SAILING COLUMN:IF CORK Week had, perhaps, too much wind yesterday the organisers of the ISAF Youth World Championships in Turkey would gladly have received even a token offering of just a few knots of breeze. All week, near calm conditions have prevailed and racing was continuing last night until close to nightfall.

After four days of racing, just four races were sailed and all in less than five knots of wind. Today is the final and the race management team will be hoping for more of yesterday’s conditions that offered up to 10 knots.

The light winds come after torrential rain for two days last week that left the racing area extremely dirty. Concerns were running high that the amount of sewage in the water might lead to illness and some teams have reportedly already brought sailors to hospital for treatment.

“Its been very challenging for the organisers with long waits ashore for up to five hours,” said Ireland team manager Ross Killian. Some days have involved waiting at sea for the breeze to fill in.

The team had expected a 15-knot land breeze each day, the average for July according to the organisers. However, that appears to be more consistent with the later half of the month, if this week’s conditions are an indicator.

“The light airs don’t really suit our sailors, to be fair,” said Killian. “Its been very tricky.”

Despite the challenges, Mattie O’Dowd has fared the best of the four-boat Irish squad in the single-handed Laser. With two third places already secured, he was lying eighth overall before last night’s result.

Sophie Murphy is competing for the first time and is lying 15th overall. “This is her first foray into high-performance racing and she still has two years remaining,” he said. “She’s a very good prospect for the long-term.”

Of the four boats, the 420 course has had the worst of the light airs, according to the manager. Jane Butler and Jenny Andreason delivered a sixth place during the week and lie 17th in their 28-boat class, while Scott Flanigan and Cian O’Regan lie 21st in their 36-boat fleet.

So is racing fair in such conditions?

“All the races we had were fair, no question,” says Killian. “There was an enormous (wind) shift during Wednesday’s 420 boys race so it was abandoned after one leg.”

As Ireland prepares to host the 2012 event at Dún Laoghaire, organising group chairman Brian Craig arrived in Istanbul earlier in the week to observe the event.