Races 13 & 14 of the Viking Marine-sponsored Frostbites in Dun Laoghaire Harbour saw a change of Race Officer, with DMYC Commodore Ian Cutliffe taking over the reins of race management from Cormac Bradley, who had the day off.

A fleet of 43 boats enjoyed two Olympic courses of three and four laps respectively, and with the wind in the West, post-race comment was that there were big shifts on the water and at the start of the second
race a major shift.

As this correspondent was off the water, I can only report the results and make comment on the finishing order of the PY fleet where the quest for a combined win on the water and a win on elapsed time is a recurrent theme between the Fireballs and Aeros.

Seventeen boats contested Race 1 which had a “run-time” of nearly twenty-eight minutes. First over the line was the Fireball combination of Alastair Court & Gordon Syme (15156) leading home a quartet of
Fireballs in the form of Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (15016), Owen Sinnott & Grattan Donnelly (14865), Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14998) and Paul ter Horst & crew (14790) all of whom finished ahead of the first Aero. Noel Butler, in turn led the Aeros home with a near two-minute margin on the next Aero, Damien Dion, with Roy van Maanen, Stephen Oram and Paul Phelan the next in line. The IDRA 14 of the Long family finished 4:32 down on Court & Syme. On corrected time however, the podium places were shared, in order, by Butler, Long and Court.

Aero & ILCA 7s - Noel Butler (Aero 3289), David Coleman (ILCA 6, 186327) and Hugh Delap (ILCA 6, 216711) approach the leeward mark of the DMYC Viking Marine-Sponsored Frostbite Photo: Alyson Orr 

The same number of boats started the second race and again a quintet of five Fireballs occupied the first five finishing places on the water, spanning 4:39. The last of these beat Butler on the line by a second.

Yet again, however, Butler did enough to take the win on elapsed time over Court & Syme, with Sarah Dwyer (Aero), the Longs, and Paul Phelan (Aero) taking the remaining top five places.

In overall terms three Aeros are top of the log – Butler (6pts), Dwyer (26pts), Oram (28pts) with the Longs (33pts) and Court & Syme (40pts) closing out the top five.

Ladies first! - Sarah Dwyer (Aero 3433) leads a series of boats around the leeward mark of the DMYC Viking Marine-Sponsored Frostbite - ILCA 7 181204, Conor Byrne, IDRA 161 (Long family) and Fireball 14676, (white and blue spinnaker), Michael Keegan and crew. Photo: Alyson Orr

The ILCA 7s had another high percentage turnout for both their races – 10 boats from a possible 13! Conor Byrne took the day’s honours with two wins, while Theo Lyttle and Brian O’Hare shared the balance of the podium places, Lyttle scoring 3,2 and O’Hare 2,3. In Race 1 fourth and fifth went to Niall Cowman and Chris Arrowsmith while in Race 2, Arrowsmith jumped to fourth with John Marmelstein
taking fifth.

Lyttle leads the overall standings on twelve points, three ahead of O’Hare who has a five-point cushion on O’Byrne. Gavan Murphy and John Marmelstein, with scores in the thirties, close out the top five.

Darren Griffin took the day’s honours in the ILCA 6s with two bullets. Hugh Delap would have been second overall on the day with a 2,4 with Justin Geoghegan pipping Judy O’Beirne for the last podium place for the day with a 5,3, compared to Judy’s 4,5. Shirley Gilmore and Conor Clancy also had top-five finishes but only in one race each, a third in Race 1 and a second in Race 2, respectively.

In overall terms, Griffin leads the fleet on ten points, followed by Clancy (16pts), Delap (23pts), Gilmore (31pts) and Michael Norman (43pts).

Owen Sinnott (L) and Grattan Donnelly (FB 14865) with their DMYC Viking Marine-Sponsored Frostbite Race Mug for Sunday, 18th February, presented by Neil Colin. Photo: Paul ter Horst

Frostbite Mugs were awarded for the previous Sunday – Hugh Cahill and Michael Norman (ILCA6s) - and if memory serves (because I don’t have Neil Colin’s notes to hand), Mugs for the day’s racing went to Damien Dion (Aero, R1), Owen Sinnott & Grattan Donnelly (FB, R2), Brian O’Hare (ILCA 7, R1), Niall Cowman (ILCA 7, R2), Judy O’Beirne (ILCA 6, R1) and Justin Geoghegan (ILCA 6, R2).

From mid-week, the prospects for the Viking Marine-sponsored DMYC Frostbite racing this past Sunday were a source of discussion between Regatta Director Neil Colin and Race Officer Cormac Bradley as XCWeather was suggesting winds in the high teens with gusts in the low thirties from a direction just east of south. On arrival at DMYC, having driven the long way around through Dun Laoghaire to check conditions in the main part of the harbour, it looked more favourable than the forecast had suggested and Neil advised that a walk to the end of the West Pier earlier in the morning had convinced him that racing should proceed. However, the recommended recipe for the day was to have one long race and get the fleet home.

