Day 1 arrived with plenty of wind and rain to greet the 91 boats launcing in the 2013 Mirror World Championships here in Dromineer. With 2 races expected today and 3 tomorrow, every boat is trying to establish their position within the Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets by Tuesday evening.
At the top of the fleet, the top 3 boats at last weeks National had a very mixed day. The Phillipines duo Ridley Ballardes and Rommel Chavez added a 30 to a bullet in the first race. Runner up last week and the new Irish National Champion Cian Hickey had a 5th followed by a 38 while Alfie Wisdom who finished 3rd last week had an early shower in race 2 after a black flag to add to a ? in race 1. Young Irish pair Dougie Elmes and Scott Levis have continued their good form with 2 solid results to leave them lying 5 at end of day 1. The leader is young Ryan and Michaela Robinson from South Africa who posted a very solid 2 and 4 in todays races. Ryan recently competed in Cypress at the ISAF Youth events in 420 class where he raced against Robert Dickson from HYC and Sutton Dinghy Club.
The Sutton Dinghy Club sailors had a tough day with conditions varying between force 2 and almost force 5. Conor Twohig and Matthew Cotter are leading the way in 42nd spot posting consistent results in very tough conditions. Closely followed by Sinead Dickson and Eve McMahon in 45th and David Johnston and Rory McEvoy lying in 50th. Shane McLoughlin and Ben Jennings had a day to forget with their boat being holed in race 1 and having to spend time getting it patched on the water to enable them take the line for race 2.
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After a hectic week completing measurement, it was great to see Class Measurer Martin Egan eventually made it on to the water for racing. And Martin had a great first race finishing in 8th position and ending the day in 12th overall. Graham Elmes is here to brief the Irish sailors and will be on the water for the week. Conditions for Tuesday are same again. with big winds squalls arriving from midday onwards.