Holding their nerve in the face of forecast stormy conditions for the weekend, the DMYC in Dun Laoghaire now report the weather conditions now look very favourable (if a bit wet) for the last major event on Dublin Bay this summer, this Sunday’s DMYC Kish Race, starting at approximately 10.30 from Dun Laoghaire's West Pier.

Earlier this week it was feared the event would be cancelled due to gales, a decision made all the more difficult as this year's edition also serves to commemorate the loss of the RMS Leinster near the Kish Bank 100 years ago.

Race organiser Neil Colin told Afloat.ie 'We have added a further detail to the event, in that all entries will be given a White Flower (biodegradable) before going afloat, and asked to take a moment as they round the Kish, and drop the flower in the water, as a memorial to the event almost 100 years ago".

It's a touching thought and a symbolic gesture to those who perished.

The entry system is open on www.DMYC.ie

The Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club has announced the 2018 edition of its Kish Lighthouse Race will be known as “100 Boats for 100 Years”, reflecting the forthcoming commemoration of the centenary of the sinking of the RMS Leinster with the loss of 501 lives on Dublin Bay in 1918. More details on that sinking here.

Together with the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association, the sailing event is planned to combine a regular format yacht race to and from the Kish, alongside a rally-style event for the traditional vessels and old gaffers, contributing to an exciting day of boating on the bay for everybody and a fitting commemoration of the tragic loss of so many lives.

DMYC's Neil Colin tells Afloat 'We hope to see the competitive racers, recreational sailors and traditional boaters all involved'. 

For more details and entry for the event click here

Andrew Algeo's J109 Juggerknot continues its winning run this season adding the DMYC 'King of the Bay' title to last weekend's Howth Yacht Club Wave Regatta triumph in Class One IRC.

Dawn broke, and the club web camera showed a sea as smooth as glass. Dublin Bay Buoy reported 1 knot, gusting 2. Would the forecast come true? Windy.com was reporting a possibility of as high as 9 knots, easterly. Race officers, RIB crews, timekeepers, shore support – all volunteers – started rolling into the club at 9 am; there was a promise of breakfast to get everyone into the clubhouse for a pre-regatta briefing. As the first gun time approached, the wind started to lift, and various weather stations agreed that the wind was matching what was forecast – somewhere in the east, and touching up around 8 knots. Racing would proceed on schedule, under blue skies and bright sunshine, with an ebbing tide.

Joggerknot crew Ruth Hite and Paul Nolan are presented with the King of the Bay prize at the DMYC

In Class A, first place went to Andrew Algeo’s “Juggerknot” (J/109), storming home – as much as one can storm in 9 knots of wind – with a corrected time of 2:20:41. Richard Goodbody’s “White Mischief” (J/109) came second, 12 minutes behind Juggerknot, and Frank Whelan in “Eleuthra” (Grand Soleil 44 race) placed 3rd on corrected time.

In Class B, Daly Melvin’s “Ceol Na Mara” (Hunter Sonata) placed first, followed by David Meeke’s “Alias” (Ruffian 23) in second, and Fergus Mason’s “Viking” (Shipman) in third.

In Class C, Justin Burke’s “alertpackaging.com” (SB20) took first place, Declan Curtin in “Jester” (J/80) placed second, and David William’s “Phantom” (Dragon) was third.

For the dinghy pursuit race, Simon Revill in “Dubious” (IDRA14) was first, Frank Hamilton was second in “Dunmoanin” (IDRA14), and Alan Carr placed third in “Starfish” (IDRA14). In the second race, “Dubious” was first, “Starfish” was second, and John Fitzgerald in “Doody” (IDRA14) placed third.

The race committee chose the Royal Irish yacht Juggerknot as the 'King of the Bay'. An on-the-day entrant, they attributed their win to having a Code Zero on board and having the perfect conditions to fly it for several miles of the race.

Full results are available here.

The DMYC would like to thank all volunteers and staff who made the day possible and Dublin Bay Sailing Club for the use of the hut on the West Pier.

During the latter half of last week few would have expected that by Sunday it would be “warm” enough to permit racing in Dun Laoghaire Harbour for the Frostbite Series hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. While the “Beast from the East” and Storm Emma wreaked havoc in Irish (and UK) airspace from Wednesday through Friday, dumping inordinate amounts of snow on us all, the thought of “sailing on Sunday” must have been far removed from everyone’s mind. 

