Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

A sextet of Fireballs enjoyed an evening of close racing in sunshine last night and had the additional attraction of two course configurations in the two races writes Cormac Bradley. By mid-afternoon the XCWeather website was suggesting that winds of 7 – 10 knots from the NW would be the order of the evening and with low water scheduled for 18:36, there would be the usual debate as to which way to go relative to the tide. With it being holiday season, a number of regulars were missing and a work commitment took another crew away leaving Noel Butler with a “novice” crew in the form of World GP14 Champion, Shane McCarthy. Frank Miller had this scribe on board but everyone else was sailing with their regular combinations.

A windward-leeward with a downwind finish was signalled for the first race with the weather mark in the lee of the East Pier. An early reconnaissance of the inshore route to the mark by Miller & Bradley (14713) suggested there might be better breeze on the inside of the course. 50m off the start line that didn’t appear to be the case as Miller had the pin to himself, in contrast to the previous Tuesday, but found himself sailing a completely different angle to those who had started towards the committee boat end. Immediately to weather of Miller was Smyth & Fisher (15007) while Butler & McCarthy (15061), Conor & James Clancy (14807) were further to weather again. That meant that Cariosa Power & Marie Barr (14854) and Darragh McDonagh& crew (15058) must have been on the sea side of the beat. The further the fleet went inshore the bigger the divergence between the line being sailed by Miller and the rest of the fleet.

Power & Barry continued the vein of form they found in the first race of the previous Tuesday by rounding in first place followed by Butler, Clancy, Smyth, Miller and McDonagh, with Miller able to stage a semi-recovery over the latter half of the beat.  With the flood starting to influence the course, the challenge going downwind was to stay on a line that permitted rounding of the leeward mark as the tide was pushing boats to the left of the mark.

While the girls were comfortable in front, invariably Butler and Clancy got into closer company and Miller got engaged with Smyth and McDonagh who had closed the gap to Smyth. A two gybe approach to the leeward mark was the common approach but rounding became rather congested when the fleet caught up with the PY fleet (IDRAs, Mermaids & a RS Venture) in the final approach to the leeward mark. There were exchanges of opinion between Butler & Clancy in this manoeuvre but there was nothing to suggest contact. Miller who had squeaked ahead of Smyth was able to utilise a gap that evolved to sneak onto the beat into fourth place.

Up the next beat the fleet went their separate ways and not much happened by way of place changing but the excitement would evolve at the next leeward mark. With a downwind finish and different course lengths set for PY and Fireball, the two of the leading Fireballs, Clancy and Power found themselves on the wrong side of the PY-ers going for a finish line finish while Butler who was on the other side of the PY fleet rounded the leeward mark into first place. Smyth rounded into second followed by Miller and McDonagh while Clancy and Power were left fighting a rear-guard action to get back into the race.

Rounding just behind Smyth at the weather mark, Miller managed to sail through Smyth’s weather on the spinnaker hoist and early stage of the leg. Behind the pair of them the Clancys had closed the gap promoting a three boat competition to the line. Of these three, Miller was in the inshore slot with Smyth “piggy-in-the-middle”. Problem was that Miller would have to gybe to get across to the finish – could he eke out enough room to clear the other two. With each keeping a wary eye on the other two, they sailed in close company towards the finish. Clancy gybed first, followed immediately by Smyth and then Miller who gained enough of a gap and momentum from the gybe to cross the line ahead of Clancy who sneaked it ahead of Smyth.

With the wind still healthy but starting to drop off a little in strength, an Olympic course was set for the second race with the weather mark staying where it was. An adjusted line facilitated a port tack start by Butler & McCarthy, Miller & Bradley went inshore and the others did the same to varying degrees. This time the inshore route did pay as Miller rounded first, albeit with Clancy and Butler in very, very close company. At the gybe mark, Clancy got to weather of Miller and shortly thereafter Butler too went through his weather. However, the new front two didn’t get overly far away and indeed at the leeward mark Butler was having to call for an inside boat advantage on Miller who, in turn, was asking the same of an outside IDRA.

With Clancy now watching Butler, the pair of them went inshore leaving Miller to go offshore - surely there must be a beneficial tide out there! It may have been as Miller closed the gap on the front two, crossing transoms as he made his final approach to the weather mark. The order was still Clancy, Butler and Miller but now Power was closing the gap and not far behind her was Smyth.

For the remainder of the race, the order didn’t change despite different approaches to the final beat. But, fifty metres from the finish…………….there was an incident that changed one boat’s fortune for the evening!

The swim! As the fleet closed out on the second reach of the second triangle, the tide was pushing the it the wrong side of the leeward mark which was now a limit mark for the finish line with the committee boat flying a shortened course signal – at least that was our interpretation as we contemplated the gybe to get to the right hand-side of the mark and defend our position from the ever-advancing Power. Easy downwind gybe, nice roll…………but as Bradley went for the pole at the mast, the mast itself became the horizon rather than the waterline. A windward roll and capsize in 7/8 knots of breeze was further compounded as the centre board dropped back into the case as the boat turtled.  3^rd place gone! The post mortem suggested that there hadn’t been enough board down. At least the water wasn’t too cold!

In overall terms Series 2 stands as follows;