It was a well known Dublin Bay sailor who came to the rescue of a swimmer at the height of Storm Emma yesterday in the popular bathing spot of Sandycove in County Dublin.

As social media revealed, it was the quick thinking actions of Royal St. George Yacht Club member Philip Lee, a Dun Laoghaire resident, that led to the successful rescue at the storm lashed harbour, a location where the Coastguard had earlier urged people to stay out of the water.

Lee made a skilful and exceptionally long and accurate throw of the lifebuoy (see video below), enabling the woman swimmer to grab on to the line. Her location at the time of the incident was periously close to the harbour mouth where she risked being swept out to sea.

The footage posted on social media shows people rushing to help the woman.

The coastal road in Dun Laoghaire was closed due to high winds and flooding.

The gardaí confirmed the incident, stating that a few people took to the water during the code red weather alert.

The Coastguard have urged people to act responsibly and not to go swimming in any lakes, rivers or in the sea.

Taking flight from Dún Laoghaire Harbour on Sunday, 20th May, the Red Bull Flugtag will return to Irish shores this summer. It will see over 50 teams attempt to push the limits of human flight, as they launch their handcrafted flying machines in front of over 40,000 spectators. 

Red Bull Flugtag challenges the brave and brainy to design, build and pilot homemade flying machines off a 9-metre high flight deck, in the hope of soaring into the wild blue yonder…or more often, to plunge into the waters below. Flugtag, which means “flying day” in German, pushes the envelope of human-powered flight but competitors need more than airtime to reach the podium. Teams are judged on three criteria: flight distance, creativity of the craft, and showmanship. These criteria have inspired flying tacos, prehistoric pterodactyls, and even Snoopy and the gang to grace the Flugtag flight decks! 

In 2011, Dublin celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Red Bull Flugtag series and they are bringing back the madness to the capital on 20th May, 2018. 

If you are interested in participating, applications open 21st February. Five-member teams of aspiring aviators and courageous craftsmen and women can apply for a chance to compete at Red Bull Flugtag 2018 by submitting flying-machine plans. The deadline to submit craft designs is 31st March. 

Applying to participate in Red Bull Flugtag is free. Pilots and participants must be 18 or older.

Photographer John Coveney captures the second Full Moon of January 2018, a "blue" moon, breaks through the clouds over Dublin Bay at dusk on 31st January.

Sorrento Terrace in Dalkey is in the foreground. The Muglins Light (left) and the Kish Lighthouse (right) are behind.

It was most probably a combination of the weather forecast, the actual weather or the time of year (two Sundays before Christmas), but yesterday’s Frostbite fleet was considerably reduced and only two Fireballs answered the starter’s call writes Cormac Bradley. An indication of the weather was the fact that the keelboats were cancelled in the morning and later we also heard that the Howth Autumn Series was cancelled. On Facebook I read that the sailing at Datchet Water was cancelled and seeing the waves off Hayling Island (in a photograph on Facebook), I can’t imagine that anyone was sailing there either.

Even the recently acquired Dun Laoghaire based MOCRA 60 was out under reefed main and small headsail, though that may have more to do with the nature of her business for the day – looking after corporate interests! 

Strangely, the forecast on XCWeather wasn’t extreme with a wind forecast of 10 knots gusting to 15 from an ENE direction and air temperatures of 3- 4 degrees. However, the conditions were a bit windier and a bit colder with snow lying on the hills behind Dun Laoghaire and a decision had been taken that only one race would be sailed. 

The committee boat, under the management of Race Officer Brian Mulkeen, was located just to the west of the HSS docking gantry and he set a 4-lap triangular course for the day’s proceedings. With a weather mark located to the east of the harbour mouth and a gybe mark located to the west of the harbour mouth, the top reach of the course was a spinnaker leg for the first two laps for the Fireballs but the second reach was tighter and discretion rather than valour applied to that leg.    

The majority of the starters headed off the start line on starboard tack – five boats in the Slow PY Fleet, eight Lasers in the second start and the two Fireballs, Finn, K1 and RS 400 in the Fast PY Fleet. Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) stayed to the outside of the committee boat so that they were able to start on the committee boat while Louise McKenna & Cormac Bradley (14691) having come into the start area a little early found themselves starting further down the line. The K1 was further to leeward of them but the other starters were between the two Fireballs. Butler tacked early onto port while McKenna stayed on a starboard tack for longer and that was race over. For Butler the chase became one of closing down on the starters ahead of him, while for McKenna the challenge was to stay ahead of the Finn.

The distance between the two Fireballs at the first weather mark was respectable and McKenna got there ahead of the Finn and the RS. Both Fireballs flew spinnaker down the first reach but confusingly, Butler held it through the gybe but dropped it immediately and it was only when they did it the second time that the penny dropped – the drop was on that side so that it was correct for the hoist at the next weather mark. It was the correct call as the leg was a lot tighter than it had been on the practice lap. Around the second lap there was little to report, Butler increased his lead and McKenna got away from the Finn. But on the third beat, McKenna went right early while the Finn worked the left-hand side. A header for McKenna saw her fall behind the Finn on the water but she recovered her position before the weather mark and sailed away from him again on the off-wind legs. The second half of the race was breezier with a dark cloud outside the harbour generating the stronger stuff. Bob Hobby, marshalling g the area around Mark 1 was also of the view that this had also brought in a flurry of snow, but we weren’t specifically aware of that. By the finish the lead on the water over the Finn was approximately 1:20 in favour of the Fireball but that subsequently proved to be insufficient. In terms of his “unofficial chase” of the boats starting ahead of him, it may well have been that the Solo was the only boat to save his time on Butler.

As has been the case for all of the Sundays to date, the action at the head of the Slow PY Fleet was between the Solo and the Wayfarer and today (again) the Solo had the upper-hand.  While the lead on the water stayed fairly constant, Shane McCarthy was a comfortable leader throughout the entire race. Behind them the IDRA14 of Frank Hamilton led the chase and ultimately he did enough time-wise to secure third place on handicap and taker the day’s Frostbite Mug. With Hugh Sheehy (Finn) and Butler already having Frostbite Mugs, the day’s Mug went to Louise McKenna and Cormac Bradley.

DMYC Frostbites: Overall Fast PY Fleet			R1	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Tot
1	Noel Butler & Marie Barry	FB 15061	1	2	1	1	1	1	7
2	Frank Miller & Ed Butler/CormacBradley/Grattan Donnelly	FB14713	2	5	2	3	2	6	20
3	Neil Colin & Margaret Casey	FB14775	3	7	3	4	3	6	26
4	Alistair Court & Gordon Syme	FB14706	7	3	5	2	8	6	31
4	Hugh Sheehy (Finn)	2	7	1	4	9	8	2	31
6	Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe/Cormac Bradley	14691	7	7	10	5	4	2	35

The new Executive Committee of the International Fireball Class includes Irish representation with Dublin Bay Sailor Cormac Bradley appointed as Rear Commodore, Europe West.

The Committee has been confirmed as follows;

Commodore: Christina Härdi-Landerer (Switzerland)

Rear Commodore Australasia: Ben Schulz (Australia)

Rear Commodore Asia: Hiroshi Kato (Japan)

Rear Commodore Africa: David Laing (South Africa)

Rear Commodore North America: Debbie Kirkby (USA)

Rear Commodore Europe East: Jakub Napravnik (Czech Republic)

Rear Commodore Europe West: Cormac Bradley (Ireland)

Afloat.ie understands Tom Egli (Canada) is staying on as Technical Officer, but other appointments, Secretary, Treasurer, Webmaster and Publicity Officer have yet to be discussed/confirmed.

The fifth round of the 2017/18 Frostbites, hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, saw two races held inside the harbour, a four lap trapezoid course to start proceedings followed by a three lap windward-leeward course which I am reliably informed is a first for the Frostbites, so kudos to Race Officer Brian Mulkeen writes Cormac Bradley. It also saw the best turnout of Fireballs, six and a healthy fleet of Lasers, fourteen. In addition to the six Fireballs the Fast PY Class included the 470 and Tom Murphy’s K1. In the Slow PY the fleet was made up of a Wayfarer, a Solo, a solitary KONA (Windsurfer), a Feva, 2 IDRAs, 2 Enterprises, 4 Laser Vago XDs and a Hartley 12.2.

The weather station in the harbour was recording 15.9knots with a gust of 21.8knots from 284˚ with an air temperature of 9˚. This meant that the “on-the-water” situation was pretty consistent with the XCWeather prediction for the afternoon. The afternoon started under partial blue skies but the skyline greyed as the afternoon progressed and there was a lit bit of drizzle later one. For the trapezoid course the weather mark had been set under the West Pier of the harbour at the location of the first “elbow” in the wall – where it changes direction. No.2 seemed to be a long way downwind of the first mark, almost disproportionately so, but during the race mark 1 – 2 was invariably tight. Mark 2 – 3 was an easier sail with some boats electing to gybe before reaching No.3 so as to set themselves up for a very tight 3 – 4 leg. Mark 3 was located off the HSS gantry and Mark 4 was of the order of 120m east of the mouth of the harbour.

In all three starts the fleet went left initially. In the slow PY, the Wayfarer was the weather-most boat and that set Monica Schaeffer and Miriam McCarthy up for the lead and the privilege of leading the Slow PY fleet around the first weather mark. However, they were kept in close company for the first lap by the Solo of Shane McCarthy before he was able to pull away from them. Both would fall victim on the water to the Kona Windsurfer of Robbie Walker who led for the majority of the race.

The Fireballs were stacked windward to leeward on a port tack coming out of the start towards the middle of the harbour. Using headgear and clothing combinations to identify boats it looked as though Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) were the furthest boat to windward with Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) furthest to leeward. In between were Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061), Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706), Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) and David and Michael Keegan (14676).

While the boats which came furthest left seemed to have got in to better wind, Butler & Barry, having tacked earlier were able to get around the weather mark first but it was close with Miller & Donnelly and Court & Syme. Colin & Casey were a short distance behind them while McKenna & O’Keeffe and Keegan & Keegan were a little off the pace.

Court & Syme powered over Miller & Donnelly on the tight reach between 1 and 2 and spent the rest of the race chasing Butler & Barry. On the subsequent beats, the addiction to going left was diluted somewhat with a preference to staying on the right-hand side as far as the harbour mouth, before tacking across to the middle of the harbour. The exception to that rule was Colin & Casey who tacked early every time to work the middle and left of the beat. On the third lap, Butler pulled away from Court and both boats put distance between themselves and the remainder of the fleet. By Mark 3 of the penultimate lap, Butler & Barry were the third boat on the water behind the Kona and the Solo and by the penultimate rounding of Mark 4 Court & Syme were ahead of everyone bar the Kona and the Solo. The tightness of the leg from 3 to 4 meant that in Round 3 Butler & Barry went for an Aussie drop two-thirds of the way down the leg while the all male combinations behind them, Court and Miller were able to hold the spinnaker all the way into the mark.

While Butler was comfortably ahead at the last windward mark, he nearly got caught by Court who was able to close in better wind with Syme on full trapeze between 1 and 2 while Barry was sitting inboard with a limp spinnaker. However, a late change in leader did not materialise and Butler & Barry won by 50 seconds with only he Kona ahead of them on the water. Court finished third on the water, getting ahead of the Solo just before the last weather mark. Colin & Casey put together a fast last lap, closing dramatically on Miller & Donnelly in the approach to Mark 4 for the last time, but Miller held on to finish third. In the slow PY fleet, the order on the water was Kona, Solo, Wayfarer, Feva, and Enterprise.

The ice was broken (figuratively) when a second race was set for the afternoon. Marks 2 and 3 were lifted and a windward-leeward was set with Marks 1 and 4 staying “as is”. Again, the majority view in all starts was to go left – there were no dissenters in the Slow PY start, 4 Lasers went right and while all the Fireballs started on port tack, two went right quite early on – McKenna and Keegan. Colin was furthest away from the committee boat at the start. At the top mark, Miller led the fleet around followed by Butler, Court and Colin. While the first three stayed on starboard tack, Colin gybed and sailed towards the harbour mouth. Behind these four, McKenna and Keegan had their own race. Miller held the lead down to 4 and stayed ahead up the next beat. In this regard he was helped by being on starboard with a Laser also being on starboard to force Butler to take evading action relative to both boats two-thirds of the way up the second beat. At the windward mark for the second time, Colin was still in fourth, but took a line that brought him down the right hand side of the run relative to the others who were all to his port-hand side. In this position he managed to sail through Court and close the gap on the first two, but Court nipped in again at the leeward mark to relegate him back to fourth again. McKenna and Keegan were also having a “ding-dong” battle on the downwind leg.

