National Yacht Club

The ISA Laser 4.7 Squad to represent Ireland in the Worlds/Europeans in Hungary this July has been selected following the Laser Munsters and the ISA Youth Nationals. Sarah Cooney from NYC was one of a panel of 6 sailors chosen so we wish her the best of luck at this exciting event! 4 of these 6 are from the Laser Leinster Squad that trains out of NYC – Conor O’Beirne RSGYC, Richard Hogan HYC and Ciaran Finnegan WHSC. It was also a very successful Laser Ulster Championship for NYC Sailors last weekend, May 11-12^th,  which was held in Carlingford Lough Yacht Club in Co. Down.  The first day of the two day event had to be cancelled due to high winds and severe squalls – winds averaged almost 30 knots with gusts of over 40 knots.  Four races were successfully completed in the second day by the efficient race management team, in winds that steadily built during the day to over 20 knots of wind and intermittent downpours. In the 4.7 class,  Conor Kneafsey won the title with Sarah Cooney close behind in 2^nd place with the final race proving to be quite a tussle between the two NYC sailors! Conor managed to overtake Sarah on the second reach and stay in front to win the race and claim the championship with two bullets.  Amy Lambert sailed solidly to finish 6^th with Iseult Kneafsey in 7^th place.  In the Radials, Rory Lynch finished 4^th, just pipped for a podium finish by Thomas Chaix (current ISA Optimist and Laser coach) with Susie O’Neill battling well to finish in 31^st. In the Standard Rig, Finn Lynch decided to move from the Radial to the larger Standard rig for the event and had a great result finishing 2^nd overall and winning the Youth Trophy. Finn proved quite a challenge for Irish Olympian James “Bapsy” Espey (who represented Ireland in the Laser in London 2012 and currently ranked 35^th in the world) to keep the young NYC sailor at bay. The final 3 races were shared between Finn and Bapsy with Finn winning Race 3 and finishing close behind the Olympic athlete  in 2^nd place in two other races despite the 12 year difference in age. The future looks bright for Finn!  

Full Results available here