However, by Saturday the thaw had set in and by Sunday the temperature had gone up a notch or two to make racing semi-attractive from a shore-side perspective. Race Officer, Cormac Bradley, in consultation with Frostbites Co-ordinators Neil Colin and Olivier Prouveur decided that the challenge for the day was to get a race in and the fleet ashore promptly! In that regard a decision (in principle) to have a triangular course of three laps was taken before the committee boat left the pontoon at the DMYC.

A steady wind out of the East made the setting of the weather mark a relatively easy task. The committee boat anchored just beyond the exit from the marina which allowed a beat the length of the harbour to be set.  A gybe mark was set about 60m inside the harbour mouth but midway between the ends of the two piers while the leeward mark was about twenty metres off the transom of the committee boat. The ambition was to have two off-wind spinnaker legs but the normal guinea-pig for that test spent a large part of the pre-race period undoing wine-glass knots in their red spinnaker, leaving the acid test of spinnaker flying on the top reach to the RS400 of Niels Warburton and Peter Doherty. The appropriateness of the spinnaker leg was confirmed by radio via the gybe mark boat.

The Slow PY Fleet had nine starters – two KONA Windsurfers, the Enterprise, the Wayfarer, with a replacement helm, Norman Lee, the IDRA of Pierre Long, the Feva XL of Conor Galligan, the Hartley 12.2 of Odhran Prouveur and two Laser Vago XDs and in a very conservative start all nine went left initially before spreading themselves across the width of the course. The IDRA 14 of Pierre Long and John Parker led around the first weather mark and flew spinnaker. Behind them the red- sailed Kona of Robbie Walker and the Wayfarer followed. The IDRA led to the gybe mark but surprisingly dropped spinnaker which allowed the Wayfarer to close the gap. Up the second beat the Wayfarer took the lead which it held to the finish, recording a race time of 29:58. In 2^nd place, forty-four seconds later, was Walker in the first KONA, followed by his class-mate, Des Gibney, forty-nine seconds later, with the IDRA next, forty-one seconds behind. However, on handicap they were all outdone by the junior crew in the Feva XL, with Conor Galligan helming, who converted a race time of 33:18 into a handicap time of 26:51 and a 21-second winning margin over the Wayfarer.

The biggest fleet of the day were the Lasers with 13 boats on the water. Their start was more competitive than the Slow PYs but was still a clean start and again they all resolved to go left initially. However, they too spread themselves across the course going upwind and rounded the top mark with regularity to provide a well spread-out fleet with no single boat very far ahead or very far behind. At the close of the first lap, the lead was held by Chris Arrowsmith (201829) with Gavin Murphy (173062) about a boat-length off his transom. Sean Flanagan (177854) was in close proximity, waiting to pounce on any mistakes by the front two. In contrast to the Slow PY fleet the Lasers approached the leeward mark on a much higher line to windward before ducking off to leeward to round the mark. On the second lap, Murphy had moved into the lead with Arrowsmith the chasing boat.  The finishing order was Murphy (30:37), Arrowsmith (30:56), Flanagan (31:30), Coakley (31:32), O’Leary (31:53) and Ella Hemeryck (Rad) (31:54), but on corrected time the sequence changed to Murphy (27:55), Hemeryck (28:00), Arrowsmith (28:12), Shirley Gilmore (Rad) (28:32) and Flanagan (28:43).

Four fast PY boats took to the start – three Fireballs and the RS400. While it may have been the smallest start it was the most competitive in terms of the clock counting down. Yet again Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) had an easy race, leading from start to finish, but the other two boats, Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) had a race all the way round the course. Indeed, the position of “chasing Fireball” changed a number of times during the race. At the end of the first lap it was Miller & Donnelly, who had been relegated to third on the water, but by the time they were rounding the leeward mark for the second time, negotiating their way around Lasers, Miller & Donnelly had gone into the “chase boat” position. They retained that positon for the finish, but only by a margin of 15 seconds.  While the official results had the result the other way round, I heard Miller claiming afterwards that he and Donnelly had finished second……..the ladies didn’t appear to be challenging that assertion. The favourable spinnaker legs – spinnakers were flown on both reaches with the two chasing Fireballs going to windward of the committee boat on the second lap en route to the leeward mark –allowed a Fireball to take the fastest corrected time. That honour went to Butler & Barry by a margin of 14 seconds.

