Ireland's newest sailing star following in familiar footsteps
GOLDEN WELCOME: Eve McMahon with her mother Vicky and her father Jim upon arriving to Dublin airport after capturing gold in the single-handed ILCA6 class at the 2022 ILCA 6 Youth World Championships in Houston, Texas on Saturday evening, July 30. Pic: INPHO/Tom Maher
Ten years ago this month, Ireland and the sailing world were looking on in awe as a young athlete from Rathfarnham in Dublin appeared to be walking away with the women’s single-handed event of the Olympic Sailing regatta in Weymouth.
But it was not to be the dream ending and tears of heart-break ended that event until four years later in Rio when Annalise Murphy won her Silver medal.
Looking on the whole time were hundreds of young Irish girls and boys who became touched by what became known as “the Annalise effect”.
One such sailor was Eve McMahon from Howth, the youngest of three siblings all of whom have proven talent and are each Olympic prospects in their own right.
A decade after Murphy took the ‘leather-medal’ at London 2012, McMahon set out her own blistering message of intent.
In just five weeks, the 18-year old won a hat-trick of youth championship Gold medals competing in the ILCA6, formerly known as the Laser Radial, the boat that brought Murphy through the highs and lows of peak performance.
McMahon won the ILCA6 Youth World title in Italy in 2021 and after a winter of few competition opportunities due to the Covid pandemic, won the Irish Sailing Youth National Championships in Ballyholme - again.
Then she sat her Leaving Cert.
And after that, she won the class European title in Greece immediately followed by Gold at World Sailing’s Youth World Championships in The Hague and then off to Texas to defend her 2021 title.
At each event, her form steadily improved to a standard rarely seen with a slew of race wins and top results. Inevitably, there were a few shockers, those bad days that many top sailors encounter in a series and the reason why sailing events are decided over up to a dozen races, to even out the odd bad day.
But her bad days became fewer and fewer and the World Championships in Houston last week saw her win the first six races plus the first two races of the final day.
Her worst result of the series was a fourth. In a 50-boat fleet.
The intensity of the five-week programme was only starting to take effect when she arrived after a sleepless flight from Texas to Ireland on Monday.
“It was a lovely welcome home not just for me but the whole team but now I’m just planning to sleep and spend time with family,” she told the Irish Examiner.
That family experience will likely involve a debrief with her brothers Jamie and Ewan, both of whom are campaigning at senior level in the ILCA7 full-rig Laser.
So what will those sessions be like?
“I have to give them credit, they’ve been analysing the videos of my races and giving me feedback… more like siblings than coaches and I give as good as I get but we have a great relationship.”
As she bids farewell to her youth career, she is also contemplating her next steps that begin in three weeks time with the ILCA6 Under 21 Worlds in Portugal.
The step-up in age bracket won’t be such a huge shock to the system as she readily points out that she has been sailing senior level events already.
However, she’s acutely aware of the step-change moving to the older and more experienced fleets will mean.
“The senior fleet is much more tight – any little mistake means a big drop in standings so its very tough mentally,” she says.
Her depth of knowledge is already proving itself though competing and progressing through the age ranges is vital according to Irish Sailing Head Coach Rory Fitzpatrick, who was with Murphy from the start of her senior career.
That career started with promise but with nothing like the hat-trick of Gold medals that McMahon has just delivered.
“Every once in a while, really good sailors come along and do what she (Eve) has done,” said Fitzpatrick. “I’ve been around a good while and I can’t think of anyone who has done this.”
McMahon sailed last year’s ILCA6 European championships at senior level and placed 15th overall so she’s already known in the class.
As for the next steps, Fitzpatrick points to the resource of experienced and proven sailors that she is already training with.
“We don’t dial up the intensity but we change the environment a bit and have the right people around her with more experienced help,” he said.
In the lead-in to Tokyo 2020, McMahon was already deeply involved in the training group that comprised Murphy along with Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom who took Gold in Japan as well as Aoife Hopkins, another one of the current crop of talented sailors that have emerged from Howth Yacht Club.
“Eve added a great dynamic that was really welcomed in the group and she was a great fit,” said Fitzpatrick.
With Murphy’s retirement from Olympic competition, that group now has the world number one ranked sailor Vasileia Karachalou from Greece filling the space who now trains from the Performance HQ base in Dun Laoghaire.
“There is great common-purpose – we all need each other and want to collaborate; we’re very open and (the sailors) are not rivals even though they compete against one another.”
Nevertheless, while McMahon’s star is rising fast, her guiding light remains Ireland’s “silver sailor” who had such a profound effect on a generation of talent.
The Howth girl not only insisted on sailing Murphy’s boat at the training centre but also speaks using similar phrases and expressions as the “Annalise effect” completely inspired her.
And that looks set to continue in September when Murphy will temporarily step in as coach as the whole Irish single-handed squad turn their attention to the next senior European championships in November.
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