The Olympics officially start today in Paris, with the sailors heading to Marseille after a breath-taking opening ceremony. What an amazing class we have, that all ILCA sailors can sail the same boat and equipment as our Olympic heroes. Sometimes, we even get to line up with them on the same start line! They cut their teeth on our circuit. They are us, we are them – and how proud we are as we wait to cheer them on when they launch from the Marseille Marina on Thursday August 1st in the ILCA 7 and ILCA 6. Whether Finn, Eve or both launch again on August 7th for the final, Medal races or not, we truly hope they enjoy the incredible experience.
Finn Lynch
Finn Lynch has always had a special, steely resolve. After big results in Toppers, I remember watching him nail the last few days at the ISAF (as it was then) Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire in 2012, to win a silver medal in the Radial. Already, he had that knack of stepping up a gear in the last third of a series. Is it taking less risk in the early races ? Is it coming good when others feel the pressure? Don’t believe anybody that tells you a top placing in the opening race of a series is equivalent to the same, top placing during the last or closing races. It is, mathematically, but psychologically, they’re worlds apart!
The following year, Ireland was hosting the 2013 Laser Europeans, when Annalise put the disappointment of London 2012 firmly behind her with an incredible gold medal on home waters. Just before that, there was a memorable Irish Radial Nationals on in RCYC, where dozens of the top international guys came early to do our Nationals as a warm-up. Many were Senior males and females in their 20s and 30s and the depth in the 79 boat fleet was awesome.
Anyway, 17 year-old Finn was quite well placed going into the last day, having recorded plenty of results in the top 10 or 15. I was out racing that day myself in the Full rig and it was puffy and shifty, not straightforward tactically, at all. But Finn simply blitzed the fleet away, with two firsts to take the overall win. We were witnessing Greatness in the making.
Eve McMahon
Eve was more of a slow-burner, who then exploded! Like Annalise (who would say this about herself) she was not dominant at Junior level. Maybe that’s an interesting footnote for those who love their sailing but don’t get the top results early on? She also had an injury setback when she first started in the Radial/6. But very quickly, and still very young, she assumed the look, focus and demeanour of a serious campaigner. Her results were solid as she set out in the ILCA 6 but then she took everybody by surprise with that hat-trick of international wins in 2022, a year she had to also contend with her Leaving Cert.
Eve has graduated to the Senior level and is performing with flying colours against the top athletes, comfortably qualifying Ireland for the Games. I did some Masters training in Lanzarote last November and was kind of awe-struck watching her on the water with her top-level Scandinavian training partners. I would be exhausted after an hour (sailing with other auld fellahs) but those girls were out there for hour after hour, either taking lumps out of each other on a very short course a few hundred yards from the Harbour, or they’d be these tiny white triangles miles offshore, pounding away in 25 knots of breeze and big seas.
They sure are two very special people who are also very nice individuals. They even make themselves available to give their time back to ILCA Ireland in the form of interviews and webinars, although our man Brendan Hughes is very persuasive! One example here from our 2024 AGM.
Finally, I would like to pay tribute to Eve’s brother, Ewan. He’s been unlucky to have Finn around at the same time but we should all applaud his fantastic rise up the ILCA 7 World rankings, where he is now just a few places behind Finn in the no. 13 position. In the past we have had sailors ranking in the 30s and 40s making the Olympics, so what a standard Ewan has also reached. He is the 2nd best ranked sailor not going to the Games and that is simply awesome when you remember teams like GBR and AUS often have 3 or 4 sailors in the top 20 of the World rankings. He’s still very young and, to his credit, he has also tucked an Engineering degree under his belt during this period. We wish him well with everything, whether that involves campaigning for the next Quadrennial or not (a little birdie told me it might!).
Finally, some ILCA Olympic nostalgia to get you in the mood ;
• Our first Laser rep, Mark Lyttle, his memories, 1996.
• Annalise homecoming, 2016
• Still makes me guffaw with laughter, 2012
Sean Craig, IRL 218154
ILCA Ireland Chair