On setting up the committee boat, “Goose”, in the race area, it became apparent that a weather mark would be required about 60m inshore from the bandstand, with a gybe mark set in line with the red lighthouse of the East Pier but 100m inshore from the harbour entrance and a leeward mark in the proximity of the green INSC raft off the western inner breakwater. The advantage of this set-up is that it gives the longest beat available in the harbour.

The wind conditions were brisk in the time period before the starts, with a base wind strength of 18/19 knots and gusts in the low twenties. A reduced fleet took to the water, with the ILCA 6s taking the biggest class honour with ten boats, followed by the PY Class with 9, the ILCA 7s with six and the ILCA 4s with six, a big jump from the previous Sunday when only one ILCA 4 started.

Prompted by the discussion ashore, the RO set the fleet a five-lap Olympic course, the premise being to get the race in and the fleet back ashore in case more inclement weather came in. It appears, post-race, that this may have been a popular decision.

All three starts were clean, with the RO learning the lesson from last week by having a generous start line in place. The preferred option was to take a long starboard hike off the start line before working rightwards towards the RHS of the course. For the PYs, the first to show at the weather mark was the Fireball of Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14915) and theirs was the first spinnaker to show as well. This pair scorched around the course and took the win by a margin of 5:01 from the Aero 6 of Noel Butler who was closely followed until the last gybe mark by the Aero 7 of Stephen Oram. A swim at this gybe mark allowed Butler to get away from Oram. Despite this sizeable gap in time on the water, the handicaps would convert Butler’s 5:01 deficit to a 1:22 advantage and the PY win. Oram finished 5:58 behind Miller & Butler but lost out by only 47 seconds on time to Miller to take third on handicap.

Viking Marine DMYC PY mug winners Frank Miller (left) and Ed Butler (centre) with DMYC Commodore Ian Cutliffe

Of the four Fireballs racing, only two flew spinnaker, Miller/Butler and the new combination of Glen Fisher & Michael Keegan (14676). Frank Cassidy (14934) sailed with his son for the second time in a Frostbites and given the conditions, they did very well, especially as Frank broke a tiller extension during the race. Miller & Butler’s big margin was down to two factors – flying the spinnaker on the reaches……...and staying upright.

Among the ILCAs there was some “tight cluster” racing on the water in the 6s, with Sean Craig leading home from Conor Clancy and Darren Griffin, while the six-boat fleet of 7s saw Gavan Murphy occupy the top step of the podium ahead of Gary O’Hare and Niall Cowman.

Laser Radial mug winner Conor Clancy (left) with DMYC Commodore Ian Cutliffe

And, after a “one-boat, no race” scenario last week in the ILCA 4s, they mustered a six-boat fleet to make sure they had a race this Sunday. Kate Flood led home Sam Legge and Matilda Murray.

Viking Marine Frostbites – hosted by DMYC Round 2 – 13.11.22

Viking Marine Frostbites – hosted by DMYC Round 2 – 13.11.22

In the individual class fleets in PY, Miller & Butler lead the Fireballs with 7pts, a single point ahead of Louise McKenna, who sailed with Hermine O’Keeffe (15016) in Round 2 and Alastair Court & Gordon Syme (15167) (10pts) who were absent. Miller & Butler are sixth overall in PY with 27 points.

A quintet of Aeros led by Butler (4), with Van Mannen (10), Oram (12), Paul Phelan (Aero 7) (14pts) in 2nd to fourth and Sarah O’Dwyer in her Aero 5 (23) occupy the first five places in PY.

After two Sundays of high wind forecasts leading to the cancellation of racing the Viking Marine sponsored DMYC Frostbites Series 2, post-Christmas, got underway yesterday in bright sunshine and good winds. In contrast to the previous Sundays when the late-week forecasts were ominous the lead up to the third Sunday left me wondering if there would be enough wind to have racing. On Thursday, the forecast was for winds of 3 knots and through Friday that didn’t improve much. However, the Met Eireann forecast at 23:55 on Friday night suggested there would be breeze enough for the business of the day, though which actual part of the westerly quarter it would come from was the source of some speculation. The forecast held up on the Saturday and on Sunday a projection of 9 – 15 knots was offered for the early part of the afternoon.

Rounding a busy weather mark Photo: Ian Cutliffe

In real time we had a wind strength that varied between 8 and 16 knots during the afternoon, but for the most part was in the 8 – 11 band of strength. While there was some fluctuation in direction, a weather mark was set in the elbow of the western breakwater where it joins the West Pier. In that location, the wind was measured as being due west and allowed a beat across the longest dimension of the harbour. With a 3-lap triangle course declared for Race 1, a gybe mark was set about 150m to leeward of the marina entrance and a leeward mark was set in the approximate location of the Boyd Memorial on the East Pier.

Given the day that was in it, there was a temptation to try and get three races in, after all the last time most people had raced was on December 27th for the Charity Race. However, given that there had been such a long break, Frostbites Director, Neil Colin, cautioned that discretion might be the better part of valour – we might get a bumper fleet given that all 120 slots for Series 2 had been taken up. In the end, we had 71 boats on the water and sailed two races of the same triangular course, of three laps and four laps respectively.

Damien Dion in the RS Aero 7 Photo: Cormac Bradley

In the PY Class, there was a healthy turnout of 33 boats with the Fireballs and Aeros tying in terms of the biggest representation – 11 boats each. Add to that 2 x RS400s, 2 x GP14s, an IDRA, a Wayfarer, a Kona Windsurfer, a 470, a Pico, a Vago and a 2.4m and one can see the broad attraction of winter racing in Dun Laoghaire.

Monica Schaeffer’s Wayfarer 11299 and Charlotte O’Kelly’s Aero 7 3290 going upwind with the GP 14 of Mulvey & Murphy going the opposite way. (Red & Green spinnaker) Photo: Cormac Bradley

Fireball debutants in this series of the Frostbites, Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella (15093) dominated both races on the water and managed to save their time on the pursuing Aeros. Indeed, in Race 1 a Fireball 1-2 was recorded with Alistair Court and Gordon Syme (14706), finishing behind the leaders. Positions 3- 8 on handicap were filled by a procession of Aeros, 7s in 3 – 7 and Sarah Dwyer taking 8th in a 5. The Aero role of honour was Paul Phelan, Brendan Foley, Mark Gavin, Noel Butler, Stephen Oram, Sarah Dwyer, with the Fireball of Frank Miller and Ed Butler (14713) 9th and Roy van Maanen 10th in another Aero 7. Ciaran Keogh (13624) won the battle of the GP14s. The RS 400s finished 12 seconds apart with Brian O’Hare and Lucy O Donoghue (582) taking the honours. The fleet enjoyed a good beat and some exhilarating reaches especially when the breeze got up a bit.

Ciara Mulvey & Peter Murphy (GP14 11111) drop spinnaker as they approach the leeward mark Photo: Cormac Bradley

Series 2 for the ILCA fleets saw the return of two stalwarts, Sean Craig and Marco Sorgassi respectively. The former had been campaigning a ILCA 6 with great success in Barcelona while the latter had simply missed the cut for Series 1. Both made appropriate amends in the ILCA 6 fleet with Craig taking the gun ahead of Sorgassi and Conor Clancy. Ladies took the next two places in the form of Judy O’Beirne and Shirley Gilmore.

The ILCA 7s and 4s share a start and jumped the gun for their first start. That relegated them to the back of the queue, behind their smaller siblings, the ILCA 4s. A better approach to the starting procedure saw them away at the second time of asking and the finishing order in the ILCA 7s was Niall Cowman, Gary O’Hare, Chris Arrowsmith, Owen Laverty and Conrad Vandlik.

In the ILCA 4s, the finishing order was Daniel O’Connor, Ava Ennis, Dylan de Vreeze, Eimear Farrell and Robyn Maguire.

In total, 37 ILCAs sailed on what was the opening day of Series 2.

With the wind still allowing the weather mark position to give a fair beat, a second race of 4 laps of the same triangular course was signalled. This time all three starts got away at the first time of asking, including a port-tack PY-er at the pin end of the start. Again, the Fireballs were well to the fore on the water and McCartin/Kinsella were first to show their spinnaker colour at the weather mark. The Fireballs were grouped closer together this time but McCartin progressively pulled away from his pursuers to win by 1:03 from Court/Syme who had six seconds to spare on Miller/Butler. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen (14775) went swimming at the weather mark which accounts for them coming in over a minute behind Miller & Butler. However, only McCartin escaped the clutches of the Aeros as Noel Butler (3289) closed the door on the other Fireballs to finish 14 seconds behind on handicap, having finished 4:03 behind McCartin on the water. Four Fireballs (1st, 3rd, 5th and 9th) and six Aero 7s occupied the top ten places on handicap, before Keogh’s GP14 claimed 11th. Sarah Dwyer in the Aero 5 took 12th. Andrew Irvin and Aisling O’Grady (1044) took the RS 400 honours after a swim by O’Hare & Donoghue.

Gary O’Hare in his ILCA 7 Photo: Cormac Bradley

In the ILCA 7s, seven boats raced with Gary O’Hare leading the fleet home followed by Gavan Murphy, Chris Arrowsmith, Conrad Vandlik and Hugh Delap. In the ILCA 4s, the same finishing order as Race 1 was achieved with O’Conor, Ennis, de Vreeze, Farrell and Maguire occupying 1st – 5th.
In the ILCA 6s, the returning Craig and Sorgassi had to do with the lower steps of the podium as Mark Henry took the win. Behind Sorgassi, the order was Conor Clancy and Archie Daly in a 25-boat fleet.
Racing was held in glorious sunshine until the sun dipped behind a bank of cloud at which point the temperature dropped a couple of degrees. Still, by that stage, the large fleet had enjoyed an hour of solid racing over two courses and had hopefully blown away the Christmas and New Year excesses and a few cobwebs besides.

Viking Marine-sponsored Frostbites; hosted by DMYC

Sunday 16th January

Wind Westerly, 8 – 16 knots, Air temperature 8/9°

Race 1
PY Class (33 boats)
1. Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella (FB 15093)
2. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (FB 14706)
3. Paul Phelan
4. Brendan Foley
5. Mark Gavin
6. Noel Butler
7. Stephen Oram (All Aero 7s)
8. Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5)
9. Frank Miller & Ed Butler (FB 14713)
10. Roy Van Maanen (Aero 7)

ILCA 7s (8 boats)
1. Niall Cowman
2. Gary O’Hare
3. Chris Arrowsmith

ILCA 4s (5 boats)
1. Daniel O’Connor
2. Ava Ennis
3. Dylan de Vreeze
4. Eimear Farrell
5. Robyn Maguire

ILCA 6s (24 boats)
1. Sean Craig
2. Marco Sorgassi
3. Conor Clancy
4. Judy O’Beirne
5. Shirley Gilmore

Race 2
PY Class (31 boats)
1. Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella
2. Noel Butler
3. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme
4. Brendan Foley
5. Frank Miller & Ed Butler
6. Paul Phelan
7. Mark Gavin
8. Roy Van Maanen
9. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen
10. Stephen Oram

ILCA 7s (7 boats)
1. Gary O’Hare
2. Gavan Murphy
3. Chris Arrowsmith

ILCA 4s (5 boats)
1. Daniel O’Connor
2. Ava Ennis
3. Dylan de Vreeze
4. Eimear Farrell
5. Robyn Maguire

ILCA 6s (25 boats)
1. Mark Henry
2. Sean Craig
3. Marco Sorgassi
4. Conor Clancy
5. Archie Daly

Ten Fireballs made it to the start line of the Viking Marine DMYC Frostbites series yesterday (Sunday 5 December), with one boat stranded ashore seeking crew. The sunshine drew out a good entry from all fleets despite the chilly and blustery conditions.

Race one with an Olympic triangle-type course got away bang on time, almost catching out Frank Miller/Ed Butler who were upwind checking out conditions and shifts. The duo made it to the pin end just in time and tacked over from near the lefthand layline to find Alistair Court/Gordon Syme in the lead with Neil Colin/Margo Moonen not far behind.

Court/Syme led down the reaches and for the next beat but at the leeward rounding from the run Miller/Butler got lucky and found themselves lifted inside the leaders who had rounded a few boat lengths ahead.

The new leaders loose-covered Court/Syme for the rest of the race and held the lead to the finish. The results show that Colin/Moonen pipped Court/Syme on the finish line by a second to secure second place over the line.

For race two the west-northwesterly wind was less blustery and again Cormac Bradley and race team set the same course configuration after an interval to allow the three Laser fleets to finish.

Miller/Butler again opted for a pin-end start as it was marginally favoured and led to the windward with Court/Syme very close behind. The chasing pair had slightly better pointing upwind and slightly better speed downwind so the leaders had their work cut out to hold them off. Upwind the edges of the course seemed to hold the best pressure with the middle somewhat flat.

Due to the harbour configuration, the course was slightly skewed and the second reach of the triangle was almost a run. Court/Syme made best use of this to keep the leaders under pressure.

At one point it seemed that they had got inside the leaders to hold an inside berth to the leeward mark but Miller/Butler broke the overlap thanks to a separating gust and managed to gybe safely to secure the inside overlap to the mark. From there they covered the chasing boat in a mini tacking duel and held to the finish. Third Fireball across the line was Owen Sinnott with Grattan Donnelly who showed good speed in the lighter conditions.

Further back in the fleet special mention is deserved for helm Dave Coleman sailing with Michael Keegan, the former putting his new knee through its paces three months after surgery. When asked how it went, he replied that for the first few tacks that leg had forgotten what to do but it quickly relearned its role by race two. Another example of muscle memory, we guess!

