The weather gods looked kindly upon the DMYC frostbite series today Sunday and a good sized mixed fleet of dinghies slipped out during the very welcome weather window for a single race inside the harbour. Eight Fireballs lined up for the start at the heavily favoured starboard end, but at least two were OCS under the one minute rule in force for the series and rounded the ends to restart. One of these was the Clancy brothers, forced over by Noel Butler/Stephen Oram in pre-start manoeuvers in a successful bid to put paid early to the main opposition.Thus Butler/Oram led off the line at the favoured end and had a good lead by the windward mark, playing the quite big shifts and managing to stay in the better patches of wind.

The wind was a light WNW but as the race wore on it slowly clocked left and became even more patchy and shifty keeping crews on their toes.

The course was trapezoid and inevitably there was an element of follow the leader although some place changing did occur both on the beats and on the broader legs where a key decision was the timing of a gybe for better wind and inside berth at the next mark. The Clancy's slowly closed the gap on Butler/Oram but not enough to become a real threat. Behind them Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe chased down Louise Smyth/Ed Butler for third place and did in fact catch them only to be pipped on the line by Smyth/Butler who took home the mug. Not far behind Neil Colin/Mary McGuinness were in the mix but on balance found more snakes than ladders. Further back Frank Miller sailing with new Fireballer Tim Crowe diced with Cariosa Power/Marie Barry but lost out when a starboard boat forced them into a wide gybe at a mark allowing the ladies inside berth. Behind them Mary Chambers/Brenda McGuire held back Dave Coleman/Glen Fischer who enjoyed a damp boat thanks to missing transom flaps.

Race officer Stuart Kinnear wisely shortened the race from four rounds to three allowing all boats to finish and most enjoyed a tow back to the various clubs for a welcome cuppa or pint. All in all this was a very pleasant oasis of light air in the wake of the serious storms of the early weekend.

While Storm Clodgah produced the wind conditions she promised, meaning that sailing was impossible in the last weekend of November, the Irish Fireball family weren’t completely inactive as they had gathered at the National Yacht Club to celebrate the 2015 regatta season.

45 were in attendance including most of those who had raced over the past season, though there were a number of absentees. The class were joined by a significant number of Fireballers who haven’t got their feet wet in competition this year but remain stalwart supporters of the class.

The end of season party is a chance to award the Travellers Trophy medals and prizes and to recognise those who have stood out by way of contribution, excellence, consistency, performance and support to the class.

The National Yacht Club put on a very good meal and when this was concluded, Class Chairman, Marie Barry (14854) opened the prize-giving proceedings. After a short precis of the season just past, Marie started the awards handover;

 Marie Barry (L) and Mary Chambers (14865) – Winning helm of the Travellers Trophy Silver Fleet

Marie Barry (L) and Mary Chambers (14865) – Winning helm of the Travellers Trophy Silver Fleet.Marie Barry (L) and Mary Chambers (14865) – Winning helm of the Travellers Trophy Silver Fleet.

Significant Contribution to the Class, the Asterix Trophy

In a year when the hull weight of the Fireball was reduced by 3kg, which translated to the potential removal of 3kg of lead from the weight correctors, a day-long session of lead removal, weighing, re-cutting and re-insertion was undertaken involving 14 boats.  Stephen Oram (15061) organised premises for the weigh-in, making it available for the drying out of the boats for a week in advance, organised to get suitably sized scales to the venue and co-ordinated with the two class measurers who were required to supervise the weighing operations for each boat.  For this effort, Stephen was awarded the Asterix Trophy.

Most Improved – the India Trophy

The India Trophy went to a combination that, according to Marie’s award speech, is the longest active partnership in the current fleet, being a helm/crew relationship that goes back to 2002. For the past couple of years they have not been the most active as one of them is now resident on the west coast, but they are committed Fireballers and stalwarts of the Irish fleet. They had dropped from the Gold fleet to the Silver fleet but worked their way back up the pecking order. This year, their first outing was the Worlds in Pwllheli where they acquitted themselves very well, given their lack of racing activity this season. Two weeks after Pwllheli, Jon Evans and Aidan Caulfield (14748) were on the podium at the Munsters in Lough Derg.