While the race had started in misty conditions and a cool enough temperature, once the mist lifted there was a sense that it got a bit “warmer” and the committee boat contemplated a second race. However, as no-one seemed to be unhappy at the lack of a signal for a second race, and one prominent helm indicated that he wasn’t unhappy with just a single race after crossing the finish line, it seems that an early departure from the race area was a welcome call. Indeed, only one partially “bare-legged” Laser helm had suggested at the start of the afternoon that two races should be sailed!

The Mug winners on the day were Odhran Prouveur & Helen Sheehy in the Hartley 12.2 in the Slow PY Fleet and Evan Dargan Hayes in a Laser 4.7 in the Laser fleet. Frostbiters are again reminded that there will be racing, weather permitting on Sunday 18^th March; the day after St Patrick’s Day.

After the zephyrs of last week, the breeze was back yesterday for the DMYC Frostbites and another fleet of 26 boats made the effort to get out and enjoy a brisk afternoon on the water. The wind was projected to be from the SSE with wind strength of 12 – 17 knots and that was how it appeared on the water. However, as we were rigging there was a great deal of whistling through the rigging! A five lap trapezoid curse was sailed under a sunny sky but a coolish air temperature. The beat traversed the harbour with a weather mark up towards the East pier and Marks 2 & 3 in the vicinity of the harbour mouth. Mark 4 was in the vicinity of the Block House on the West Pier.

Ten boats were on the start line for the Slow PYs with both KONA Windsurfers back in action. They managed to foul each other with both their skippers taking an early swim just off the start line. The majority of their fleet went left towards the harbour mouth with the exception of Pierre Long and John Parker (IDRA 14) who very early on were ploughing a solitary furrow up the right-hand side of the beat. This appeared to stand them in good stead as when the balance of the fleet came across to that side of the course, led by the Wayfarer of Monica Schaeffer and Miriam McCarthy, the Wayfarer tacked underneath the IDRA into a leeward slot. The IDRA led the Slow PY Fleet around the weather mark chased by the Wayfarer and the Enterprise of Aidan Geraghty & Eilis O’Driscoll. Thereafter this correspondent lost the action as he has his own hands full racing a Fireball. However, in terms of finishing order the sequence was Wayfarer, KONA 2677 (Des Gibney), IDRA (Long & Parker), Enterprise (Geraghty & O’Driscoll) KONA 1989 (Robbie Walker) and the RS Feva XL of Conor Galligan. Schaeffer’s winning margin on the water of 2½ minutes was enough to hold onto first place on handicap, with the Feva going to second and the IDRA third.

Ten Lasers were on the start line with some single-handers returning from ski breaks in Europe. Others had the ambition of just trying to be ranked as a finisher in terms of the starting procedure having been ruled OCS for the past two Sundays. Interestingly, the banter in the changing room of the Royal St George after the racing was he number of capsizes that had been recorded in the race with at least one Laser helm owning up to two capsizes on the water. Conor O’Leary, back from a week on the white stuff, led the fleet home by 59 seconds from Mark Coakley who was followed home by Sean Flanagan, Chris Arrowsmith, Gavin Murphy, Shirley Gilmore (Radial), Michael Delaney and Hamish Munro. With a better PY for the Radial, Shirley Gilmore leapfrogged three places to record a third on handicap behind O’Leary and Coakley.

Tom Murphy in his K1 was the odd-man-out in the Fast PY as he was the only one not sailing a Fireball. Five Fireballs made the star and four of them went left towards the harbour mouth off the start line. Having watched the IDRA of Long & Parker steal a march in the Slow PY by going left, this correspondent persuaded his helm, Louise McKenna, to go right as well. She did and while they weren’t too far off the pace with the other four boats crossed them two-thirds of the way up the first beat that was as close as they got to them. When the four Fireballs crossed from left to right across the course, Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713) were the furthest to windward and when they reached the starboard lay-line and tacked for the weather mark, they found themselves leading the fleet. However, by their own admission, post-race, they sailed the first reach of the trapezoid too deep and two of the chasing pack went over them – Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) and Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) went in to first and second respectively. Behind them, Neil Colin and Margaret Casey (14775) stayed ahead of McKenna & Bradley (14691). And on a day when Butler & Barry only needed a sniff of the lead they proceeded to romp away from the rest of the fleet, eventually winning by a 1:35 margin though it looked a lot more comfortable distance-wise on the water. Miller & Butler finished second passing Court & Syme when they went opposite ways on one of the subsequent beats. Despite the stiff breeze, spinnakers were flown on all the legs where they should have been. The wind direction was such that all the Fireballs sailed past Mark 2 to put in a gybe at Mark 3 for a tight reach under three sails to Mark 4. All the Fireballs saved their time on the K1 to give a finishing order of Butler & Barry, Miller & Butler, Court & Syme, Colin & Casey and McKenna & Bradley.

