Last week's ISAF World Championships in Portugal resulted in two strong results in particular for Irish crews, who were duly rewarded by achieving the qualification standard that allows Ireland to be represented in these classes at next year's Olympic Games.
Tim Goodbody, of the Royal Irish Yacht Club, secured his certain nomination by the Irish Sailing Association's Olympic Group (ISAOG) to the Olympic Council of Ireland in the Finn single-handed class. Steady progress by the former Enterprise dinghy sailor saw him overtake Aaron O'Grady, who retired from active campaigning.
Athens 2004 veteran Ger Owens, with Phil Lawton, in the 470s also made the grade, and, as the sole campaigner for this class aiming for qualification, is also likely to be nominated based on their success in reaching the top 75 per cent of national places available in Caiscais last week.
Most significantly, the results can be seen as justification of the new approach taken by the ISAOG working with the Irish Sports Council in the aftermath of the Athens 2004 Olympiad.
In previous Olympic cycles, while nomination was a major hurdle for any campaigner, a new, "tough love" policy saw each hopeful having to overcome funding difficulties if they failed to achieve carding scheme targets.
These had previously been based on the ISAF world rankings system which combined results to apparently grade the sailors. However, the ranked places were often unmatched at major events, such as world championships, which created unduly high expectations of the athletes while at the same time generating funds equal to higher performances.
Under the new regime, funding is downgraded or removed on a more arbitrary basis, as several sailors discovered late last year.
Maurice O'Connell was one of those downgraded and had to overcome the financial shock of losing the key support before regrouping with his new crew, Ben Cooke, to regain his world class funding status last week, though they just missed qualification by one place.
Meanwhile, the ISA's new fleet of eight J80 keelboats will be primarily used for race and sail training, including the annual ISA All Ireland Championships and a national match racing event to begin this autumn.
The plan calls for the fleet to be located centrally, from where it will be brought to clubs throughout Ireland for particular events and training initiatives.
Funding for both the acquisition and operation of this fleet is in place assisted by a significant grant from the Government, while the fleet will be run through a company, owned by the ISA with a separate board and management.