Captain’s Prize – Awarded at the discretion of the Dun Laoghaire Class Captain

Suzie Mulligan (L) and Hermine O’Keeffe (DL Class Captain) – Suzie won the Captain’s prize

In her nominating speech, Dun Laoghaire Class Captain 2015, Hermine O’ Keeffe advised the party that her award recipient had made the magnanimous gesture of donating her refurbished Fireball, a brand new mast and sail to the Schull Community School as the Fireball was sitting in her driveway doing nothing.  The point was made that there are lots of Fireballs that are not being used that sit in gardens or driveways when better use could be made of them in terms of onward sale or loaning them out so that we can rebuild the Class. Suzie Mulligan has gone a considerable step further by donating a boat that will be sued and may even provide a youthful entry to the class in years to come.

Ladies Trophy – Awarded to the leading lady helm in the Travellers Trophy

This is a results based award that goes to the highest placed lady helm on the season long Travellers Trophy competition. This incorporates the five regattas organised by the Class – the Ulsters, the Munsters, the Leinsters, the Open Championship and the Nationals.

In 2015, this trophy goes to Louise McKenna (14691), 7^th Overall 33pts

Louise and her crew Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) were also recognised for their achievements at the Pwllheli Worlds particularly on the breezy last day when they stayed out for all the racing when it might have been easier to retire and come ashore as a significant number of others did.

Marie Barry (L) and Louise McKenna – Leading Lady Helm, Travellers Trophy

Liam Bradley Trophy – Awarded at the discretion of Cormac Bradley

Cormac Bradley (L) and Kenny Rumball – Liam Bradley Trophy winner

Sometimes we have to concede that sailing Fireballs does get overshadowed by other sailing accomplishments and achievements and in recent years one of our number has significantly broadened his racing horizons beyond our two-man dinghy. However, this is not limited to local waters but to two different blue water racing challenges, one a classic and the other than even in its relative infancy may become a classic. Racing the Sydney to Hobart race couldn’t be further removed one imagines from sailing a Fireball in the northern hemisphere. Likewise racing the RORC Rolex Middle Sea Race in the Mediterranean, but for Kenny Rumball (15058), who has sailed at least two editions of the former and possibly the same number of the latter, racing these epics, with some significant success, is almost the norm. For this he takes home this trophy. 

Travellers Trophy Overall

As previously advised, the Travellers Trophy is a season-long event that incorporates the five regattas that the Fireball Class in Ireland organises itself. Our participating numbers started off modestly but built as the season went on, culminating in a fleet of nearly twenty boats at the last two events in Lough Derg and Clontarf.  From my own recall of participation and event reports, I don’t think we lost any races to weather which, if correct means that we sailed 33 races in total (4x 6 at each of the provincials and a nine-race Nationals).

1^st: Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella, IRL 15114, Royal St. George Yacht Club – 4pts.

2^nd: Noel Butler & Stephen Oram, IRL 15061, National Yacht Club – 7pts.

3^rd: Conor & James Clancy, IRL 14807, Royal St. George Yacht Club – 14pts.

This year the Travellers Trophy had a total of 27 entries. In the introduction of the winners Barry & Conor (in absentia), Marie pointed out that it was the first time since our results were recorded on the web that the same helm/crew combination had successfully defended a Nationals and a Travellers Trophy. She also referred to their 11^th place overall at the Pwllheli Worlds, losing 10^th overall on countback to Australia’s Ben Schulz and Doug Sheppard.

Marie Barry (L) and Barry McCartin (15114) – Winning helm of the Travellers Trophy

Barry closed the formal proceedings thanking the committee for their efforts on behalf of the class during the year and thanking the competitors for the competition they had provided over the five regattas. He acknowledged the hospitality of the fleet since he had become involved and said that racing the boat had given himself and Conor enormous fun and enjoyment.

Marie Barry thanked everyone for their attendance and reminded them that a party to celebrate the Fireball Class’ 50^th Anniversary in Ireland was being organised for 6^th February 2016. The current Class committee are not the organisers of this auspicious occasion, but we are lending our support to the promotion of the event.

