SAILING: When Royal North of Ireland's Chris Clayton (19) and Craig Martin (12) lifted the Mirror World championship trophy in Australia on Wednesday it not only staked Ireland's claim to its third world title in four years but reflected the Mirror as Ireland's most successful ever dinghy class.
Clayton's and Martin's result is all the more noteworthy as it represents the successful culmination of a 10-year effort by the Irish class to bring itself from bronze and silver in 1993, 1995 and 1997 to gold in 1999, 2001 and 2003.
Yet in spite of this week's Irish team domination against nine nations in Tasmania, with a solid one-two-four performance, long standing criticism that domestic youth sailors spend too long in this class has resurfaced.
The argument against the class has been made for the past 20 years and while analysts are the first to salute this week's win in a fleet of 100 boats, robbing the Aussies in their own back garden, the debate, which centres on a pathway for the top Mirror talent to choose international youth classes, looks certain to continue.
While it is not as simple as saying: "if only we could get rid of the Mirror class, then the youth world's would be flooded with the cream of Irish talent", there is a fear among administrators that by the time Irish Mirror crews emerge from what is a predominantly a junior boat they are too old for international competition.
Youth coaches say that on the international stage the elite Irish teenage sailors need to move to 420s or Laser radial's to compete with peers at the ISAF world youth championships, the Olympics of junior sailing.
In this context Bill O'Hara the youth development officer at the Irish Sailing Association, who has developed a plan to forge development of junior classes, would prefer to see those at the top of the class move at 15. O'Hara believes the 10ft 10ins dinghy is an outstanding youth boat and the parental and financial support in the class is to be applauded.
He also admits that this week's result is only one of many important ways in how the Mirror has shaped Irish sailing. As the largest double-hander in the country it has many attractions. It offers big fleet experience. It is also an inclusive class where beginners are cherished as much as the experienced.
And as Don O'Dowd, a former chairman of the Mirror class association puts it: "The international path to success is crystal clear for single-handers, namely the Optimist to Laser radial, but the pathway is not so clear for the double-handers as the weight of the teenage helmsman dictates the class chosen."
What fault finders might be forgetting, however, is that winning world championships in an Irish context has been a rare enough commodity. Since the 1980s, some of the best results - and the only world titles - have been achieved in non-Olympic classes.
The Fekkes brothers won the GP14 worlds, John Lavery (with your correspondent) won the 1995 Fireball worlds and recently the success of the Irish Mirror class has been the success story; Marty Moloney and Revlin Minihane in 1999, Pete Bayly and William Atkinson in 2001 and Northern Ireland's Clayton and Martin.
And should these three world champion pairings' ambitions extend beyond Mirror sailing they might perhaps consider the path of England's Ian Walker, a past Mirror champion who has Olympic silver medals in the 470 and Star classes and was recently the helmsman of the Britain's America's Cup challenge. There are other examples too. Tom King the Australian 2000 OIympic 470 Gold medalist is also a former Mirror world champion.
Meanwhile, at the same Tasmanian venue Ireland is represented by two boats in the three-man Dragon keelboat class that has attracted an entry of only 29 boats for its 2003 world championship. Andrew Craig, Nils Hoj-Jensen and Graham Elmes and John Lavery, Peter Bowring and Paul Maguire will compete in the first race tomorrow.