Across the whole fleet, the first two Fireballs took the fastest races time on corrected time, followed by the Wayfarer, another Fireball and the Laser of Conor O’Leary.

With six races completed the results are as follows;

Frostbites Director, Neil Colin announced at the prize-giving that there would be racing on Sunday 18^th March, the day after St Patrick’s Day.

All the weather forecasts were suggesting that there should have been wind for yesterday’s Frostbites in Dun Laoghaire Harbour! XCWeather was projecting 7 – 12 knots of SSW, the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Weather station was showing 6.6 – 10 knots from 163˚ and even worse, the Dublin Bay buoy was showing 13 – 16 knots with a wind direction of 167˚. However, in the inner reaches of the harbour it was a lot less exciting. The “low rains” reference is to describe a drizzly afternoon where it was damp but it never actually rained while we were on the water.

A declaration to the rib crews and committee boat team by Race Officer Cormac Bradley that we would try for two races, given last week’s postponement, seemed optimistic but everyone agreed that it was the thing to do.  

On arrival at the start area, the wind was blowing a healthy 4 knots and was reasonably steady in direction. With the committee boat situated off the block house towards the end of the West Pier, the windward leg initially looked like it could extent the full length of the harbour with the weather mark in the location of the bandstand on the East Pier. With the light wind, which was to get lighter, a triangular course of 3 laps was set with the intention of shortening if the wind didn’t play ball. A late alteration to the weather mark saw it go northwards and a short postponement was flown to allow the stragglers a bit more time to get to the start area.

Twenty-six boats were registered as starters, with ten each in the Slow PY and Laser Classes and six in the Fast PY Class. Notable absentees were the two KONA Windsurfers, maybe deciding that there wasn’t enough wind to warrant getting their feet wet and the Solo of Shane McCarthy, though he was spotted afterwards from a distance with his boat in the carpark at the Coal Harbour, either returning from or packing up to go to a regatta.

In the Slow PY Class, the performance of the day went to Pierre Long & John Parker in the IDRA who got into “breeze” off the start line and waltzed away with the race. By the time they rounded the leeward mark, the chasing pack in Slow PY were in the vicinity of the gybe mark, or just past it. Round the weather mark the sequence in Slow PY was the Enterprise of Aidan Geraghty & Eilis O’Donnell, the Wayfarer of Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy and the second IDRA of Frank Hamilton & crew. The Laser Vagos were also well up the pecking order. However, the leading Fireball in Fast PY was already in the company of the Wayfarer and the Enterprise.

In the Lasers, a 2018 Frostbite debutant led the way off a cluttered start with one boat being “pinged” for an OCS. While he returned to the right side of the course, he did so by dipping the line rather than going round the ends, so would sail the balance of the race in vain. Having established that he could retrospectively pay an entry fee, Chris Arrowsmith found that the premium for a retrospective entry grew as he crossed the line first and then qualified for the Frostbite Mug for the Laser Class.

Three Fireballs, a Finn a 470, a RS400 and a K1 made up the Fast PY fleet. Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713) started at the pin end on port and headed to the right hand side of the course. Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) and the “pink ladies” Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) both started on starboard close to the committee boat but Butler went right initially. His final approach saw him coming into the weather mark on the port lay-line and he appeared to be enjoying a healthy lead. By now the conditions had gone light with wind strength down to 2.2 – 2.5 knots. The top reach “held its shape” by allowing the spinnaker boats to fly bags, but the second reach saw a much more varied approach to getting to the leeward mark. For example, Butler & Barry were tight reaching into the middle of the course on port tack before they gybed to get down to the leeward mark.

