In the men\u2019s skiff, double Olympians Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Se\u00e1n Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) sailed their Final Series, consisting of two races, recording a second-place and a fifth-place finish. They completed the races ahead of both China and France, whom they had been battling all week for the top positions.<\/p>\n
China took gold and were impossible to catch on points, but the race for silver was tight and effectively became a match between Ireland and France. Dickson-Waddilove rose to that pressure and executed their two races superbly, with the French pair of Erwan Fischer and Cl\u00e9ment P\u00e9quin relegated to bronze.<\/p>\n
Rory Fitzpatrick, Irish Sailing Technical Director, who coached the sailors through the final stages of the regatta, commented on their performance:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys showed great character today. They really attacked the finals and pulled off the races they wanted to sail. I\u2019m very impressed with them over the last couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s dinghy (ILCA 6), it was a full-on battle for gold between Ireland and the USA, with just one point separating them in the end. The first race of the series saw Eve McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) finish third, with Charlotte Rose (USA) in second, while the final race turned into a head-to-head showdown between the two sailors.<\/p>\n
This is McMahon\u2019s second medal of the 2026 Sailing Grand Slam Series, following a stellar performance in Palma at the Princess Sofia Regatta, where she won gold.<\/p>\n
McMahon said after racing: \u201cIt\u2019s a little bittersweet. I went into today in first position but dropped down to second by the end. It was a great battle with the American girl, but just not enough to win gold. I\u2019m happy with my sailing \u2014 there\u2019s still a little to learn, so we\u2019ll debrief after the event, learn from it, and go into the European Championships better prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s skiff (49erFX), the Northern Irish pair of Erin McIlwaine (Royal St George YC \/ Newcastle YC) and Ellen Barbour (County Antrim Boat Club) experienced their first senior Final Series and handled the pressure impressively. They recorded a fifth-place finish in their first race and a third in the second, leaving them seventh overall.<\/p>\n
A medal was out of reach, having entered the series in 10th position, but they sailed spectacularly, showing a determination and skill set that bodes very well for their future and the road to LA 2028.<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s dinghy (ILCA 7) Gold Fleet, UCD student Fiachra McDonnell (Royal Irish Yacht Club) completed his regatta in 43rd place overall \u2014 an excellent result that will provide valuable experience moving forward.<\/p>\n
Fellow Development Programme sailors Ben O\u2019Shaughnessy (Royal Cork Yacht Club) and Ethan Spain (National Yacht Club) concluded their week in the 49er Gold Fleet in 20th place overall, with standout results including a race win and a third-place finish in this highly experienced field.<\/p>\n
In the Silver Fleet, Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) and Ewan McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) made the most of the week, finishing first and third respectively.<\/p>\n
James O\u2019Callaghan, Irish Sailing Performance Director, commented on the regatta: \u201cIt\u2019s been a fantastic week for Irish Sailing, one where everything has truly aligned \u2014 from the athletes to the coaches and the wider support team. A huge amount goes into delivering results like this, so it\u2019s incredibly rewarding to see it all come together.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThis is definitely a high point, but sport is sport, and you can see that from Finn and Ewan\u2019s week. Things didn\u2019t quite click for them early on, but I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll see a positive response from them very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up for Dickson, Waddilove, McIlwaine and Barbour will be the 49er World Championships in Quiberon, northern France, from May 12\u201317.<\/p>\n
The ILCA sailors will take a short break before heading to their European Championships in Kastella, Croatia, from May 17\u201322.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the men\u2019s skiff, double Olympians Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Se\u00e1n Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) sailed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,898,43],"class_list":["post-417047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news-ticker","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}