In the overall PY standings the Aeros again dominated the top five results with Brendan Foley and Noel Butler taking PY honours. Covid willing, the series continues until Christmas and resumes after the New Year.

Results: Race 1, Race 2 and the series standings after seven races.

See also overall report by Cormac Bradley here

Taking a glance at the list of entries table published on the DMYC website, the Race Officer is going to have his hands full with the Laser Radial /ILCA 6 fleet when racing starts this weekend in the Viking Marine Frostbite Challenge in Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

With entries currently at 110, DMYC intends to enforce the 120 limit cap on entries, at least for Series 1.

It follows on from a buoyant early entry as Afloat reported here

There are 38 Radials, 20 4.7s and 14 full rigs entered as the Laser again proves its enduring appeal during the pandemic at least. 

"We will see how the participation level compares to the entries. We expect there will be some disappointed regular winter dinghy sailors, but “you snooze and you lose”, organiser Neil Colin told Afloat.

In other big turnouts, the Fireballs who host the World Championships on Lough Derg next summer have 14 boats entered and the new RS Aero class has eight.

Yet another early call has been taken to cancel the DMYC Frostbites this Sunday at Dun Laoghaire Harbour with winds of mid to high twenties gusting to mid-forties predicted for race time. Storm Dennis has an element of “Denis the Menace” to him.

The proposal is to have an early start on Sunday 23rd , possibly 12:30, in order to accommodate those who want to watch rugby as well – a particular game from Twickenham.

This afternoon's DMYC Frostbite Series racing for dinghies at Dun Laoghaire Harbour has been cancelled due to adverse weather with gusts in excess of 30 knots on Dublin Bay.

Gale force winds are predicted for the Irish Sea later today.

See live Dublin Bay webcam here

This morning's first race of the DBSC Spring Chicken Series did go ahead in the comparatively sheltered waters of Seapoint Bay.

With wind speeds of 37 knots being recorded off the end of the East Pier at lunchtime on Saturday (on a handheld anemometer) and Storm Brendan blowing hooligans today, the DMYC Dinghy Frostbites of Sunday 12th January could be said to have been sailed in the (relative) calm between the storms! And the wind behaved in accordance with the forecast, starting off quite strong first thing on Sunday morning (09:00) but dropping off in strength as the morning wore on. At about 11:30 it was down to 10/11 knots and during the race it dropped below ten but came back up again. The sun was out as well, but there was a slight coolness in the air.

Numbers were up again from last week with 27 boats in the PY fleet, 10+ in the Standard & 4.7 start and 28 in the Laser radial start. This Sunday we saw the return of the Kona Windsurfers, with Messrs Gibney and Walker, the regulars, joined by Julio David. The RS400s also added on to their fleet with the arrival of Sean and Conor Cleary and Dara McDonagh (and crew) giving Messrs Phelan & Leddy and Brian O’Hare and crew a four-boat race within the PY fleet. A second GP14, sailed by Peter & Stephen Boyle, joined the Flying Fifteen pairing of Ciara Mulvey and Peter Murphy and there were two boats challenges within the PY fleet for the RS Aeros (Brendan Foley & Mark Gavin) and the Wayfarers (Dave Mulvin & Ronan Beirne and Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy). The Sailing in Dublin (SID) Laser Vagos had three or four boats and the Fireballs had eleven starters in their fleet within a fleet.

Fireballers Daniel (L) and Harry Thompson with their Frostbite Mugs for Race 2 in the PY Fleet. Photo: Frank Miller

Given the weather conditions, the decision was taken to give the fleets a long race first to keep them active on the basis that if time and wind allowed a shorter second race could be provided. Speculation ashore, between the Frostbites “Director” and the Race Officer, was that a starboard-hand course might have to be set with the wind direction, but on getting out to the race area, a normal port-hand course was available. With a mean wind direction of 240º, the committee boat set up close to the end of the East Pier and put the weather mark just to the west of the entrance to the marina. The top reach extended across the windward shore of the harbour to a gybe mark that was to the east of the HSS gantry and the leeward mark sat behind and off to the port-hand side of the committee boat. The Wayfarer of Mulvin and Beirne was out early and sailed the two reaches under spinnaker and gave a healthy “thumbs-up” to Race Officer Cormac Bradley. Shane McCarthy in the Solo also tested the beat, by invitation, and declared that it was “good”. By prior arrangement a Fireball also sampled the course and advised that the start line was biased towards the committee boat – they were right, although the length of the start line was a bigger problem for the PY Fleet.

