A week ago, the Howth Yacht Club Frostbite multi-dinghy racers were pinching themselves to be sure that they really did manage to slip a race in under the radar, despite the rest of the country being battened down in threatened or actual storm conditions, with Leitrim in particular taking it on the chin with tornadoes.
As a reward, for the final day yesterday (Sunday) they were gifted with unseasonably mild weather, flashes of sunlight, and a good racing sou’westerly which enabled HYC Commodore Neil Murphy as the race officer (and ace photographer) to provide them with three short sharp races to bid farewell to the 2023 season on a high note for the MG Motor Sailing Club of the Year 2023.
In 2024, Howth YC’s Lasers and their Frostbites will be celebrating their Golden Jubilee - many of the buildings on the shoreline here weren’t built when it all started
Yet in the the days leading up to this final competition of the Pre-Christmas series, the range of forecast models provided a variety of predictions about the wind conditions to be expected come the time of the first gun.
BALANCING THE ODDS IN FORECASTS OF EIGHT TO 38 KNOTS
The choice spanned from eight to 32 knots (writes Conor Murphy), but thankfully the more moderate breezes prevailed, although the fleet still had to contend with gusts of up to 28 knots during the first race. With some of the earlier races in the Series having been casualties of the weather, HYC’s Commodore Murphy, moonlighting as race officer for the day, squeezed in three races over a triangular course with a windward-leeward middle lap, and course-setting options usefully increased by a flooding Spring tide steadily expanding the race area west of Howth Harbour and Ireland’s Eye, while usefully sharpening the wind-against-tide breeze when any lulls arrived.
Aero ace Daragh Sheridan has oodles of high water space as he tacks towards the ancient fishing port of Baldoyle along what would - at low water – be a winding sandy channel
The race management team got the course and start lines laid quickly - and adjusted as needed, to both keep the legs properly aligned – thereby keeping the sailors (not to mention the mark layers) busy and warm. The immediate turn-around from one race to the next saw all three concluded and the sailors back ashore within two hours of the first gun, helped by the fleets getting away first time in all the races, despite the enthusiasm of some over-eager starters earning themselves the undiluted joy of individual recalls.
There were many days in the “summer” of 2023 that weren’t as good as this. Conor Twohig and Matthew Cotter of Howth and Sutton with the GP14 Wrong Trousers taking their 2023 sailing farewell in style at Howth on Sunday
TIGHT BATTLES FOR TOP PLACES
The scoreboards for each of the fleets showed tight battles for the podium places before racing started, and with three races scheduled yet only three discards available for the series with the demanding conditions forecast, anything could have happened. On the day, the south-westerly breeze coming around the west side of the Hill of Howth made for some tricky gusts and wind shifts. The snakes and ladders upwind conditions, combined with a spring tide flooding across the course area, gave everyone the feeling at some time during the morning that the finishing gun might be theirs on the day.
Far travelled - Andres Samoilov, now of Malahide YC, racing his ILCA 7 with Ireland's Eye Martello Tower astern
EXCEPTIONAL CLUB SPREAD OF PODIUMISTAS
In some cases, it seems that the more distant the sailor’s home club, then the higher he or she placed in the Howth racing. In the ILCA 7s, Rory Lynch (Baltimore SC) topped off a successful year for the Lynch family by winning all three races. None of them came easy, with Dan O'Connell (Cove SC) and Daragh Kelleher (Skerries SC) jostling for the lead at every corner. With seven wins out of the eleven races sailed in the series, Lynch was a deserving winner while Daragh Kelleher took second and Dave Kirwan Malahide YC) was third. It marks the first HYC Dinghy Frostbites series win for Rory and his name being engraved on the Courtney Cup will bring to an end the Ronan Wallace of Wexford monopoly that has lasted since 2018.
Keeping those pesky Dubs under control. Dave O’Connell of Cove SC nicely to weather of the opposition
TOM FOX RUSHES ON
In the ILCA 6s, Tom Fox (Rush SC) posted a 1, 2, 1 on this last day to seal his overall win in the series. Darragh Peelo (Malahide YC) and Peter Hassett (DBSC) tied on points for second place, while Peelo took runner-up on countback.
With five different race winners in the ILCA 6 fleet across the series, competition was fierce and no doubt will continue to be so in the post-Christmas series. In the ILCA 4s, Oleksandr Samilov (Obolon SC, it’s in Ukraine near Kyiv)) maintained his lead to win overall, despite the late charge from up-sizing Optimist National Champion Harry Dunne (Howth YC), who stormed the day's racing with a 1, 1, 2 to secure second overall.
The up-size kid, he done well….2023 Optimist National Champion Harry Dune Howth YC) placed second overall with 1,1, 2 in the ILCA 4s on the final day
Stan O'Rourke (Malahide / Howth YCs) also had a very strong day with a 2, 2, 1, sealing his third place, tied on points with Charlie Power (Howth YC) who took fourth overall. This group has been getting coached by HYC's Laser Youth Worlds and Euro Champion Rocco Wright, and the progress made by them over the series, especially in the occasionally gnarly weather conditions encountered, confirm the benefit of time on the water with a good coach. No doubt the battles between them will intensify further in January.
The mountainy men going good – Blessington’s Sam Street (grandson of The Don of Glandore) and J Lloyd had their geep on form to take a PY Class race win
In the PY Handicap Class, the RS Aeros, GP14s and the B14 battled it out on the final day before Daragh Sheridan (Howth YC) sealed the series win in his RS Aero 6 with three more firsts, building his tally of race victories to nine from the 11 races sailed, with only Michael Evans (HYC, Melges 15) and Sam Street (Blessington Lake SC, GP 14) depriving him of a clean sweep.
“We’ll get the hang of this thing yet” – Jeremy Beshoff and Declan McManus sorting it on the B14 to take third overall
The GP14s of Conor Twohig (Howth YC/Sutton DC) and Sam Street (Blessington SC) and the RS Aero of John Phelan (Howth YC) filled out the remaining podium spots on the final day's racing, with John Phelan securing 2nd overall on countback from the B14 of Jeremy Beshoff (Howth YC).
The fleet takes a Christmas break now before continuing in 2024, the Howth Lasers’ Golden Jubilee Year. First up is the New Year's Day race on 1st January, first gun at 11.55. Come on down to dust off the cobwebs and start the year right! The post-Christmas series is open to all dinghy competitors and online entry is available on the club website.
