8 Fireballs started tonight's fourth round race of Series 2 of DBSC. In yet another odd night of weather, playing the waves downwind, in particular, was as important as reading the wind going the opposite direction writes Cormac Bradley.
The suggestion from my favoured web-based forecaster was that we could expect WSW winds of 8/9 knots with severe gusts in the twenties. As the evening progressed the wind was due to go westwards.
From my office vantage point overlooking Dublin Bay the signs were that the wind was stuck in the SE quarter and was dying as the afternoon progressed.
Our reading of the wind at the start was 170 degrees and with a still flooding tide the question was (again) whether to look for breeze offshore and fight a stronger tide. The majority of the fleet went offshore, the notable exception being Noel Butler & Glen Fisher (15061) who headed inshore at the gun. Louise McKenna & Francis Rowan (14691) soon followed suit. The flying of an individual recall signal prompted two boats to go back at the start, Team Clancy, Connor & James (150++) and Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713).
Of the other four boats, Smyth & Bradley (15007) were furthest out to sea, with Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854), Jonathon Nicholson & Vivian Besslar (14781) and Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865) inside them, in that order. Nicholson/Besslar peeled off first followed by Power/Barry and finally Smyth/ Bradley, who by now were on the port lay line. A starboard hail by Nicholson/Besslar caused Power/Barry to tack again to leave them outside Smyth/Barry on the port layline.
Nicholson, Power and Smyth then closed in on the weather mark with Nicholson and Smyth overlapped and Power immediately astern. Butler powering up the starboard layline complicated the first rounding of the weather mark to render the rounding order as Smyth, Butler, Nicholson, Power, with little to choose between them in terms of distance. The balance of the fleet were close on their transoms..
On the downwind leg of the W/L course, Smyth went back out to sea where the waves and wind were quite good. Butler went inshore immediately and the rest of the fleet followed his lead initially. As the leg progressed the fleet was spread across the course all taking advantage of the waves to accelerate downwind.
Butler took pole position round the leeward mark and took a hitch inshore to ensure he was to weather of the fleet. Smyth was next, tacking immediately, followed by Power, McKenna & Nicholson. The whole fleet continued upwind on starboard tack before making their port tack approaches to get to the weather mark. Smyth went the furthest keeping a weather eye on Power and McKenna as all three crossed the course on port tack.
Butler was still in pole position at the 2nd weather mark, Smyth retained the 2nd position and Power and McKenna rounded close together. Team Clancy worked the inshore slot to round close on their tails.
Smyth went the opposite way to Butler downwind and McKenna and Power also took a more seaward approach. This seemed to benefit those who were chasing Butler/Fisher because the distance certainly closed. Smyth gybed four times before reaching the leeward mark to find that Power/Barry had closed to a boat length at the mark. Team Clancy appeared to round next before McKenna/Rowan. The short hitch to the finish saw positions being defended with only Team Clancy breaking rank by tacking immediately.
1. Noel Butler & Glen Fisher 15061
2. Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007
3. Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854.