In contrast to last Sunday, all three starts got away at the first time of asking and while the initial approach to the first beat was to go left, the fleet soon spread themselves across the width of the course – always a good sight for the Race Officer. Five laps of an Olympic course were set and at the first weather mark there was a mix of Fireballs and RS400s in the lead bunch, with the Solo of McCarthy making his presence felt as well. The familiar red spinnaker of Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (FB 15061) was first to show, followed by the blue and white of the Thompson brothers, Daniel & Harry (FB 15156). Butler & Oram did their “normal trick” of sailing away from the fleet, but behind them there was lots of contests on the water. The leeward mark rounding also was a busy spot as the various fleets converged on it, from different angles, especially when the Lasers were added to the mix!

The first race lasted a healthy 43:38 and saw Butler & Oram take the win on the water. In Fireball terms, they were followed home by the Thompsons and Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706), though there were other boats in between. In the RS400 “race within a race”, debutants Sean and Conor Cleary took a “class” win from Dara McDonagh, Phelan & Leddy and Brian O’Hare.

The Kona finishing order was Robbie Walker, Des Gibney and Julio David, while Mulvin/Beirne took the Wayfarer win, the Boyles the GP 14 win, and Butler & Oram the handicap win, followed by McCarthy (Solo), the Boyle GP14, Sarah Byrne & crew in the RS200 and the Thompsons (FB). The winning margin on the water, Fireball to Solo was 9:25, which reduced to 00:38 after the application of handicaps. The Boyle’s performance won the Frostbite Mug for the PY Fleet.

The mixed Standard Lasers & Laser 4.7s is the smallest fleet, made up yesterday of three Standards and five or six 4.7s. The Standards finished in a tight sequence with Chris Arrowsmith winning from Alan Hodgins and David Field, Field’s performance good enough to get the Frostbite Mug. Rian Geraghty-McDonnell continued his domination of this Class with another win, followed home by Christian Ennis, a new name in the podium frame, Hugh Turvey and Archie Daly, another new name.

The Radial Fleet is a good mix of adults and Juniors with the adults represented by the likes of Sean Craig, Shirley Gilmore, Judy O’Beirne, Mary Chambers and Owen Laverty. However, in the lighter winds that we have had thus far the Juniors have been very prominent in the podium places and yesterday saw a mix of adults and Juniors in the top five finishers. The racing in this fleet can get very tight at the front and it is encouraging to see clusters of boats sailing “bow to transom” downwind with helms carefully watching those closest to them. Juniors don’t seem to be intimidated at all when Sean Craig, for example, sits on their transoms, hunting them down, waiting for a mistake! Yesterday, in Race 1, two Juniors took the honours with Hugh O’Connor winning and taking a Frostbite Mug, followed by Conor Gorman, Sean Craig, Judy O’Beirne and Shirley Gilmore.

Finishes on the water were offered to the stragglers to allow a second short race to be run. However, the first two marks had to be reset as the wind went southwards. This time the course was two triangles and having learned the lesson from the first time, the start line was lengthened. This time the contest on the line was even tighter, but again the three fleets got away at the first time of asking. The wind dropped below 10 knots but then came back up again and a race of half the duration of the first was completed.

In the PY fleet, class winners were Fireball – Butler & Oram, RS400 – Cleary & Cleary, GP14 – Boyle & Boyle, Wayfarer – Mulvin & Beirne, “by a nose” on the finish line, Kona – Walker, RS Aero – Brendan Foley. In handicap terms, a race time of 21:05 for Butler & Oram and a 00:59 second margin on the water was enough to take the PY win followed by a second Fireball, the Thompsons. On corrected time the handicap order was Butler & Oram (FB), Daniel & Harry Thompson (FB), Cleary & Cleary (RS400), Boyle & Boyle (GP14) and Patrick Hassett (2.4). Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) were the third Fireball home.

In the Standard Lasers the order was Hodgins, Field and Arrowsmith, while in the 4.7s, there was an “upset” with Rian Geraghty-McDonnell not winning! That honour went to Christian Ennis, from Eimear Farrell and Archie Daly, a performance that gave him the Frostbite Mug.

Hugh O’Connor scored a double with a second race win in the Radials, followed by Sean Craig, Conor Gorman, Adam Leddy and Owen Laverty, the latter taking the Frostbite Mug.

DMYC Frostbites: Series 2; 12th January 2020

PY Fleet; Race 1.

Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (FB), Shane McCarthy (Solo), Peter & Stephen Boyle (GP14), Saran Byrne & crew (RS200), Daniel & Harry Thompson (FB).

PY Fleet; Race 2.

Noel Butler & Stephen Oram, Daniel & Harry Thompson, Sean & Conor Cleary (RS 400), Peter & Stephen Boyle, Patrick Hassett (2.4).

Standard Lasers; Race 1

Chris Arrowsmith, Alan Hodgins, David Field.

