th October.