New plan on way

With the Irish windsurfing season now closed, the national association launches its development plan as part of tomorrow's a.g.m. in an effort to provide further support to top windsurfers such as Oisin Van Gelderen, who rose to the top 50 of the world rankings this year.

Two months ago, Skerries-based Van Gelderen won the National Racing Championships for a sixth consecutive year - only to follow that up a couple of weeks later by adding the National Wavesailing Championship title to his list of achievements.

Probably Van Gelderen's biggest achievement this year however, came when he was given the opportunity to compete against the best in the world, right on his own doorstep.

Thanks to sponsorship from Bord Fβilte, the final event in the Professional Windsurfing Association's World Tour was hosted in Kerry at the start of October.

Possibly showing some home advantage, Van Gelderen finished 17th out of the fleet of 60 professional windsurfers, and ended the year with a world ranking of 50.

"With proper support, I want to compete in more PWA events next year, and push that world ranking as high as I can go," Van Gelderen said.

After 12 days at sea and with a little over 600 nautical miles to go since leaving Gran Canaria, it is neck and neck for the front runners in the 2,700 nautical mile Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) that has attracted a fleet of 225 yachts and four Irish entrants.

British boat Swan 68 Lady in Red is ahead by the smallest of margins with 613 nautical miles to go, whilst the Farr 65, Spirit of Diana, is at just 616 nautical miles.

Both crews are pushing hard, hoping for the honour of first to arrive at Rodney Bay, St Lucia, and a new record for the crossing.

If the winds hold, either yacht could break the course record of 12 days, 18 hours, seven minutes and 20 seconds, but for the rest, there is still a long way to go.