With Long & Parker (IDRA) just rounded the leeward mark and with the wind Gods deciding we weren’t going to get anything more, the decision was taken to shorten course at the weather mark. The committee boat upped anchor and relocated itself in time to allow Long & Parker (IDRA) a very VERY comfortable win on the water. The second boat home was the Fireball of Butler & Barry (15061) with Chris Arrowsmith the first Laser.

The ambition to have a second race evaporated in the millpond like environment of the harbour and the consensus afterwards appeared to be that the right call had been made – a race had been achieved.   The fastest race time on corrected time went to the IDRA of Pierre Long and John Parker.

The Fast PY Mug went to Tom Murphy in the K1 but the Mug for the Slow PY was withheld pending the provision of a PY Number for a single-handed Laser Vago. The Vagos of “Sailing in Dublin” are a stalwart element of the Frostbite Series and in recent weeks a number have been sailed single-handed. Another competitor brought this to the attention of the race committee yesterday so the class has been asked to provide the relevant PY Number so that the results can be reviewed.

Given the number of postponements we have had this year, yesterday was a bonus. It wasn’t a thriller, but everyone who wanted a race got a race………..with the exception of one retiree who obviously had too much excitement for the day!

After two Sundays of excessive wind, the wind gods looked more favourably on the Frostbites in Dun Laoghaire Harbour and allowed two races to be sailed. However, the waterscape at the DMYC end of the harbour did not lend itself to the idea that racing would be possible – on arrival it was mirror flat. Fortunately, the Race Officer for the day, Cormac Bradley, had checked the main body of the harbour and was able to see two 1720s sailing well in the vicinity of the Carlisle Pier, before he got to the DMYC. That allowed him to speculate as to the possibility of having two races, a view endorsed by Frostbites Director, Neil Colin.

The race team departed the shore with a view to seeing what was possible and were greeted with a light wind coming out of the eastern quadrant of the compass. From a position in the roads of the marina approach, the wind was initially coming off the Boyd Memorial on the East Pier, and then went further left to the weather station on the upper walkway of the pier. A median position between the two seemed to be the safe bet!  The balance of the triangular course was set leaving the ribs free to help get the fleet out to the start area. While this was underway the wind went right to the extent that the weather mark had to be re-set.

Thirty-one boats came under starter’s order for the first race, 3 laps of a triangular course with a weather mark set beyond and outside the ferry gantry, a gybe mark in the middle of the harbour and a leeward mark just outside the entrance to the marina.

In Slow PY, eleven boats took part with the early action on the water being between the Wayfarer, the IDRA of Pierre Long and John Parker and the KONA of Robbie Walker.  Frank Hamilton & Jenny in the second IDRA and Aidan Geraghty & Eilis O’Driscoll had a separate race. While both off-wind legs were spinnaker legs, the wind strength wasn’t overly strong and the KONAs struggled in the lighter stuff. As the race progressed the Wayfarer of Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy eked out a comfortable lead having a 1:43 lead at the finish with the IDRA of Pierre Long coming home second. The second IDRA came home six seconds under three minutes behind Long with the Enterprise and the first KONA of Walker separating the two IDRAS.  On corrected time, the wayfarer took the wind by 29 seconds with the IDRAS second and third.

In the Lasers, Shirley Gilmore (Rad) set the early pace and led the fleet round the first lap, however, by the finish she had been overhauled by debutant Mark Coakley (Full, 201888) who took the win by thirty-four seconds. In third was the full rig of Justin Geoghegan (Full, 165512), just thirty-five seconds behind Gilmore and only ten seconds ahead of Alan Hodgins (Full, 175809). On handicap, Gilmore took the win, followed by Coakley, Geoghegan, Hodgins and Sean Flanagan (Full, 177854).  The Lasers had a close race with nobody breaking significantly away.

The seven-boat Fast PY fleet saw a Frostbite debut for Fireball 15007, sailed by Dave Coleman and Glen Fisher as part of the 5-boat Fireball contribution to this fleet, the odd-ones-out being the Finn of Hugh Sheehy and the RS 400 of Neils Warburton. Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) led the fleet around the first lap but with the exception of the debutants the Fireballs kept close company around the course.  Thus, while Miller led, Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) were in very close company and Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) were probably of the order of a boat length and a half off them.   At the end of the first lap, my recall is that Miller and Butler went left almost immediately while Colin went right. And while Butler would claim afterwards that he gained whether he went left or right, at different times, and I don’t dispute that, the consequence of going right was that Colin & Casey came out on top at the second weather mark. However, they had no sense of comfort as Miller and Butler were breathing down their necks. Court couldn’t quite close the gap on the boats ahead of him. Butler & Barry were shut out of leading the fleet until the very end of the race when the Enterprise of the Slow PY fleet entered the fray of rounding the leeward mark. There is no suggestion that the Enterprise shouldn’t have been there or did anything wrong, but as the second Fireball on the water, behind Colin and the Enterprise, Butler was able to execute a more efficient rounding and with a short hitch to the finish was able to take the lead of the race when it mattered most – just before the finish line. He beat Colin home by 18 seconds with only 1½ minutes need to finish the first four Fireballs. Despite the fact that the Finn came in five seconds short of three minutes behind the first Fireball his corrected time gave him a win by 19 seconds over Butler, Colin and Court with Miller in fifth.

As an additional feature of the results, the team gave the list of fastest elapsed times on the water, corrected to reflect the three different start times.

In Race 1 the order of fastest corrected race times is as follows;

Given that the last two Sundays were blown out and as there was still enough wind, and sunshine, to have a second race, a windward-leeward course was signalled. Again, there was some fickleness to the breeze in terms of direction, but just before the Race Officer resigned himself from having to move station, the wind settled in to a changed windward mark position.

Again three laps were signalled. In the PY fleet the greyhounds again were the Wayfarer of Schaeffer & McCarthy, the IDRA of Long & Parker, the KONA of Walker and the IDRA of Hamilton & Jenny. Schaeffer & McCarthy and Long & Parker worked their way clear of the fleet and Long stayed ahead for the latter half of the race.  However, despite having a good lead on the water as he sailed down the last leeward leg, he sailed through the finish line with the committee boat flying its blue flag to indicate that it was on station for a finish. Moments later, as Schaeffer passed outside the committee boat, she made it clear that she would be protesting Long for his transgression……….he subsequently retired.

The Lasers meantime decided they would have their indiscretions on the start line with an X-flag being flown at their start. Not all the transgressors returned which meant that they were met with silence when they crossed the finish line. Despite the light airs and her handicap win of the first race, Shirley Gilmore struggled with this one and left the winning on the water to the full rigs of Luke Dillon (166676), Mark Coakley (201888), Conor O’Leary (190745) with Ella Hemeryck in another Laser Radial (210312) the first lady home in fourth. This was enough to elevate her to the class win by a margin of five seconds.

In the fast PY it was all about gybing angles for the Fireballs on the downwind legs and trying to get into perceived wind veins across the course. In truth I saw little of the intimate action as a consequence of my Race Officer duties so all I can report is that Court and Syme nearly transgressed the rule to not sail through the finish line when the blue flag is flying but avoided the scenario with a crash hardening up around the pin end of the finish line.  Butler & Barry took the race win on the water by 1:37 over Court who had forty seconds on Miller who had eleven seconds on Court. But they were all gazumped by Sheehy who finished among the Fireballs and took the handicap win. 

Sheehy also took the fastest corrected time for Race 2, 33:22, followed by Hemeryck, 33:38, Dillon, 33:43 and Butler/Barry 34:19.

Mug Winners on the day included Dave Coleman and Glen Fisher (R1/Fast PY Fleet), Mark Coakley (R1/Laser) and Ella Hemeryck (R2/Laser Radial)

For the second round of Frostbite racing in Series 2, Race Officer Cormac Bradley set the 31-boat fleet a triangular course and with the assistance of one of the competitors tried to make sure that the top reach was able to be sailed as a spinnaker leg! Having watched the weather forecast on XCWeather from the start of the weekend, the wind situation inside the harbour wasn’t quite what was predicted. The forecast was for 14 – 17 knots across the afternoon with guts in the range 20 – 28knots. However, on arriving at the scene the flags inside the Coal Harbour were not suggesting those sorts of strengths. The direction of SSW was in accordance with the forecast.

31 boats took to the water, nearly 25% up on the previous Sunday but still with lots of room for more boats to join in. All the usual suspects were in attendance in the Slow PY Fleet; Shane McCarthy’s Solo, the two KONA windsurfers of Robbie Walker & Des Gibney, a second, club Wayfarer from the DMYC helmed by Dave Colman joined the regulars in Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy, the Feva of Conor Galligan was out along with Odhran Prouveur & Helen Sheehy in the Hartley 12.2 and Frank Hamilton was the sole IDR14.
Twelve Lasers took to the water with Conor O’Leary making his 2018 debut after missing last week when taking his recreational activities to Europe.