Up the final beat and Court stays right whereas the others come left. Butler gets through Miller and Colin is promoted to third as he, Miller and Butler come in on the starboard lay-line. Court’s race come to an early end when he gets caught up in a melee at the weather mark and decides that discretion is the better part of valour and retires home early. Butler and Miller dice again on the last downwind leg but Butler secures the inside berth on the approach to the leeward mark and has enough room to squeeze Miller out and to enough of a degree to make the short hitch to the finish a “safe bet”.

In the Fast PY fleets, the Fireballs all saved their time on the water in both races which means that the Frostbite Mugs for the day go to Alistair Court and Gordon Syme for the first race of the day and to Neil Colin and Margaret Casey for the second race.

DMYC Frostbites: Overall Fast PY Fleet			R1	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	Noel Butler & Marie Barry	FB 15061	1	2	1	1	1	6
2	Frank Miller & Ed Butler/Cormac Bradley/Grattan Donnelly	FB14713	2	5	2	3	2	14
3	Neil Colin & Margaret Casey	FB14775	3	7	3	4	3	20
4	Alistair Court & Gordon Syme	FB14706	7	3	5	2	8	25

#DublinBay - Litter in the water is a longstanding issue in Dun Laoghaire and Sandycove — but one local schoolgirl has taken it upon herself to do something about it.

Ten-year-old Flossie Donnelly started this past summer calling for volunteers to help clean up the sea shore at Sandycove every Friday evening, even designing her own poster to spread the word on social media and around the neighbourhood.

On her blog, Flossie writes that she was “really sad” that no one came to her first clean-up.

But a meeting at the Forty Foot the next day with county councillor Cormac Devlin led to the word spreading further in the local press.

“It’s very unusual that a child of her age approached an adult and a politician at that. That she is so environmentally aware is wonderful,” Cllr Devlin told the Dublin People in August.

By the end of the summer, Flossie was in charge of her own crew of volunteers helping to remove plastic debris that is dangerous to Dublin Bay’s marine life and local boaters alike.

Despite the shorter days and colder weather of late autumn and winter, Flossie is still leading regular coastal clean-ups and making friends along the way — including an Australian girl whose message she found in a bottle.

Marine debris in Dun Laoghaire

More recently, Flossie was out on a RIB in Dun Laoghaire Harbour to clean up the breakwaters — filling three boats with rubbish and doing “a week’s work in a day”, according to Dun Laoghaire Coast Guard, who praised the “inspirational” girl for her efforts.

But the ambitious youngster isn’t stopping there, with plans to raise money for the installation of a Seabin automated cleaning system for the harbour, in what would be a first for Ireland.

Previously highlighted during Afloat.ie’s Rio Olympics coverage last year, the Seabin device has the potential to collect as many as 83,000 plastic bags or 20,000 plastic bottles each year.

That amounts to half a tonne of plastic annually, from visible debris to micro-plastics that threaten our protected species.

Britain’s first Seabin was recently installed at the pontoon of America’s Cup team Land Rover BAR in Portsmouth as part of a project to restore populations of oysters in the Solent.

Flossie and her beach cleaning squad will be hosting a table quiz at Fitzgerald’s Pub in Sandycove next Thursday 30 November to raise funds towards Dublin Bay’s first Seabin. For details see Flossie’s website HERE.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club Commodore Chris Moore, reviews the 2017 sailing season on the capital's waters that will be celebrated tonight (Friday, 17th November) at the annual DBSC prizegiving at the Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. A full list of the 90 DBSC prizewinners are at the end of this story.

Ex-Hurricane Ophelia provided an appropriate footnote to the 2017 Dublin Bay sailing season. It was, in everyone’s recollection, an uncommonly windy year, with numerous races abandoned–or, for smaller boats, severely curtailed. Yet analysis of fleet turnouts, particularly of Saturdays, presents an oddly conflicting picture.

DBSC Commodore Chris Moore

For years we have been noting that on Saturdays, in contrast to Thursdays, turnouts rarely exceeded 36% of the boats entered. This year, despite what we remember as an exceptional abundance of wind and rain, the turnout remained exactly true to form – at 36%.

So, windy, yes, but on Saturdays during, the robust conditions did not deter the usual Saturday enthusiasts from venturing out as usual.

The J97 Windjammer (Lindsay J. Casey & Denis Power) are the winners of the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Trophy for Best New Boat on Dublin Bay. Photo: Afloat.ie

For Thursdays, on the other hand, the turnout figure, which in 2016 was 54% of the fleet, this year fell to 48%. Four Thursday days racing had to be abandoned, quite unlike 2016 when there were none at all. Average turnout of boats on Thursdays in 2017 was 110, (though there were days when it exceeded 130 and sometimes reached 140).

In 2016, by contrast, average turnouts on Thursday evenings was 125. Quite a notable fall-off in 2017, we must agree.

To be sure, Saturdays in the early part of the 2017 season were exceptionally cold and blustery. To no one’s regret, racing for the first two Saturdays had to be cancelled. And the first coastal race on the 27th May took place in wet, miserable conditions, only two boats reaching the finishing line.

A large fleet of Sigma 33s – including DBSC's own fleet – competed in July's Dun Laoghaire Regatta Photo: Afloat.ie

Thereafter, the weather settled down a bit, particularly after the second coastal race on the 17th June which took place in a minor heat wave. Many boats, in fact, struggled to get beyond Killiney Bay, like Ruffians, Shipmans and Cruisers 5. A few weeks later, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, with sunshine and benign winds, was a most agreeable occasion. As indeed was our own end of Season race day - a kind of mini-regatta, if you like, with beautiful weather and some new courses which seem to have pleased nearly everyone.

Courses
Mention of the end of season race on the 30th September reminds me that for some time we have been trying to arrest the decline in Saturday turnouts by introducing more interesting and more varied courses. First, we have had the coastal races which now include, for some classes, an annual trip down southwards to the Greystones regatta.

Then, this year, on the final day of racing, we had keelboats boats racing on windward-leeward courses, finishing the first race on one starboard side of the committee boat while boats were starting the second race on its port-hand side. It made conditions aboard the committee boat very interesting, to say the least, but sailors seem to have loved it. Particularly as it cut out the interminable waiting and hanging about which up to this seems inevitable with back-to-back racing.

The SB20 Venues World (Ger Dempsey) won the Lunasa Trophy for Saturday Series 2 Photo: Afloat.ie

There’s undoubtedly an appetite for this particular format, but, unfortunately, there’s a problem. It’s extraordinarily demanding of resources. Not only does it require two exceptionally good race officers on the two committee boat (or else one very, very experienced totally alert race officer with the proverbial eyes in the back of his/her head) but also a doubling up of the time-keeping and recording teams.

Reflecting on it, what we might consider next year is to sign-off each of the two Saturday series with similar such courses. As we will be having a Bloomsday regatta on the 16th June, we could use this format on that occasion and finish the first series at the same time.

Bluefin II (Michael & Bernie Bryson) was the winner of the Beneteau 31.7's Long John Silver Cup for Saturday Overall (Echo) DBSC racing Photo: Afloat.ie

Entries and Subscriptions
Subscriptions and boat entries held up well and indeed income was about 1% above what we budgeted for. For the record, boat entries came to 317 and membership subscriptions to 1217.

Within those generally satisfactory boat entry figures, there are some less positive trends. Whereas cruiser-racers continue to thrive in Dublin Bay the decline in one-designs continues. In 2016, there were 8 Dragons racing under the DBSC burgee. This year there were only 5. Squibs in 2016 numbered 14. This year they had fallen to 11, with turnouts averaging just three boats.

The DBSC Flying Fifteen fleet make the headlines in the Irish Times. The buoyant fleet is bucking the trend in one design numbers on the bay. The 25–boat class, largely based at the NYC, will stage the FF world championships in Dun Laoghaire in 2019

Volunteers
In 1963, Howard Knee a well-known artist of the day, painted a picture showing a DBSC start at the inside of the West Pier. The total race management effort at the time consisted of the race officer, an assistant, a megaphone and an open shed to protect them from the elements. We’ve moved forward a lot since then and on some Saturdays nowadays DBSC fleets sail in four separate race areas, served by two state–of–the art committee boats, the West Pier Starters Hut and- servicing the dinghies in the Harbour – Declan Traynor’s large rib.

All this requires the services of a considerable number of volunteers (now numbering close to forty, by a recent count). Managing even the rota for this group requires considerable personal effort on the part of the team coordinators, to whom we must be infinitely grateful, Ida Kiernan, Rosemary Roy and Barbara Conway - who is now, regretfully, leaving us to go back to racing.

Members murmuring about the accuracy of their results should be aware that life on board a committee vessel at anchor in seaway is not invariably the comfortable berth they might imagine. One Saturday last season, visiting the Freebird on a day with a very lumpy sea, someone noticed that three of the women members of the team were undoubtedly seasick. Yet they were able to pick out sail numbers from what seemed to be a flurry of white sail storming across the finishing line.

That said, we must recognise that there can be new or occasional members the team sometimes have an imperfect grasp of what is going on. Indeed, there is always the need for all us to update and share our knowledge of the mechanics of running club racing. It’s subject we intend to give some attention to during the winter with some training and briefing sessions.

We should not forget, either, the young– and, sometimes, not so young –people who man the Club’s RIB patrol boats. We depend a lot on them to lay accurately starting and finishing lines. Not to mention laying leeward gates and putting a windward mark exactly where it should be and not letting it float away with the tide. In this area, too, we will consider some upskilling, either in-house or by some specialist agency.

Hut
The DBSC starter’s Hut has been going onto its summer location on the seaward side of the West Pier since 1968.

In that year, according to the Club’s minutes, the first courses from this particular location were designed by Tim Goodbody. It’s clearly a life-time vocation, designing courses, for it was Tim, nearly half a century later, who this summer, produced a set of new and interesting designs for our coastal races. Our thanks once again to Tim for all the time and effort he continues to put into this very essential exercise.

The Hut has always been important asset for the Club even though its centrality in the scheme of things has declined a bit with the acquisition of committee boats. There is no intention to abandon it. It’s important for Tuesday racing and even though we could run Saturday races without it as we have done on Thursdays, it’s still a very useful, comfortable, not very expensive and totally dependable place to run races to run races from. Which, hand on heart, we can’t always say about committee vessels.

We’re grateful to Brendan Finucane for looking after it this year. It’s always a stressful exercise overseeing putting the Hut on station on the West Pier. Likewise, the return to the MGM yard on the crane/low-loader, along the narrow causeway from the Pier to the bridge, ever so carefully avoiding getting entangled in fences and road signs along the way. We never cease to marvel at the skill of the various drivers who so successfully carry it all off so professionally over the years.

DBSC Pier mark at the East Pier stayed on station but others disappeared Photo: Afloat.ie
Marks
Not unexpectedly, the bad weather seems to have taken its toll on the Club’s buoyage. Zebra Mark went adrift and ended up in Douglas in the Isle of Man. New Ross simply disappeared and has not been seen since. Marks are subjected to all sorts of conditions and many of them are beyond useful life. We have been considering a budget to fund a replacement programme. Expensive but necessary. My thanks to Philip Ferguson for his work on this activity.

DBSC committee boat Freebird at work laying courses in breezy conditions at this year's Turkey Shoot. Photo: Afloat.ie

Committee Boats
Always a significant item in the Club finances, the committee boats require unceasing and meticulous attention. Maclir is in constant use since we acquired her seventeen years ago and some time in the not too distant future we’ll have to see about replacing her. Freebird, which first came into full service in 2013, still requires some looking after. This autumn, for instance, anodes to protect the very valuable jet drives cost €1,500. Expensive, yes but not as expensive as replacing the jet drives.

I should here express our thanks to the drivers of the committee boats. (Skippers, I think, would be more appropriate designation). Not only do they drive the craft, they’re also part of the team - looking after the race sound signalling, for instance. Brendan Dalton take a particular interest in the maintenance of the Freebird, and spends long hours helping her get ready for service. My special thanks to them for all this.

Appreciation 

Looking back on the Club’s activities for this review, I cannot but think that in many ways DBSC is something very similar to what is now called a medium-sized enterprise. There is the same concerns about raising income, providing services, paying bills regularly, maintenance programmes, budgets, administration and enlisting the right people to do the work

With the addition, of course, that the workers are all volunteers, which are far, far too many to list here. But I must single out our hard-working flag-officers and committee. Not forgetting Not our hard-working Hon. Secretary, Donal O’Sullivan and our Hon.Protest Secretary, Ray Duggan who looks after protests with his usual tact and efficiency.

Ray will be leaving us at the end of next season when the then-incoming committee will be faced with the unenviable task of finding a worthy successor.

I thank also our sponsors and supporters – firstly our title sponsor Sherry Fitzgerald and also Viking Marine, MGM Boats, SagePay and Killen Marine. A special word of thanks to Rathfarnham Ford who have been generously supporting our winter racing for some years now.

