The penultimate Sunday of the 2021/22 Viking Marine sponsored Frostbites, hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club started off with some discussion in the race management group as to whether sailing would take place.
Despite a forecast on Friday, published as part of the Snakes’ Alive report on Afloat, of 12-15 knots, the wind on the day was a few knots higher than this and some of the squalls were generating whistling in the rigging at the DMYC. And yet, when the squalls dissipated, the wind was fine. Given that it was the penultimate Sunday, the sun was shining and we had lost so many Sundays since the New Year, the RO decided we should at least go out and have a look. The forecast was for the wind to drop, so a postponement on the water might be used to get racing underway in more benign conditions.
The PY start Photo: Noel Butler
And given that a fleet of Optimists were having a coaching session on the water, it seemed that the wind in the corner of the harbour occupied by the DMYC was much more squally due to its direction and maybe a wider view of the race area would be beneficial.
Yes, on going out to the middle of the harbour, the breeze was around the 15 – 18 mark and there were stronger gusts but the gusts were in the high teens very low twenties and a decision was taken to sail windward-leeward for the first race and review the situation on completion.
With the wind from an almost identical direction to Friday’s Snakes’ Alive racing, 140°, the weather mark was laid on the offshore side of the bandstand on the East Pier, about a third of the way between the bandstand and the obelisk on the upper wall. The Leeward gate was laid in the elbow of the western breakwater and the West Pier. A similar fleet size to Friday was on the water, thirty-three boats, split as follows, PY (14), ILCA 7s (4), ICLA 6s (13) and ILCA 4s (2). All three starts got away at the first time of asking with most boats favouring a starboard tack start and a left-hand side of the beat approach for the opening beat. Later there was more progression to the right-hand side of the beat.
In the PY Fleet, Frank Miller & Ed Butler (FB 14713) dominated proceedings on the water and won with 3:12 in hand over the first Aero 7 of Brendan Foley and 5:29 on the Aero 5 of Sarah Dwyer. Yet they lost out on handicap to both these Aeros and the Finn of Des Fortune by 1:43 to Dwyer, 1:17 to Foley and 0:07 to Fortune. Still the smiles on the faces of all these finishers was testament to the racing that had been enjoyed. Dwyer in particular loved the stronger breeze.
In the ILCA 7s, Conor O’Leary stole a march on the regulars of Gavan Murphy and Chris Arrowsmith to take the gun while Zoe Hall put in another sterling performance in the breeze to take the ILCA 4s.
In the ILCA 6s, Marco Sorgassi came home with a tight chasing pack a short distance off his transom as he finished in first place. Behind him the pecking order was Conor Galligan, Conor Clancy, Sean Flanagan and Brendan Hughes.
ILCA racing at the Viking Marine DMYC Frostbites Photo: Noel Butler
The wind had moderated during the course of the race, though there were still squalls coming through but without the same viciousness as the morning. And given that the sun was out and the first race had been a fast one – four laps of a Windward-Leeward had generated a race time of 38:29 for Miller/Butler, a four-lap Olympic was signalled for the second race.
Photo: Noel Butler
There wasn’t an obvious peep from the high-profile character who had been vexed at the RO’s decision on the second race format and length the previous Sunday and during the week he had confirmed to the RO by WhatsApp that he had relented on his initial reaction to the decision. And in the second race said individual had another great result!
While the wind had eased somewhat for the second race, it seemed that some discretion was being displayed by the spinnaker classes on the top reach of the triangle, even though the gybe mark position, inside the red lighthouse, was in a genteel position.
Miller/Butler again dominated the proceedings on the water, free to go wherever they wanted on the course and the margin of victory was 3:47 to Foley in the Aero 7. Yet again, however, it was not enough to save time and Foley took the win, on paper, by 0:56. Des Fortune compounded a good first race (3rd) with another 3rd in the Finn and David Mulvin and Ronan Beirne (GP14 14069) took fourth, with Dwyer in fifth.
RS Aero upwind Photo: Noel Butler
Conor O’Leary did the double in the ILCA 7s, with Arrowsmith and Murphy swopping places from the first race, Arrowsmith second to Murphy’s third. Zoe Hall also did the double, but in the ILCA 6s, there was very tight racing at the front before Sorgassi came through with his double in the latter stages of the race.
The second race took just forty minutes which meant everyone was ashore in a reasonable time.
Viking Marine sponsored Frostbites, Sunday 20th March
Race 1
PY Fleet (14 boats)
1. Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5)
2. Brendan Foley (Aero 7)
3. Des Fortune (Finn)
4. Frank Miller & Ed Butler (Fireball)
5. Stephen Oram (Aero 7)
ILCA 7s (4 boats)
1. Conor O’Leary
2. Gavan Murphy
3. Chris Arrowsmith
ILCA 6s (13 boats)
1. Marco Sorgassi
2. Conor Galligan
3. Conor Clancy
4. Sean Flanagan
5. Brendan Hughes
ILCA 4s
1. Zoe Hall
2. Dylan de Vreeze
Race 2
PY Fleet
1. Brendan Foley
2. Frank Miller & Ed Butler
3. Des Fortune
4. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (GP14 14069)
5. Sarah Dwyer
ILCA 7s
1. Conor O’Leary
2. Chris Arrowsmith
3. Gavan Murphy
ILCA 6s
1. Marco Sorgassi
2. Conor Galligan
3. Conor Clancy
4. Brendan Hughes
5. Sean Flanagan
ILCA 4s
1. Zoe Hall
2. Dylan de Vreeze
With this being the penultimate day of racing, it is pertinent to publish the current overall results:
