It was far from the ideal start to her final peak performance regatta of the year but Eve McMahon still has grounds for optimism after day one of her European Championships in the ILCA 6 event in Marstrand, Sweden.
Coming just over two months since winning bronze at the world championships in China, she is aiming to finish the season with a similar result this week.
Except the plan didn’t fully appreciate the strong current off Sweden’s west coast which met strong winds left over from earlier stormy conditions at the weekend that saw practice racing cancelled.
Nor was she alone as a clutch of other top competitors also found themselves in trouble at the start of the first race when they all mistimed their starts. After two abandoned attempts, the dreaded “black flag” was brought into force by the race committee.
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On the third attempt, nine athletes found themselves black flag disqualified, incurring maximum points for the race. It’s a worst possible score that can be discarded once three races of the series have been sailed but it removes space for further errors.
Nevertheless, the Howth sailor showed her true form and determination in the race that followed by leading her 45-strong division around the course until the breeze started to fade.
By the finish, the wind had dropped to almost nothing and she was overtaken but still managed a second place. Ironically, the top three boats in the second race had similarly been black-flagged in the opener.
“It was just a mistake that she didn’t repeat in the next race,” said Irish Sailing coach Vasilij Zbogar. “From now on its very tough because she cannot afford any more mistakes like this which are tiny but (with) a big downside in points. She has to be very careful and sail a little bit more conservatively.”
McMahon’s older brother Ewan will be pleased with his opening day, listed as third European in the 153-boat ILCA 7 class. A second place and a sixth were exactly the form he needs to secure a place in gold fleet by Thursday.
Ireland’s double Olympian Finn Lynch also had a strong start with a third and an 11th in his division and is in 12th place overall at this early stage of the championship.
For both women and men, the respective fleets are divided into flights to decide qualification for the final round after six races, with two flights for the former and three for the latter.
Gold fleet for each is always the goal, but in the past two seasons Irish sailors are now routinely featuring in the top 10 boats to decide the medal races and eventual podium results at the end of the series.