Tim Goodbody's J109 White Mischief leads at the DBSC Turkey Shoot gybe mark. White Mischief was the winner of Cruisers One Saturday IRC overall racing; Photo: Afloat.ie

Which reminds me I must not forget either former commodore Fintan Cairns, who continues to run the Turkey Shoot and Spring Chicken series so successfully. This winter racing is great fun, as is the apres-sail jollifications, over which Fintan and Brian Mathews preside with much wit and aplomb.

Brian, who is our Technical Director - and also a very, very effective race officer - will be absent from Dublin Bay for about a year, having joined another former DBSC member, Eamonn Crosbie, in a world cruise aboard the latter’s boat, Pamela, a Discovery 55. We wish them both fair winds and happy voyaging.

DBSC Technical Director Brian Mathews is sailing round–the–world with Dun Laoghaire sailor Eamon Crosbie in Pamela, a Discovery 55 Photo: Afloat.ie

I must thank, too, the two Leonard brothers, Kevin and Ralph, who, after fifteen years on the job, are retiring at the end of this year. It’s not always sufficiently recognised, but producing regular results for the web within half an hour of receiving the record sheets of what is the equivalent of a full-scale regatta , is an achievement not easily matched elsewhere in the sailing world.

In recent years, in response to class requests, we have been adding complication after complication into the Club’s results system. It dates from 1983 when our then-Commodore, Michael O’Rahilly, talked to Colin McMullen about computerising the task. DBSC were very much ahead of the curve at the time and over a hundred clubs world-wide used it in its heyday. But it’s dated, the complications were slowing it down. The web adjunct added to it about 2006 was only a compromise – providing snapshots, so to speak, of print files produced by the underlying computing system.

As members are now doubt aware, Colin McMullen has been working on a full upgrade, bringing it into line with the new server-based technology. We all look forward keenly to seeing it on stream next season.

Outside DBSC I must remember at this time the management and staffs of the waterfront clubs who support DBSC members in so many ways. Also the boards of Dun Laoghaire Harbour and Dublin Port as well as the Harbour Masters, Captains Simon Coate and Michael McKenna. Not forgetting the national authority which regulates our sport, the Irish Sailing Association, which in recent times became Irish Sailing. To all our grateful thanks.

