Olympic duo Waddilove and Dickson have wins in their sails

FIVE rings have been painted on the windows of the sailing club at Skerries harbour.

Above them is a huge photo of Sean Waddilove — one of their own — with Robert Dickson and a good luck message for the two sailors heading to the Olympic Games.

These are heady times for the North County Dublin village.

The rugby club on the south strand is still recovering from the celebrations after local star Ciarán Frawley kicked Ireland’s last-minute winner against South Africa.

And they too are preparing to cheer on one of their own at the Olympics, with Sevens player Hugo Lennox on the plane.

Throw in rising Dublin GAA stars Killian and Hannah McGinnis, along with Greg McEnaney, Ethan Dunne and Adam Fearon — not to mention Fontaines DC lead singer Grian Chatten — and Skerries has plenty to cheer about right now.

Waddilove has known Frawley since their school days and will be hoping to keep the celebratory mood going when he competes in the 49er class with Dickson at the Games.

“I was in school with (Ciaran), I was in the same class as him all the way up to Sixth Year. I actually used to walk to school with him as well, so I know him quite well,” says Waddilove.

The Skerries sailor played rugby with Frawley in school, but the boat was always ahead of the ball for Waddilove.

“I don’t think you could compare myself and Ciaran. He was definitely the better player!” he says.

“It’s great, there’s myself from Skerries and also in the Rugby Sevens there’s Hugo Lennox, who qualified for Tokyo as well. So this is his second Olympics.

“It’s fantastic, Skerries is a relatively small town and to have two Olympians for the second time is unbelievable.”

This will be Waddilove and Dickson’s second-successive Olympics.

Dickson is from Sutton, just up the coast, and the pair have been friends since competing against each other as teenagers.

“I was the better one. Just for the record,” jokes Waddilove. “I think we were quite similar, we were on the same development teams growing up. Probably a mix of who was beating each other, depending on the week.”

As personalities in the boat, they are different.

“(Robert) is probably a bit more laid back and relaxed and I’m probably a bit more fiery, but I think the two complement each other very well in the boat,” says Waddilove.

Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove of Team Ireland

Dickson knows the importance of working together as a team.

“We work together. One of us can’t win. It’s both of us in the boat. We win and we lose together,” says Dickson.

Their medal hopes at the last Olympics hit the rocks when a harness was found to exceed the 2kg limit by 90 grams, leading to a disqualification from two races.

Working with coach Matt McGovern they have left no stone unturned in preparation for this year’s competition — which takes place in Marseille.

“We sailed really well, we won two races during the Olympics. The performance was really, really good and then it was obviously overshadowed a little bit by the disqualification for the harness issue,” says Dickson.

“Looking back we’re really proud of the performance that we put down. That also gives confidence going forward.”

The harness in question is one that attaches competitors to the boat, allowing them to stand off the edge and gain more leverage and more power.

In Japan, on the waters of Enoshima Yacht Harbour in Fujisawa, their harness had soaked up extra water leading to the rules infraction.

“We’re definitely not going to let it happen again,” says Dickson. “We’re a bit more aware of what they’re going to be checking.

“The things we need to be really strict on, because there’s so many parts on a 49er, there’s a huge amount of equipment and we do a lot of testing of sails and masts and we have different boats and try and figure out which is going to be the best.

“There’s a lot of work that goes into that, we just have to be extra careful.”

Sailing in a week-long competition can be both physically and mentally draining, with long days out on the water in changing conditions.

Waddilove and Dickson have spent a lot of time in Marseille in the build-up to the Games and now have their sights set on a medal.

“That’s the goal, yeah,” says Dickson. “We’re pretty confident that we can go and do a good performance. We’ve been to Marseille and we’ve sailed well in regattas in Marseille before.

“If we sail to the best of our ability, there’s no reason why a medal is out of reach. We’ll be aiming for it.”

Boys in the better land…and sea.

Joe May’s pub at Skerries harbour could be very busy over the next few weeks.