#rssailing – Sunday 16th dawned bright and breezy, but as the RS fleets launched into Dun Laoghaire harbour, the breeze had dropped right off to a shifty five knots for the DMYC Frostbite Series. The fleet was sent outside for racing, and fortunately the breeze decided to play ball and built to a pleasant 10-15 knots from the North East.
After a short postponement, the rs's were the third fleet to start, with a favourable pin end. The fleet jockeyed to get of the pin, with four boats OCS, Mark Nolan and Heather Craig, Andrew Algeo and Paul Nolan, Marty O'Leary and Rachel Williamson and Chris helme and Alan Claffey.
Marty and Rachel were the sole boat to turn around and restart and were left to chase the fleet up the first of 5 beats. By the windward mark, the fleet had compressed, with some snakes and ladders up the beat. Marty and Rachel rounded first, hotly pursued by Sarah Byrne.
Up the second beat Sarah Byrne broke into the lead, only to be reeled back in by mark and heather sailing 1015 and Marty and Rachel sailing 1170.
Th final order of the 200s was to be Marty and Rach followed by Mark and Heather only to realise they were OCS, leaving second place to Sarah Byrne, 3rd spot went to Chris and Emily Arrowsmith.
RS400 Fleet
The 6 strong 400 fleet had a battle royale from the off.
After what can only be described as a pin end frenzy of a start - Leg 1 saw Andrew Algeo & Paul Nolan (1335) and Emmet & James Ryan (1339) nip out in front from the left side of the course. These were closely followed by newcomer Rumball, with Kingston and Cleary joining the chase from the right side. The first windward mark saw the 5 frontrunners pop kites almost simultaneously, and peel onto a lively leg 2 in surfable swell. Ryan's hoist resulted in a slightly ripped kite, and Rumball (1143) slipped back to 4th, allowing Kingston to slot into third as the pack settled, and planed on downwind.
The next 3 rounds of the trapezoid course saw position changes on almost every leg. Chased hard by Kingston, Algeo (subsequently scored OCS) hung on to pole position for a good portion of the race. The Ryans gallantly powered on with their ripped kite in 3rd, and managed to keep Alexander Rumball, Sean Cleary (1017) and Brian O'Hare (582) at bay. Kingston & Mcnamee finally managed to reel Algeo in on the third round, and went on to put a good distance between themselves and the fleet over the final 2 laps to take another win in the 400 class and the DMYC mug for the day's racing.
