Mayo sailing duo aiming to defend world title
Louis Molloy and Marcus Ryan from Westport are currently down in Australia preparing to defend their historic triumph from last year. At the World Championships in Plymouth they won the gold medal in the J24 class, the first Irish team ever to do so
Back then they sailed to a famous victory over the last few days in the J24 Class. From race one their boat 'Headcase' was up there with the top boats. And now, a year later, the Mayo men and their crew colleagues Ryan Glynne, from Ballyholme Yacht Club, Cillian Dickson from Lough Ree, and Sam O'Byrne from Howth will be the hunted as they attempt to repeat their success.
The whole team arrived early enough to acquaint themselves with the Melbourne Bay area and also to practice ahead of the big competition, which starts next Saturday. A tiny fact that might get overlooked by some, are the logistical challenges, to get the boat to the far side of the world in the first place.
“We didn't do a huge amount of sailing this year,” said Louis Molloy, speaking to The Mayo News, ahead of the World Championship: “We did one event in Mayo altogether and then we put the boat in a container to get it down to Australia. We shipped it in May and it took about two and a half months to arrive there. And then another two weeks to get it through customs.”
Molloy and the 'Headcase' team kept track of their boat. It went from Dublin, to Rotterdam, then around Africa, across the Indian Ocean to Singapore, before making its way down under.
“When it arrived, there was a tiny bit of damage. They pulled the container for inspection and they took everything out of the container, including the boat. And when they were putting it back in, they put a small little scratch in it, but nothing major. We were trying to get someone to repair it remotely, but we ended up just doing it ourselves when we got here because it was just too complicated.” The crew arrived early with two weeks to prepare.
“We're really quite focused. We have a schedule. We know what we're doing each day. It's up early enough, up at seven and breakfast and have a little briefing and then down to the club and go out and do a session in the morning. Then come back in and have lunch and do a little bit of boat work and then do a session in the afternoon and then come back and have dinner, debrief and go to bed. There's no space for much else.”
It cannot be overstated how important it is to familiarise yourself with the conditions beforehand. Being on the other side of the equator also has its pitfalls. The Coriolis effect complicates matters a little bit. It means, on the Southern Hemisphere, due to the angle Earth is rotating, moving objects are deflected to the left of the direction of their travel. It would be to the right on the Northern Hemisphere.
The impact on sailing in this part of the Earth is apparent and has to be taken into consideration for the Irish crew, as Molloy explains: “Instead of going left when it comes onto the land, it goes right. The low pressures and the high pressures spin the other way around. So, when you're reading the synoptic charts in the morning, you have to kind of bear that in mind that the weather patterns rotate the other way around.”
And Melbourne itself has its own intricacies. Molloy describes it as a 'large body of water that's reasonably enclosed, but it is quite big. You can barely see the other side. You can see the mountains on the other side. The weather is very changeable.'
The Irish boat 'Headcase' will embark on their title-defence adventure this Saturday, November 7. Races will be spaced out over five days. Points will be awarded for the ranks boats finish at. And at the end, it works a bit like Formula One. The team with the most accumulated points wins the championship.