The Gazette 1995

GAZETTE

NOVEMBER 1995

N E W S

Cover Story - Lavery and O'Brien win Sailing World Championships

by David Branigan

World Championships at the National Yacht Club, their own home club saw over 100 hours of intensive training on the water since early Spring. Their regime would typically start at 6 . 00 am with the two sailors heading down to the club, scaling the fence and rigging their dinghy to practise as the rush- hour traffic on Dublin's southside was starting to build. A particularly demanding boat, the Fireball is renowned for exciting high performance sailing and speed of crew manoeuvres becomes the difference for winning or losing. At events and championships, Lavery and O'Brien had coaching from previous champions in addition to tuning sessions with other competitors.

in the first r^ce of the worlds series when the Irish crew opened an immediate lead of several seconds. But while this would ordinarily count as the average finishing difference between the leading boats, they went on to score a valuable psychological advantage by winning that race by a massive four minutes and 20 seconds. But their victory was never certain due to some tough competition in the 89 boat fleet from 13 countries. Although clear favourites, the Irish boat was under constant pressure from Britain's Colin Goodman and Jim Turner who remained a threat to the end. However, Lavery and O'Brien held their own and sailed ashore to a heros' welcome from a crowd of well-wishers. The double title win has been hailed as the best result for Irish sailing in years and the highlight of the season. • News f rom the Cr iminal Law Commi t tee The Committee will be holding a Seminar entitled " T h e Irish Cr imi nal Lawyer in Europe" in The Law Society, Blackhall Place, on A booking form is enclosed in this issue of the Gazette. The topics covered will include 'Practising Abroad' and 'Taking a case to the Court of Human Rights' and the speakers will include practitioners from other jurisdictions. This is an important Seminar as most solicitors do not fully appreciate the relevance of the EU in their daily practice and the importance of introducing a European dimension. The cost to participants is £ 2 0 . 00 and it is hoped that there will be a very good attendance. Saturday, 25 November 1995 between 9 . 30 a.m. and 1.00 p.m.

Blackrock solicitor John Lavery and his crew David O'Brien realised a two- year ambition at the beginning of September on Dublin Bay when they won the Heineken Fireball World Championships. With the European title firmly under their belt from the week before, the Dun Laoghaire duo sailed a close series of seven races against stiff international competition. Lavery and O'Brien have campaigned together among the world's best sailors and were trying for Olympic qualification several years ago. Having competed in the Flying Dutchman ( FD) class, the pair turned to the Fireball dinghy when the FD was dropped from the games format.

The result of their effort and preparation was particularly apparent

The build-up to the European and

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