Standard Lasers; Race 2

Alan Hodgins, David Field, Chris Arrowsmith.

Laser 4.7s; Race 1

Rian Geraghty-McDonnell, Christian Ennis, Hugh Turvey, Archie Daly.

Laser 4.7s; Race 2

Christian Ennis, Eimear Farrell, Archie Daly.

Laser Radials; Race 1

Hugh O’Connor, Conor Gorman, Sean Craig, Judy O’Beirne, Shirley Gilmore.

Laser Radials; Race 2

Hugh O’Connor, Sean Craig, Conor Gorman, Adam Leddy, Owen Laverty.

Series 1 of the DMYC-hosted Frostbites closed with a marathon race, in relative terms, yesterday with a modest turnout of 44 boats, a wind that fluctuated between 170 and 180º with a high of just over 10 knots and some sunshine, though there was a distinct coolness in the air. Indeed, there was a light covering of white on the hills behind Dun Laoghaire.

The PY fleet had the best turnout of the day with nineteen boats - Fireballs, Wayfarers, RS200s, Aero 7s, Laser Vagos, an RS400 and the Solo of Shane McCarthy. This fleet got off to an almost clean start with only one OCS, a Fireball that didn’t come back, though another Fireball DID come back. Initially, the fleet went left on their way to a weather mark that was located just to the west of the HSS gantry, making the beat one of the shorter legs across the harbour. The first four or five boats around the weather mark were all Fireballs, not quite bow to transom but close enough! Of these, the last in the group was Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) who had returned to the start in response to the flying of the individual recall even though they weren’t the transgressors. In contrast to everyone else they took to the right-hand side of the beat and were only just off the leaders at the first mark.

Stephen Oram & Noel Butler (Fireball) – Series 1 PY Fleet Winners (Overall) Photo: Frank Miller/Irish Fireball Class

Having had the top reach “sail-tested” by a Fireball before the start, the wind “played ball” in keeping it a challenging “three-sailer” and the Fireballs, in particular, seemed to enjoy stretching themselves with the crews on the trapeze. Inevitably, Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) were first to show, but the chasing bunch was close behind them – Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (15016), Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706), Josh Porter & Cara McDowell (14695) and Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713). McKenna and Court had their own race within a race all the way round the five-lap Olympic configuration course and at the finish, they were overlapped with McKenna getting the result by one second. Butler & Oram simply sailed away from the rest of the fleet and were never troubled on the water.

"The PY fleet had the best turnout of the day with nineteen boats"

On corrected time, however, it was a different story. Despite being 1:32 ahead of the 2nd and third-placed Fireballs on the water and 7:28 ahead of the Solo, Butler & Oram were relegated to third place on corrected time behind the Solo and the 2nd Aero 7, sailed by a Frostbite debutant. There were only 45 seconds between 1st and 3rd on corrected time.

Brendan Foley (Aero 7) – PY Fleet Series 1 Overall – 2nd Place.Photo: Frank Miller/Irish Fireball Class

Yet again the two Wayfarers had a great race between themselves. Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy (Greystones) ultimately won out but not by a huge margin and indeed their class competition, David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (National Yacht Club and Flying Fifteens) led them at different stages within the race and at one stage gave up a lead due to a mix-up of the lap they were on! Their performance was significantly enhanced by a fresher set of sails – brand new, but never used from at least fifteen years ago – saved from an ignominious landfill fate!

Miriam McCarthy (L) and Monica Schaeffer (Greystones) – winners of the Best Dressed Boat. Photo: Frank Miller/Irish Fireball Class

The Standard Lasers and 4.7s had a small turnout of four and three boats respectively. In the larger rigs, the finishing order was Marc Coakley, John Marmelstein, Hal Fitzgerald and Conor O’Leary, the latter helming by way of a rope tied to his tiller when his tiller extension broke off. In the 4.7s, the finishing order was Rian Geraghty-McDonnell, Evan Dargan-Hayes and Jacques Murphy.

Eighteen Radials contested the last day of Series 1 where Sean Craig continues to represent the more mature Laser sailor with aplomb in a fleet of much younger competitors. Yet again, he was pipped at the post by the much younger Conor Gorman with Alana Coakley flying the flag for the girls in 3rd place, ahead of Adam Leddy and Haemish Munro.

Conor Gorman – Laser Radials, Series 1 Winner (Overall) Photo: Frank Miller/Irish Fireball Class

The weather forecast was suggesting a much more robust day on the water than actually materialised, with winds of the order of 14 knots, gusting to the low twenties predicted as late as Saturday night/early Sunday morning. This didn’t materialise and the decision to have a single long race was prompted by the fact that an early prize-giving was deemed to be the order of the day!

As to be expected with the completion of the Series a larger than normal crowd congregated at the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club for the prize-giving, where in addition to the racing prizes, a number of bottles of whiskey were raffled off, courtesy of Ian and Judith Malcolm who are very involved in Howth’s hosting of the Fireball Worlds in August 2020. There was a raffle for the volunteers and a raffle for the Fireball competitors on the day. DMYC’s Vice Commodore, Frostbites Coordinator and Fireball Sailor, Neil Colin, officiated at the prize-giving where daily Frostbite Mugs and Series 1 prizes (calendars) were awarded.

Josh Porter (Newtownards SC) & Cara McDowell (DL) win the Fireball competitors’ raffle Photo: Frank Miller/Irish Fireball Class

Yet again, the subject of going through the finish line with the blue flag flying was a topic of conversation in the clubhouse port-mortems – the ruling is that when the blue flag is flying you may not cross the finish line unless you are finishing. Policing of the rule is down to the competitors.

Frostbites; Day 6.

PY Fleet
1. Shane McCarthy (Solo)
2. A. N. Other (Aero 7)
3. Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (Fireball)
4. Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (Fireball)
5. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (Fireball).

Standard Laser
1. Marc Coakley
2. John Marmelstein
3. Hal Fitzgerald
4. Conor O’Leary

Laser 4.7
1. Rian Geraghty-McDonnell
2. Evan Dargan-Hayes
3. Jacques Murphy

Laser Radials
1. Conor Gorman
2. Sean Craig
3. Alan Coakley
4. Adam Leddy
5. Haemish Munro

2019 – 2020 Frostbites Series 1 Overall

PY Fleet
1. Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (Fireball) 17pts
2. Brendan Foley (Aero 7) 40pts
3. Sarah Byrne & Crew (RS 200) 49pts
4. Jemima Owens & Henry Start (RS 200) 56pts
5. Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy (Wayfarer) 58pts.

Standard Laser
1. Chris Arrowsmith 26pts
2. John Marmelstein 26pts
3. Alan Hodgins 28pts
4. Marc Coakley 30pts
5. Conor O’Leary 48pts

Laser 4.7
1. Rian Geraghty-McDonnell 9pts
2. Jacques Murphy 25pts
3. Evan Dargan-Hayes 30pts
4. Kitty Flanagan 31pts
5. Eimear Farrell 42pts

Laser Radials
1. Conor Gorman 13pts
2. Sean Craig 29pts
3. Adam Walsh 35pts
4. Alan Coakley 59pts
5. Adam Leddy 60pts.

As this is the last Frostbite Report for 2019, I close by wishing you all a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year! See you on January 5th!

A misty, almost windless start to the day left frostbiters wondering if they would get afloat all at the DMYC Dinghy Frostbites. Earlier DBSC Turkey Shoot Keelboat racing was cancelled on Sunday morning with north-westerly zephyrs peaking at two knots. However, by about 12.30 the ghostly air had started to swing in the forecast direction so dinghy racers gathered at the waterfront clubs and optimistically pulled off covers and prepared their boats in almost zero wind. Their positivity was rewarded as the air settled into the predicted southeasterly and reached five or six knots. So it was that racing got away with only the slightest delay.

The mixed PY fleet included nine of the eleven Fireballs entered in the series, along with an assortment of Wayfarers, RS 400s, 200s and single-handers. The start line was frankly messy with a favoured pin end and anyone who got away cleanly counted their blessings!

Amongst those were Fireballers Neil Colin and Alistair Court who led the mixed fleet most of the way around the course. Ultimately Neil Colin sailing with John McAree prevailed on the water but on handicap Monica Schaefer won the Windward-Leeward race in the light airs by impressively steady and fast sailing in patchy conditions.

"Special mention for the volunteer race team for getting two races under the belt in challenging conditions"

For race two the pin end bias on the start line was even more pronounced and again the trick was to get off the line in good shape, with an individual recall flag flying to nag those with a guilty conscience. In this race, Newtownards sailor and heroic commuter Josh Porter crewed by Cara McDowell got clean away and led around the course. Followed by series leaders Noel Butler/Stephen Oram they held their lead to the finish. Again in the light airs, they were denied the mug which went to Des Fortune in his Finn who maintained a steady, fast and trouble-free path around the windward-leeward course.

Amongst the three laser fleet divisions the races were won in race one by John Marmelstein, Conor Gorman and Rian Geraghty McDonnell; and in race two by Vasily Shamkov, Hugh O'Connor and Rian Geraghty McDonnell.

Special mention for the volunteer race team led by PRO Ben Mulligan for getting two races under the belt in challenging conditions. The popular series continues until the end of March. Entries at present remain open with more sailors welcome to join the fray.