The crowd in the National Yacht Club, where Annalise Murphy learned her sport, swayed from expectation to dismay, writes RONAN McGREEVY
WHO KNEW sailing could be this exciting, this emotional – this gut-wrenching?
The closest most Irish people get to sailing is the Stena ferry parked near the National Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire.
The Irish public were, for the most part, day-trippers in the great unfolding drama of the women’s Laser Radial class medal final yesterday afternoon.
Commentator Myles Dungan summed it up when he said that live sailing on RTÉ, probably a first, was “something unexpected”, but the crowd in the National Yacht Club knew and understood everything that was going on, and they knew their protege, Annalise Murphy.
She has been sailing out of here since the age of six and is a product of the club’s junior sailing programme. Inside the door of the club is a picture of her father Con, who was commodore a few years back.
Her mother, Cathy MacAleavey, was famously the first Irish yachtswoman in what was an otherwise unmemorable Olympics for Ireland in 1988. Annalise’s brother Finn is named after a sailing class, and her sister Claudine was 14th in the silver class in the last World Championships.
A full half-hour before Annalise’s race, the club’s dining room and bar were packed, even though several hundred from the club made the trip to Weymouth. By the time the race started, people were sitting on the floor and anywhere else they could find a vantage point.
There were babies in arms right up to those who were sailing long before Annalise Murphy was born. “I think we can move from hope to expectation,” said analyst Maurice O’Connell, whose RTÉ commentary struck just the right tone between the expert and the uninitiated. “The conditions will suit Annalise.”
When she rounded the first mark in first place, a huge roar rang out in the darkened room.
All she had to do was stay ahead. Optimism was compounded by the penalty turn given to the Chinese girl.
That was as good as it got. The downwinds proved to be Annalise’s undoing as she fell behind her three medal contenders. Apprehension turned to dismay as Murphy slipped behind, first to her Dutch competitor, then her Belgian rival.
Inside the Dún Laoghaire club they oohed and aahed like a football crowd as Annalise pushed ahead of the Belgian sailor before eventually falling back.
“It is looking tricky for Annalise for sure,” said O’Connell, and a groan of dismay enveloped the room. “I’m afraid, Myles, there are very few place changes to the finish.”
They all clapped when Annalise crossed the line but there was no disguising the intense disappointment and the silence afterwards. The club’s honorary secretary, Martin McCarthy, tried to lift everybody’s spirits by leading three cheers for Annalise.
“Fourth is an incredible position for the most popular boat in the world,” he said.
“We’re unbelievably proud of her. All the yacht clubs around Ireland have contributed to her progress – and she’s not finished yet.”