The annual highlight of the Irish Sailing season gets underway on the Shannon Estuary this weekend as the Champions Cup brings together many of this season’s best performing sailors for a two day contest at Foynes Yacht Club on Saturday and Sunday.
Defending champion Ger Owens from Wicklow Sailing Club will be aiming for a three-in-a-row attempt to add his name once again to the famous silver salver that contains a who’s who of the sport for the past 75 years.
Owens is a triple Olympic veteran but has no shortage of talent to content with in 2023 as Finn Lynch from the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire is amongst the line-up as he takes some time-off from preparing for the Paris 2024 selection trials after he qualified Ireland for the games six weeks ago at The Hague.
In turn, Lynch will be keeping a weather eye on up and coming challenger in his ILCA7 class as Jamie McMahon has also been a regular competitor on the international regatta circuit. Although Lynch is ranked No. 5 in the world, the unique format of this weekend’s event often adds an element of chance.
Each year the Champions Cup rotates venues and different Irish classes of boat are used to bring the various sailors together. For 2023, it is the turn of the venerable wooden dinghy, The Mermaid at almost 100 years old to stage the competition afloat.
A total of 18 sailors have been nominated, either as class champions or selected as wild card entries. Others to watch out for are Johnny Durcan from Royal Cork Yacht Club, currently campaigning in the Olympic 49er skiff class but nominated for captaining the winning university sailing championship winning team.
Others in the line-up include Howth’s Ross McDonald as 1720 class champion and Neil Spain who helmed the overall winning entry at the recent Irish Cruiser Racing Association national championships.
The nominated skippers are each permitted to bring a selected crew-member who will be joined by an owner’s representative for each loaned boat. Training starts on Friday before the round robin elimination events are held on Saturday. A repechage event on Sunday morning then decides the final round of eight crews to win the cup.
It is a great way of bringing the sport together and testing the skill of each in an unfamiliar boat.