Photos by Frank Miller

Noel Butler and Stephen Oram (15061) tightened their grip on Series 1 of the 2015/16 Fireball Frostbites by winning both races in Dun Laoghaire harbour yesterday writes Cormac Bradley. Despite the suggestion that the weather of the weekend would have a more Nordic character to it, nine Fireballs started the first race and while I managed to miss the early part of that (getting tardy) by the time I got to the harbour, Noel and Stephen were comfortably in control. Behind them Neil Colin and Margaret Casey were also well ahead of Owen Laverty and James Clancy (14807). Four laps of a trapezoid course had been set with a weather mark just inside the west pier and the committee boat and start/finish line just off the gantry for the HSS. On the beats the modus operandi was to take a short hitch to the right hand side of the course after Mark No.4 and then take a long starboard tack to get onto the port lay-line.

Behind the first three boats, Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706), Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (143691), Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854) and Louis Smyth & Peter Doherty (15007) fought their own race. Smyth & Doherty conspicuously didn’t fly spinnaker on the off-wind legs and frankly didn’t seem to lose out very much as a consequence. Colin and Casey’s second place was good enough to win the Frostbite Mug for this race.

The weather station in the harbour closest to my observation position was showing a wind strength of 11.8 knots with a highest gust of 17.2 knots fluctuating around due north, with an air temperature of 8.9˚ and the racing was under substantially blue skies. There was cloud around but it was not the dominant feature of the weather.

Watching the two starts before the second Fireball start of the day, it was obvious that the tactic was to start on port at the pin end and get across to the RHS of the course as soon as possible. I watched two GP14s go in diametrically opposite ways up their first beat and the boat which started on port at the pin was able to watch his opponent chase him for the rest of the race. Ditto the Laser who also secured the pin position at the start and tacked onto port at the start gun.

Owen Laverty and James Clancy tried to do just this on the Fireball start but were a few seconds out. That left them dipping Noel Butler and Stephen Oram who were the next boat up from the pin who were able to tack as the gun went. Ashore after the race, there was a suggestion that Owen and James were lucky to have a boat in one piece after their manoeuvres at the start caused a severe avoidance of a collision to be undertaken by Neil Colin and Margaret Casey. Colin and Court would both go left initially while the others went right. Laverty’s early tack on the start line didn’t seem to affect him too badly because when he and Butler crossed for the first time on the far side of the course, he was ahead. But his starboard tacked approach to the weather mark fell short and he was obliged to take a hitch and tack back to round Mark 1. This of course allowed Butler to close the gap and they rounded overlapped with Butler on the inside. Each got ahead relative to the other as they rounded and hoisted before Butler got out from underneath Laverty and into the lead. Colin and

Court’s initial hitch to the left didn’t seem to have had an adverse effect as Court rounded third and Colin fifth with Smyth sandwiched in between them. Smyth didn’t hoist spinnaker again and that allowed Colin into fourth. As with the first race, the fleet were able to sail past Mark 2 for approximately 50 – 60m before they needed to gybe. The leg from mark 3 to Mark 4 was also tight and would provide some fun and games later on – Aussie drops, capsizes and a crew detached from her boat with a broken trapeze wire.

On the second beat, the leaders stayed left for a longer period of time but as they followed each other in working this side the order of places didn’t change – Butler, Clancy, followed by Court and Colin. Smyth dropped out by way of a capsize after Mark 4, so Cariosa Power and Marie Barry moved At the final weather mark, (3rd lap), Butler looked to be comfortably ahead but he was chased down by Laverty over the next two legs and it looked as though he might break through at Mark 3.

However, Butler held out and Laverty suffered what looked like an accidental Aussie drop. That should have been curtains but the leg was very tight and Laverty was not that badly disadvantaged.He nearly got through at the mark with Butler being forced a bit high, but in the end rounded on Butler’s transom. Colin was safely in third and Court in fourth……….but Court was to capsize, for the second time today and while it seems he was not at fault, a Laser tacked onto him, this was to be expensive in terms of claiming a Frostbite Mug. Instead that went to Cariosa Power and Marie Barry!

Frostbites 2015/16 – Race Day 4, Races 4 & 5.

Race 1,  Race 2

1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram Noel Butler & Stephen Oram

2 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey Owen Laverty & James

3 Owen Laverty & James Clancy Neil Colin & Margaret Casey

4 Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe

5 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry Alistair Court & Gordon Syme

After five races the situation is as follows, assuming no discards;

Frostbites 2015/16 – Series 1 (after five races without discard)

1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram/Luke Malcolm 1506

2 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 1477

3 Conor Clancy/Owen Laverty & James

4 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 1485

5 Frank Miller & Cormac Bradley 1471

Friday coming (27th) will see the fleet gather for their prize-giving dinner in the National Yacht Club where the season long Travellers’ Trophy prizes will be awarded in addition to Class Prizes recognising “Most Improved”, “Significant Contribution to Class”, Ladies Trophy, Captain’s Prize and the Liam Bradley Trophy. Over the past few years this has proved a great occasion for less active Fireballers and current Fireballers to get together to share our love of the boat and the camaraderie that goes with sailing the boat.

Yet again, the race management team of Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club were able to defy the weather forecast and get a race completed in the Frostbite Series in Dun Laoghaire harbour writes Cormac Bradley. From the middle of last week the forecast for the weekend had been bleak as Abigail worked her way eastwards across the Atlantic. The projected wind strengths on XCWeather were in the mid-twenties with gusts in the range of high thirties to mid-forties. And yet a window opened to allow a solitary race to be completed.

I missed the action on the water – being taxi for members of the family – but caught up with race winners Noel Butler & Stephen Oram derigging in the National Yacht Club afterwards.

Only three Fireballs raced with Conor and James Clancy making their Frostbite debut along with team Keegan. Noel Butler had his regular crew back at the front end but it appears that the Clancys set the pace for the four-lap trapezoid course until Mark 3 on the last lap. It seems that the Clancys chose to gybe at this mark whereas Butler & Oram sailed on and overtook them. The Clancys’ disappointment at losing the race will be offset by the fact that they have secured their Frostbite Mugs early, on the second day of racing!

It was a blustery day on the water with huge wind shifts and an “on-off” supply of wind causing a number of windward rolls – one minute on full trapeze, the next no wind at all. While blustery winds are not unusual for November, the temperature was very unusual. Driving to the harbour my car thermometer was reading 17˚ - very unseasonal.

The end of the Irish Fireball Regatta Season came to a rather damp end when a reduced fleet took to the water after today's rugby and the dry weather of recent days gave way to drizzle and then rain writes Cormac Bradley.

Defending champions and ovetnight leaders didn't have to sail the last race and they didn't! The host club's two entries didn't make it either nor did two other visitors - from Killaloe and further west. McCartin & Kinsella couldn't lose so they were literally "in the pound seats".

This opened the door for Butler & Oram to close the gap, but they left it late to secure the race win. Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer initially led the final race quite comfortably but they were progressively reeled in by Butler & Oram before yielding the lead just before the last winward mark. These two had a significant lead over the rest of the fleet who were led home by Creighton & O'Reilly. Team Clancy, Conor & James have acquired more fourth places than anyone and so another one appeared on the last race of the year.

Grattan Donnelly & Ed Butler (14713) kept the range of their results tight - an eighth their best, two tenths their worst. This would be enough to give them the Silver Fleet prize.

Fireball Leinsters.
1. McCartin & Kinsella (15114) - 5pts
2. Butler & Oram (15061) - 7pts
3. Clancy & Clancy (14807) - 11pts
4. Creighton & O'Reilly (1506X) - 16pts
5. Henry & Reville (14645) - 20pts
10. Donnelly & Butler (14713) - 36pts

Contarf Yacht & Boat Club hosted the event at short notice and did a very good job of it, working the racing around the rugby today and getting four races in yesterday.

15 Irish Fireballs enjoyed sunshine and moderate breezes for the opening day of the last regatta of the season at Clontarf writes Cormac Bradley. With boats from N Ireland, Skerries, the host club and Dun Laoghaire, it was the most representative fleet we have had this season.

Due to the tidal constraints of the venue a five-race programme was scheduled and four races were sailed today. The race area was inside the confines of the harbour with Olympic courses used for each race.

The wind tracked northwards as the day progressed causing the RO to move the weather mark progressively leftwards.

On the water, proceedings returned to a sense of normality with the return of Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella who were to have a successful day on the water, scoring three race wins and dropping a second place.

Noel Butler & Stephen Oram weren't always where they would have preferred to be at the first weather mark but it's the finish that counts and a scorecard of 3,3,2,1 sees them in second place overall.

Team Clancy, Conor & James, kept their favourite number, 4, off their scorecard using a 2,2,6,3, sequence to take third overall.

Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly are fourth overall, with two fourths and two fifths.

Alan Henry & Simon Reville had a very good day by their short Fireball career standards to lie fifth with a 4,7,10,4 run of results.

McCartin & Clancy had very good speed on the water and won the first race very comfortably, but thereafter the margins became tighter. Butler & Oram seemed to have the reverse problem, below par first beats, but recovering as the race progressed.

With a very important rugby game due to be played tomorrow at 13:00 racing will start after Ireland's game against Argentina.

After 4 races;

1. McCartin & Kinsella (15114) - 3pts
2. Butler & Oram (15061) - 6pts
3. Clancy & Clancy (14807) - 7pts
4. Creighton & O'Reilly (1506X) - 13pts
5. Henry & Reville (14645) - 15pts

The last regatta of the Irish Fireball Class’ 2015 Regatta circuit, the Leinsters, takes place this weekend at Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club and according to the Class’ Facebook site, an entry of 18 boats is on the cards writes Cormac Bradley. Thus for the second regatta is a row, the pattern of participating numbers has been reversed and given that the Class will have a number of its members in the warmer climes of the Mediterranean, contesting the Royal Malta Yacht Club’s Rolex Middle Sea Race, an eighteen-boat entry is excellent. With one regular podium finisher overseas for that race, there is a slot available on the Leinsters podium and as was evidenced at Lough Derg Yacht Club last month at the Munsters, there will be a number of candidates vying to occupy that slot.
Contarf has long been a bastion of Fireball activity and accordingly a popular venue for provincial regattas. In recent years like many fleets, their activity levels have been a little on the low side, but it is hoped that taking the event to the north-side will provide the locals with a bit of a fillip. Our hosts have indicated that rugby will be showing on both days and food will be available as well, though not as part of the regatta entry fee which stands at €60, with an early bird offer (which expires today, Wednesday at midnight) of €50. Refer to the CYBC website for details.
Due to tide constraints, a five race programme is proposed with a Regatta Briefing on Saturday morning at 11:15 followed by a Warning Signal at 12:30. On Sunday, the Warning Signal will be at 13:00. Due to the accessibility of Clontarf, the cut-off for race starts on Sunday will be 16:00.
Being the last Saturday of the regatta season, the Class will also have its AGM after racing on the Saturday. A number of committee members have already indicated their willingness to continue in office but as with all committees, especially in sailing, further offers of help and time would be gratefully received.
And as one season comes to a close, so another season beckons from the horizon! The 2015/16 Frostbite Series is heralded by the lift-in at the various Dun Laoghaire waterfront clubs. Last weekend saw the lift in at DMYC, host to the Frostbites, the definitive sign that autumn is upon us – as we can’t rely on the weather – and the preparatory signal that Sunday racing inside the harbour will soon be the norm. With all the speculation about developments inside the harbour, this may be a very powerful way of showing the “powers that be” that the harbour has a significant recreational value to a wide range of people and should not be seen solely as a commercial entity.
To close, best wishes to Kenny, Andy and Barry on XP-Act for the Rolex Middle Sea Race – we envy you the warm weather and wish you success. There’s no pressure relative to the boat’s success in the 2014 version of the race!

The third Fireball Fun Day took place today at the DMYC in Dun Laoghaire under the direction of class captain Marie Barry. The idea, says Barry, is to show what an 'exciting, stable, affordable boat the Fireball is to sail'.

Top Fireball helmsman Conor Clancy took new crew, Tim Crowe out for a sail as part of the weekend class effort that as well as supporting newer members of the fleet also lets complete novices try out Fireball sailing.

Barry says the class will have more opportunities for new sailors to participate in the Spring, and for experienced sailors there will be slots available in the Fireball Leinsters at Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club on October 17 and 18 and of course during the DMYC Frostbites from November through to late March.

The biggest Irish Fireball fleet of the year, seventeen boats had a mixed bag of weather over the weekend just past for their Munster Championships at Lough Derg Yacht Club. On Saturday we had healthy winds, rain squalls that upped the strength of the breeze but fortunately didn’t give us too much rain, followed by sunshine. On Sunday we had much lighter breezes and drizzle that turned to heavy rain as the racing concluded.

