Irish duo start well in 49er European Championship in Portugal

After missing out on early Olympic qualification at the World Sailing Championships in August, Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove made a good start to the 49er European Championship in Portugal on Wednesday.

The Dublin pair placed third in the opening race of the qualification round that was beset with near-calm conditions on the Algarve coast.

Having missed qualifying Ireland by just one nation place at The Hague less than three months ago, the pair needed to work on their starting-line tactics that had meant them disqualified from two races.

In conditions notoriously difficult to judge, the pair made a clean start to race one of the Europeans and placed seventh at the first mark before improving steadily to take third place.

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“We can’t complain, it was a light tricky day,” said Waddiloves. “To come away unscathed is pretty good.”

Eight more races are needed to decide the Gold fleet finals line-up and with an improved forecast for Thursday, four races could get the series back on schedule.

Ireland’s second boat at the event, Cork’s Seafra Guilfoyle with Johnny Durcan, place 12th for the race as they target a top 20 result for the week.