DBSC 2017 Prizewinners

Cruisers 0
Rockabill VI	Paul	O'Higgins	glasses	Saturdays Echo Series 1
WOW	George	Sisk Esq	Knox-Gore Cup (2)	Saturday IRC overall
			glasses	Thursday Series 1 Echo
			glasses	Thursday ECHO Series 2
			Knox-Gore Bowl (1)	Thursday ECHO Overall
			glasses	Thursday IRC Series 1
			glasses	Thursday IRC Series 2
			Martin Cup (3)	Thursday IRC overall
			glasses	Saturday IRC Series 1
			glasses	Saturday ECHO Series 2
			glasses	Saturday IRC Series 2
			John Rennie Trophy	Coastal Races
			Centenary Trophy (4)	Saturday Echo overall
Cruisers 1
Bon Exemple	Colin	Byrne	West Pier Officers cup (7)	Thursday IRC overall
Chimaera	Andrew & Deidi	Craig	glasses	Thursday Echo Series 1
Dear Prudence	Pierce	Tynan & others	Osterberg Cup (5)	Saturday Echo overall
Gringo	Tony	Fox	Tiamat Trophy (6)	Thursday ECHO Overall
Gringo	Tony	Fox	glasses	Thursday Series 1 IRC
Jalapeno	Paul	Barrington Esq	glasses	Saturdays Echo Series 1
Something Else	John & Brian	Hall	glasses	Thursday ECHO Series 2
			glasses	Saturday Echo Series 2
White Mischief	Timothy & Richard	Goodbody Esq	Weir Cup (8)	Saturday IRC overall
			glasses	Thursday IRC Series 2
			glasses	Saturdays IRC Series 1
			glasses	Saturdays IRC Series 2
			Cr.1 Royal Alfred Cup	Coastal Races
Cruisers 2				Cruisers 2
Enchantress	K Bonner, L Nicholl	& M Larkin	Silver Foam Trophy (77)	Most improved boat
Helter Skelter	Adrienne & Averil	Jermyn	glasses	Saturdays Echo Series 1
Leeuwin	Henry Leonard &	Bobbie Kerr	glasses	Thursday Series 1 Echo
			glasses	Thursday IRC Series 1
Peridot	J.McCann. P.Cadden. Y.Charrier	& H.O'Donnell	Silver Salver (12)	Saturday IRC overall
			glasses	Saturday IRC Series 1
			glasses	Thursday IRC Series 2
			Cr.2 Royal Alfred Cup	Coastal Races
Rupert	Richard & Philip	Lovegrove Esq	Lady Shamrock Trophy (13)	Thursday IRC overall
			Fireseal Sigma 33 Trophy (24)	Thursdays overall
			Rupert Bowl (26)	1st Saturday Series-Trophy
			Bective Lights Crystal Trophy (27)	Saturdays overall
			J.B. Stephens Trophy (25)	Thursday Saturday Combined
Windjammer	Lindsay J. Casey &	Denis Power	T.P. Early Cup (11)	Saturday Echo overall
			glasses	Saturdays Echo Series 2
			Centenary Cup (10)	Thursday ECHO overall
			glasses	Thursday ECHO Series 2
			glasses	Saturday IRC Series 2
			Briscoe Trophy (9)	Tuesday Echo overall
Cruisers 3
Cartoon	Sybil McCormack &	Ken Lawless	Mercia Cup (16)	Saturday Echo overall
			glasses	Saturday Series 2 IRC
			Mini- Sam Maguire Cup	Coastal Races
			glasses	Saturday ECHO Series 2
			Jack Kennedy Memorial Cup (15)	Saturday IRC overall
Dubious	Peter	Richardson	glasses	Saturdays Echo Series 1
Marlena	Grzegorz	Kalinecki	Annette Cup (90)	Tuesday overall
Running Wild	Brendan	Foley Esq	Viking clock Trophy	Thursday Echo overall
			glasses	Thursday IRC Series 2
			glasses	Thursday ECHO Series 2
			glasses	Thursday Echo Series 1
			Smalldridge Cup	Thursday IRC overall (3a)
			glasses	Thursday IRC Series 1
Cruisers 3(b)
Asterix	Frazer Meredith &	John Counihan	Sanderling Trophy (14)	Thursday IRC overall (3b)
			glasses	Thursday IRC Series 1
			glasses	Saturday IRC Series 1
Cacciatore	Mairead &Ann	Ni Cheallachain	glasses	Thursday IRC Series 2
Pamafe	Gerald	Costello Esq	glasses	Thursday ECHO Series 2
Saki	Paget Mc Cormack	Ml. & Ben Ryan	Whimbrel Rose Bowl (19)	Thursday Echo overall
			glasses	Thursday ECHO Series 1
B21s
Billy Whizz	Pat	Shannon	Old Baily Bowl	Coastal Races
			glasses	Thursday Scratch Series 2
Ventuno	Rowan	Fogarty Esq	Facet Jewellers Cup (95)	Thursday Scratch Overall
			glasses	Thursday Scratch Series 1
			glasses	Saturday Scratch Series 1
			glasses	Saturday Scratch Series 2
			Beneteau 21 Cup (94)	Saturday Scratch Overall
Cruisers 5 (a)
Persistence	Chas. Broadhead	Ian Stuart & Jerry Collins	Gerry Henry Salver (20)	Thursday Echo overall
			glasses	Thursday Echo Series 1
			glasses	Saturdays IRC series 1
			glasses	Saturday IRC Series 2
			White Sail Class Trophy (21)	Saturday IRC overall
White Lotus	Paul	Tully Esq	Burford Trophy (23)	Thursday IRC overall
			glasses	Thursday IRCSeries 1
			glasses	Thursday Series 2 Echo
			glasses	Thursday Series 2 IRC
Calypso	Howard	Knott	Anna Livia Trophy (22)	Saturday Echo overall
			glasses	Saturdays Echo Series 2
Cevantes	Paul	Conway	Royal Alfred Howth Trophy	Coastal Races
			glasses	Thursday IRCSeries 1
Sweet Martini	A.Bruce	Carswsell Esq	glasses	Thursday Echo Series 1
The Great Escape	Patrick & Denise	Rigney	Trevor Wood Trophy (92)	Thursday Echo overall
			glasses	Saturdays Echo Series 1
			glasses	Thursday Series 2 Echo
Vespucci	Sean & Kristina	O'Regan	Galileo Cup (93)	Thursday IRC overall
			glasses	Thursday Series 2 IRC
31.7s
Bluefin II	Michael & Bernie	Bryson	Long John Silver Cup (29)	Saturday Overall- Echo
			glasses	Saturday Series 1 Echo
			glasses	Saturdays Series 2 Echo
Fiddly Bits	P.J.Timmons,W.Quigley	G.Murray, D.Breen	glasses	Thursday Series 2 (Echo)
Levana	Jean	Mitton	glasses	Thursday Series 1 (Scratch)
Levante	Michael Leahy &	John Power	Horrigan Cup (28)	Thursday Overall -Echo
			glasses	Thursday Series 1 (Echo)
			glasses	Thursday Series 2 (Scratch)
			glasses	Saturday Series 2 One-Design
			Royal Alfred 31.7 Cup	Coastal Races
			Arandora Trophy (30)	Saturday Overall-One Design
Prospect	Chris.	Johnston	Feanor Trophy (31)	Thursday overall One-Design
			glasses	Saturday Series 1 One-Design
Dragons
Dcision	Joey Mason &	Greg Purcell	Old Time Cup (87)	Combined Saturday & Thursday
			glasses	Thursday Series 1
Phantom	Peter Bowring &	David Williams	Oxford & Cambridge Cup (33)	Thursday overall
			glasses	Thursday Series 2
			glasses	Saturdays Series 1
			glasses	Saturdays Series 2
			RIYC Cup (32)	Saturdays Overall
Zinzan	Tim Carpenter, Patricia	McGettrick & Adrian Masterson	Torry Cup (88)	Special conditions
Glens
Glendun	Brian Denham	D,Houlton, Alison OBrien	Pterodactyl Cup (34)	Thursday overall
			glasses	Thursday Series 2
Glendun	Alison	OBrien	Pair of Silver Vases (39)	Ladies Race
Glendun	Brian Denham	D.Houlton, Alison OBrien	Hamilton Reid (38)	Dalkey Island Race
Glendun	Stephen	Flood	Glen Challenge Trophy (35)	Crews races
Glenluce	Richard & Donal	O'Connor Esq	Royal Alfred Glen Trophy	Coastal Races
			glasses	Saturday Series 1
			glasses	Saturday Series 2
			Harry Maguire Memorial Cup (36)	Saturday overall
			The McMullen Cup (37)	Sts & Thurs combined + regatta
			Commodore O'Meara Trophy	Olympic races
Pterodactyll	Roderick & David	McCaffrey Esq	glasses	Thursday Series 1
Ruffians
Alias	David Meeke &	Martin McCarthy	Dr. O'Leary Memorial Cup	Coastal races
			John Donnelly Perpetual Cup (41)	Best Tuesday Boat
Bandit	Ann Kirwan, Brian Cullen	& Ciara Brown	Huet Trophy (43)	Thursday overall
			glasses	Saturday Series 1
			British Airways Trophy (44)	Saturday Overall
			J.Lamont Brown Trophy (42)	Sat & Thurs overall
Ruffles	Michael	Cutliffe Esq	glasses	Saturday Series 2
Shannagh	Stephen Gill &	Padraig Mac Diarmada	glasses	Thursday Series 2
			glasses	Thursday Series 1
Shipmans
Barossa	Brian Geraghty, Stuart Trotter	& Neill McSherry	The Malindi Cup (46)	Saturdays overall
			glasses	Saturday Series 2
Curraglas	John P. & Neill	Masterson Esq	Royal Alfred Shipman Bowl	Coastal Races
JOSlim	John D.Clarke &	B.J. Maher	The Shipman Perpetual Trophy (47)	Special Conds.(sats not major trophy
			glasses	Thursday Series 1
			glasses	Saturday Series 1
Viking	Brian Glynn, \Monica McWeeney	Fergus Mason	The Midweek Trophy (45)	Thursdays overall
			glasses	Thursday Series 2
SB20
Bad-Kilcullen	Jerry	Dowling	glasses	Thursday Series 2
Bango	James	Gorman	Bealtaine Trophy (49)	Special Conditions
			glasses	Saturday Series 1
Sacre Bleu	Colin Galavan	Richard Hayes &	Equinox Trophy (50)	Special Conditions- 3rd series)
Sin Bin	Michael	O'Connor	Saturday SB3 Cup (51)	Saturday overall
			glasses	Thursday Series 1
			Crichton Trophy (52)	Thursday overall
Sin Bin	Michael	O'Connor	glasses	Saturday Series 3
Venuesworld.com	Ger	Dempsey	Lunasa Trophy (48)	Special Conditions (Saturday Series 2 etc)
			glasses	Saturday Series 2
Mixed Sportsboats
Jambiya	Vincent	Lattimore	glasses	Saturday Series 1
			Sporstboat Saturday Cup	Saturday overall
			glasses	Saturday Series 2
Jester	Declan	Curtin	glasses	Thursday Series 2
			Sporstboat Thursday Cup	Thursday overall
Jester	Declan	Curtin	glasses	Thursday Series 1
Water Wags
Mariposa	Cathy	MacAleavey	G.Pugin Melden Trophy (53)	Wags Series 2
Mariposa	Cathy	MacAleavey	glasses	Wednesday Series 2
Moosmie	McFarlane Esq	RIYC	Goldsmith Cup (54)	Wednesday Overall
Moosmie	David	McFarlane Esq	Blue Bird Trophy (55)	Wags Series 1
Moosmie	David	McFarlane Esq	glasses	Wedneday Series 1
Flying 15s
As Good as it Gets	Ben	Mulligan Esq	Brian S.Ryan Trophy (57)	Saturday overall
Deranged	Neil	Colin	Flying Fifteen Gun (56)	Thursday overall
Deranged	Neil	Colin	Fifty Something Cup	1st Thursday Series
Deranged	Neil	Colin	glasses	Thursday Series 2
Deranged	Neil	Colin	glasses	Thursday Series 1
Elena	Ross	Doyle	Blake Cup (89)	Special Conditions
Ignis Caput	David	Mulvin	glasses	Saturday Series 2
The Gruffolo	Keith	Poole	glasses	Saturday Series 1
Mermaids
Aideen	Brendan Martin &	Dan Brennan	Stella Cup (60)	Thursdays: special conditions
Aideen	Brendan Martin &	Dan Brennan	J.B.Kearney Shield (61)	Saturday-special conditions
Jill	Paul Smith &	Pat Mangan	Iolar Cup (59)	Saturday overall
Jill	Paul Smith &	Pat Mangan	glasses	Saturday Series 1
Jill	Paul Smith &	Pat Mangan	glasses	Tuesday Series 1
Jill	Paul Smith &	Pat Mangan	glasses	Tuesday Series 3
Jill	Paul Smith &	Pat Mangan	glasses	Tuesday Series 2
Jill	Paul Smith &	Pat Mangan	glasses	Saturday Series 2
Jill	Paul Smith &	Pat Mangan	Amy Cup (58)	Tuesday Overall
Squibs
Little Demon	Sheila	Power	glasses	Thursday Series 1
Perfection	Jill	Fleming	glasses	Saturday Series 1
Periguin	Noel	Colclough	Shannon Cup (62)	Saturday Overall
Why Not	Derek & Jean	Jago	Minx Trophy (63)	Thursday Overall
Why Not	Derek & Jean	Jago	glasses	Saturday Series 2
Why Not	Derek & Jean	Jago	glasses	Thursday Series 2
Fireball Incubus	Cariosa Power &	Marie Barry	The Saturday Cup	Saturday Overall
Incubus	Cariosa Power &	Marie Barry	glasses	Saturdays Series 2
No. 15061	Stephen	Oram Esq	Nuits St.George Trophy (64)	Tuesday overall
No. 15061	Stephen Oram &	Noel Butler	glasses	Tuesday Series 1
No. 15061	Stephen	Oram Esq	glasses	Tuesday Series 2
No.15061	Stephen	Oram Esq	glasses	Tuesday Series 3
IDRA14s
Dart	Pierre	Long	Melampus Cup (78)	Special conditions
Doody	Jennifer Byrne &	John Fitzgerald	Half-Way Trophy (80)	Special Conditions
Dunmoanin'	Frank	Hamilton Esq	Bay Cup (67)	Tuesday overall
Dunmoanin	Frank	Hamilton Esq	glasses	Saturday Series 3
Dunmoanin'	Frank	Hamilton Esq	The Kennedy Cup (66)	Saturday Overall
Dunmoanin'	Frank	Hamilton Esq	glasses	Tuesday Series 3
Dunmoanin'	Frank	Hamilton Esq	glasses	Tuesday Series 2
Dunmoanin'	Frank	Hamilton Esq	glasses	Saturday Series 2
Dunmoanin'	Frank	Hamilton Esq	glasses	Saturday Series 1 Series 1
Slipstream	Julie	Ascoop	glasses	Tuesday Series 1
Spray	Shane	McNamara	Crews Challenge Cup (79)	Special Conditions
Portsmouth YS
No.59	Tom	Murphy	The Windmill Cup (68)	Tuesday overall
No. 59	Tom	Murphy	glasses	Tuesday Series 3
No.6	Richard	Tate	Early Bird Trophy	1st series Tues, & Sat.combined
No. 6	Richard	Tate	glasses	Saturday Series 3
No.6	Richard	Tate	glasses	Tuesday Series 2
No.6	Richard	Tate	glasses	Saturday Series 1
Sail No. 2	Des	Fortune Esq	glasses	Tuesday Series 1
816	Patrick	McGoldrick	glasses	Saturday Series 2
Lasers
No. 155068	Ross	O'Leary	glasses	Tuesday Series 2
No.173111	Darach	Dinneen	The Lanaverre Trophy	Tuesday overall
No.173111	Darach	Dinneen	glasses	Tuesday Series 3
No.173133	D.	Maloney	Sailcraft Tray (69)	Tuesday overall-2nd place
No.173133	D.	Maloney	glasses	Tuesday Series 1
Juniors
No. 190754	Oisin	Cullen	Jimmy Mooney Goblet (86)	Laser Radial September Series
No 47493	Hugh	O'Connor	Lawson Cup (84)	Topper September Series
No. 1475	Conor	Gorman	Seapoint Cup (82)	Optimist September Series
No. 1649	Tim Norwood &	Finn Cleary	Mitchell Cup (83)	RS Fever September Series
No. 190754	Kate	Fahy	Pioneer Trophy (85)	Laser September Series
No. 601	Patrick	Hassett	PY Junior Trophy	PY September Series
Premium prizes
As Good As It Gets	Ben	Mulligan	Newsom Cup (74)	Best one -design boat
Declan Traynor	Declan	Traynor	Viking Trophy (76)	Notable contribution to sailing
Dunmoanin'	Frank	Hamilton	Dr Alf Delaney Cup (73)	Best Boat on dinghy course
Ruffians	Michael	Cutliffe Esq	Brendan Ebrill Memorial Cup (81)	Special conditions
White Mischief	Timothy &	Richard Goodbody	Waterhouse Shield (75)	Best Cruiser on handicap
Windjammer	Lindsay J. Casey &	Denis Power	Dun Laoghaire Harbour Trophy (72)	Best New Boat

The 47th running of Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club’s Frostbite Series got underway yesterday in blue sky, sunny conditions and a brisk N-Westerly that reduced in strength as the afternoon wore on writes our special correspondent. Stalwart of the event, Olivier Prouveur, who announced at the conclusion of the 2016/17 Series that he would be taking a less prominent role in the managing of the event was in attendance, but in an observer role!

The Race Officer duty was undertaken by Frostbite RO debutant Cormac Bradley of the Fireball Class and for his first foray into the Frostbite Race Management the first decision was to decide if racing would take place. An early departure from DMYC with a suggestion that a postponement would be advised, if necessary, was vindicated when the assessment was that racing could proceed.

In a departure from previous formats, three starts were provided – Slow PY, (PY1), Lasers and Fast PY (PY2). And in a significant development, two windsurfers of the KONA Class joined in the racing.

Given the conditions and the “first day back” nature of the day, a single race was proposed and sailed with 5 laps of a trapezoid course used to wash away the cobwebs. Given that the keelboats, sailing their Turkey Shoot Series earlier in the morning, did not seem to be excessively hard pressed and taking into account the physical condition of the waters inside the harbour, the postponement wasn’t required and racing got underway on schedule, at 14:00.

Solo sailor Shane McCarthy (left), the Slow PY Class winner with DMYC's Neil Colin Photo: Frank Miller

As an experiment the two windsurfers were put in PY1, the argument being that if they were as fast as we thought they might be they would get away from the rest of the fleet and have less traffic to deal with on the race course. Their contemporaries on the first start were a Solo, an IDRA 14 and four Laser Vagos. One of the Konas led at the first weather mark, sitting about 60m inside the harbour mouth and closer to the end of the West Pier, but the Solo was not far behind. By the time they got to the end of the five laps, the windsurfer had a good lead on the Solo on the water, but was unable to save his time in handicap terms. In third place on the water was the IDRA of Pierre Long & John Parker. Marks 2 and 3 were in the vicinity of the approach to the marina and just east of the ferry terminal respectively and while spinnakers were a rarity on the top leg of the trapezoid, they were flown on the leg from 2 to 3. Again, only the asymmetrics had any real joy with spinnakers on the bottom leg of the course. Mark 4 was in the approximate location of the memorial on the East Pier.

The finishing order on the water was Kona, Solo, IDRA, but after handicap correction the win went to the Solo of Shane McCarthy with the windsurfer second and the IDRA third.
Ten Lasers answered the starter’s call, with three Radials in the bunch. And it was one of the Radials, helmed by Clare Gorman who set the pace for the first half of the course. Eventually she was reeled in by Gary O’Hare who went on to win on the water by 24 seconds, but after handicap correction, Gorman took the first Laser Frostbite Mug by a margin of 1:09. In third place was Richard Tate.

Fireballers Marie Barry and Noel Butler (right) the fast PY Class winners with DMYC's Neil Colin Photo: Frank Miller

 

Six Fast PYs populated the last start of the day, four Fireballs, a K1 and an RS400. Noel Butler with new crew, Marie Barry (15061) led the fleet from start to finish and won with a 1:24 margin. They weren’t seriously troubled at any stage of the race and even tired spinnaker on the top reach but the blustery nature of the wind coming over the wall suggested that discretion was the better part of valour. Behind them, the battle was for second and third and was populated by Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713) and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775). While the former pair had the better start and led during the early part of the race, they were undone by an incident with a Laser at one of the leeward mark roundings. The Laser went the wrong side of the mark and got his mainsheet snagged on the mark. This cause him to go into a slow painful capsize with his mast and main snagging the trapeze wire of crew Ed Butler who subsequently went swimming. However, Miller & Butler recovered to take second place back from Colin & Casey. They cut it very fine though, only six seconds separating the two boats. The Fireballs, Butler & Barry, Miller & Butler, Colin & Casey and son and father combination, David & Michael Keegan (14676), were the first four boats home and on handicap. Tom Murphy (K1) only just beat the RS400, helmed by Stuart Harris, on the water, but beat them more comfortably on corrected time.

During the hour’s racing the wind eased as forecast and the blue sky conditions made for a good day out. Frostbites 2017/18 is up and running.

DMYC’s Frostbites 2017/18 – Day 1.
PY1 – Slow Handicap
1 Solo Shane McCarthy Coal Harbour 5302
2 Kona TBA 1969
3 IDRA Pierre Long & John Parker DMYC 161
4 Kona Des Gibney 2677
Lasers
1 Radial Claire Gorman NYC 207800
2 Full Gary O’Hare RStGYC 201364
3 Full Richard Tate 186300
4 Full Gavan Murphy 173062
PY2 – Fast Handicap
1 Fireball Noel Butler & Marie Barry NYC 15061
2 Fireball Frank Miller & Ed Butler DMYC 14713
3 Fireball Neil Colin & Margaret casey DMYC 14775
4 Fireball David & Michael Keegan RStGYC 14676
5 K1 Tom Murphy NYC 59

For a first day of the series, the entries were down on previous years, this was assumed to be a combination of the forecast, the preceding week’s mid-term break for schools and the usual need to get momentum developed. The organisers would welcome more entries in the forthcoming Sundays.

Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC) starts its 47th Season of dinghy frostbite racing in Dun Laoghaire Harbour this Sunday with a warning signal at 01.57 hrs.

The series is open to monohull centre board dinghies and attracts entries from clubs in the greater Leinster area.

The Winter 2016 series saw 19 races over the period November to the end of March. Organiser Neil Colin of the DMYC says the popular series 'offers great value for money, and with the discard system in the results, eases the pressure to turn up every week'.

In response to the changing dynamic of the entrants, with exception of the Lasers, the balance of the fleet will race in two PY fleets with the cut off set at 1068 between fleet 1 & 2, as further detailed in the Sailing Instructions.

Daily “Mug” prizes will be presented after racing in the DMYC, with soup and refreshments available along with the post race chatter.

The DMYC have limited dinghy parking for visiting entries on a “first come” basis. Full details are available here. Download the poster below.