With two of the more successful skippers missing this weekend, there was going to be change to the podium places at this regatta and so it proved. Another combination who have had a lean time of it in terms of regatta wins recently got back to winning ways in a dominant style and there was a healthy turnout of boats for the Classis Trophy. In addition to the Dun Laoghaire cohort we had participants from nearby Killaloe, Youghal and Skerries. The event was shared with the 420s who were sailing a Connaught Championships and the Wayfarers who were enjoying the latter stages of a cruising event that had started the previous weekend.

As Afloat reported earlier, at the skippers’ briefing on Saturday morning, Race Officer John Leech, and Vice Commodore of LDYC, postponed the start of proceedings as rain squalls over the race area were producing a white water scape and given the amount of time we had, discretion was deemed to be the better part of valour.

A more subdued race area met competitors when proceedings did get underway and a trapezoid course was set – a compromise position to accommodate both Classes. However, the physical size of the course proved to be much too small as stronger breeze came in to render the race a 20-minute session – an unusual error for the Race Officer to be caught out on his home waters.

The balance of the day’s racing was in this stronger breeze and more than one of the top combinations took a swim for their pains. After the first race aberration, Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) dominated proceedings to record five race wins, allowing them to throw away the 3^rd place of the first “sprint” race. On Saturday evening in the racing post-mortem they admitted to capsizing on one of the downwind legs, but they were sufficiently far ahead that it didn’t cost them any places.

The first and second placed boats in the first race “sprint” also built on their success to secure podium finishes overall and their success was warmly applauded by their peers at the prize-giving. Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer (14938) finished second overall, tied with Jon Evans and Aidan Caulfield (14748) on eighteen points but taking second place on the basis of a third in the final race versus a seventh for the latter boat.

The Clancy brothers, Conor & James, secured yet another fourth place overall – a habit that most of us would envy, but one I’m sure they would prefer to break.  Fifth place went to Mike Murphy & Alex Voye.

At the close of racing on Saturday evening the first three boats in the Classic Trophy were separated by a point. However an excellent fifth race for the “Youghal youngsters” Adrian Lee and Edward Coyne (14044), finishing ninth, combined with a conversely poor race for the division leaders, saw a major swing in the points in favour of the younger combination. John Bolger & Jay Dalton of Killaloe (14150) also scored well on Sunday to secure second overall in the Classics.

Adrian Lee (L) & Edward Coyne (R) – Classic Trophy winners

In the Silver Fleet, the victors were the Class Chairman, Marie Barry and Cariosa Power (14854), who finished in 9^th place and they were also the first ladies, followed immediately by Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691).

LDYC were excellent hosts with a superb meal served in the clubhouse on the Saturday night and a late bar. Race Officer John Leech and his team turned races around very quickly and set good courses which was quite a challenge in Sunday’s lighter airs circumstances.  At the prize-giving he complimented the Class on their racing prowess and indicated that LDYC would be keen to host the Fireballs again. The hosting of three classes at the one venue over a single weekend worked well – though in reality the Wayfarers were doing a distance race on the Saturday so the rest of us only saw them onshore.

 

The penultimate regatta of the Irish Fireball regatta season has seen the best turnout of boats this year–16 writes Cormac Bradley.

Sailing with the 420s (15 boats) on Lough Derg and hosted by Lough Derg Yacht Club, the fleet took advantage of favourable conditions to have four races today. The first race was an abnormally short trapezoid – abnormal because Race Officer John Leech, Vice–Commodore of LDYC, doesn't normally make mistakes like that.

Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer (Skerries/ 14938) were the beneficiaries with Jon Evans & Aidan Caulfield (National YC/14748) second and Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (National YC/15061) third.

Thereafter normal service was resumed with Butler/Oram taking three wins over a second trapezoid and two Windward/Leeward courses. 2nd places were shared between McGrotty/Cramer, Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly (RStGYC/1506) and Mike Murphy & Alex Voye (National YC/14908).

Conor & James Clancy (RStGYC/14807) claimed two thirds in these races with the other third going to Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (DMYC/14713).

The nett effect is to give Butler/Oram a five point cushion on McGrotty/Cramer who have two points on Evans/Caulfield.

Competition for the Classic Trophy is much tighter with this correspondent of the view that this is being led by Owen Sinnott & Cormac Bradley (31pts) followed by John Bolger & Jay Dalton (32pts) and Adrian Lee & Edward Coyne (32pts). These three occupy 10th, 11th and 12th.

Leading ladies are Class Chairman Marie Barry crewing for Cariosa Power.

Two races are scheduled for tomorrow