Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691) led last night's Tuesday race (21/05) in the DBSC Series for Fireballs. The best turnout for the series so far, eight boats, contested what started off as a tense race with everyone in close proximity to each other and devolved into a light wind drifter as the wind ultimately disappeared.
Our reading of the wind direction in the racing area gave us SE as the direction and while getting out of the harbour had been a bit of a struggle, once we were in Scotsman's Bay there seemed to be a healthy breeze for the evening's proceeding. Nobody was trapezing but there was wind!
With a flooding tide the sensible thing to do seemed to be "go inshore" and the majority of the fleet did that. What resulted was a procession of boats approaching the first weather mark on the starboard layline. Louise & Hermine were the most offshore of the group and ahead with Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) leading the layline procession, followed by Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007), Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061), Conor Clancy & Hugh Butler (150**) and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775).
The first five went marginally out to sea while Colin & Casey gybed immediately onto an inshore track for the downwind leg of the windward/leeward course. McKenna/O'Keeffe were the first to gybe back inshore, while Miller/Donnelly were the last to do so. The other three played more of a middle course. The Colin/Casey gamble paid off as they rounded in close company with Butler/Oram & Clancy/Butler. McKenna/O'Keeffe were gone and Smyth/Bradley managed to round second.
2nd beat, with a modified weather mark position, and the lead group played the inshore card. Miller/Donnelly went to sea initially but then came back. Smyth/Bradley held their 2nd place but Butler/Oram closed the distance and Clancy/Butler weren't far behind them. Still leading McKenna/O'Keeffe held their nerve and played the 2nd downwind leg much the same as the first. Butler, Smyth, Clancy & Colin went down to the second leeward mark in close company. Miller/Donnelly dropped off the pace and lost distance. At the 2nd leeward mark, McKenna/O'Keeffe were still comfortable. Smyth/Bradley got caught in a pincer movement by Butler/Oram outside and Clancy/Butler inside to drop two places instantaneously at the leeward mark. Interpretations of 3 boat-lengths would provide an interesting discussion among these three!!
Now it was time to "hit the shore" which the ladies did. Butler and Clancy kept each other in close company up the third beat. Smyth was obliged to try something different which didn't work – distance lost! Colin/Casey also went to the beach but didn't gain the distance they craved.
At windward 3 the order was McKenna, Butler, Clancy, Smyth, Colin, and Miller. But Miller wasn't finished yet. The dying breeze all but evaporated on the third downwind leg. Boats were pointing in all sorts of directions to try and keep spinnakers filling. There was a sense of almost sailing away from the shortened course finish line, between the leeward mark and the committee boat, just to keep spinnakers full.
Butler/Oram appeared to close the gap on McKenna/O'Keeffe, but the ladies held out to win. Smyth initially closed on Clancy and Colin closed on him. Behind Miller & Donnelly were the first to drop their spinnaker and ghosted past both Smyth and Colin to regain the places they had lost earlier.
DBSC Tuesday Night Series – Fireballs: Round 4.
1 Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe RStGYC. 14691
2 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram DMYC 15061
3 Conor Clancy & Hugh Butler RStGYC 150**