In the Fast PY Fleet there was a 2018 debut for Hugh Sheehy in the Finn, Noel Butler & Marie Barry and Frank Miller & Class Chairman Neil Cramer and the Keegans, David & Michael in the Fireball Class and a total turnout of ten boats.

Top reach action between two Fireball dinghies Photo: Bob Hobby/DMYC Facebook

With the committee boats situated just to the West of the harbour entrance, the beat was to a mark in the approaches to the marina and a gybe mark that was to the east of the former docking facility of the high speed ferry but towards the middle of the harbour. Amazingly for the first couple of rounds, the wind appeared to be reasonably steady at 190˚.
Off the start line, the trend across all three fleets was to start on starboard and work one’s way to the left-hand side of the beat before taking a long port tack into the mark. In this respect, the Solo led the Slow PY fleet and rounded first followed by the KONA of Walker and the Wayfarer of Schaeffer. These three occupied the first three slots all the way round with the KONA working its way into the lead. The Solo and the Wayfarer had a closer race but the Solo eventually won out but only by a margin of 10 seconds – 39:30 to 39:40 after five laps.

Shirley Gilmore leads in the Lasers. The NI helmswoman won the DMYC Laser Class mug. Photo: Bob Hobby

In the Laser fleet there were also three boats that were jostling for the podium positions throughout the race – Justin Geoghegan (165512), Sean Flanagan (177854) and Conor O’Leary (190745). Until, that is the final approach to the leeward mark when O’Leary went through the start/finish line and decided that he had to unwind himself. That dropped him to 6th with Geoghegan taking the win, followed home by Flanagan and Alan Hodgins.

The Fast PY fleet had an OCS in the form of Fireball 14706, Alistair Court & Gordon Syme and like the previous starts, the trend was to go left first before working the middle to left of the beat to get to the windward mark. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) did that to best effect to lead at the weather mark and retained that lead to just before the first leeward mark when taking a more upwind line, Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) powered over the top of them to take the lead. They subsequently “walked away” from the fleet, leading by just over a leg and 3:44 at the finish. Behind them, the places seemed to be in a constant state of flux, with Court, Miller & Cramer (14713), the “pink ladies”, Louise & Hermine (14691) changing places all the way round. Court & Syme recovered from their premature start to claim second place on the water followed by Colin & Casey, McKenna & O’Keeffe, Miller & Cramer, the Finn of Sheehy and the 470 of Ryan & McAree.

In Frostbite Mug terms, the Fast PY award went to Niels Warburton in the RS400, to Shirley Gilmore in the Lasers and to the Enterprise of Bernadette Fox & Aidan Geraghty in the Slow PY Fleet.

DMYC Frostbites 2017/18: Series 2
Round 2. 

Slow PY

1 Shane McCarthy (Solo)
2 Conor Galligan (Feva)
3 Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy (Wayfarer)
4 Robbie Walker (KONA)
5 Frank Hamilton & Crew (IDRA14)

Lasers

1 Justin Geoghegan

2 Sean Flanagan
3 Alan Hodgins
4 Gavan Murphy
5 Shirley Gilmore (Radial)

Fast PY

1 Noel Butler & Marie Barry (Fireball)
2 Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (Fireball)
3 Hugh Sheehy (Finn)
4 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (Fireball)
5 Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (Fireball)

DMYC organiers are studying a dip in entries for its annual Frostbite series.

Numbers have dropped significantly from the typical 80 – 90 boats over recent years to 52 this year, 24 of which are Lasers.

Despite best efforts to promote the event, including contacting class captains, contacting dinghy clubs, early publication of the NOR and ease of entry via the web site the decline has been noticeable. 

'It appears to be lifestyle changes, as the morning cruiser (Turkey Shoot) racing is growing in popularity', says the DMYC's Neil Colin.

One suggestion for change has been made by Afloat.ie reader Peter O'Doherty (see comment via Facebook below) who says 'multiple, shorter races with a variety of courses would make the series more attractive. Five laps of a trapezoid can end up being a bit of a procession'.

The DMYC are making a determined push for series two of the winter event that runs until the end of March.

'We're calling all East Coast Dinghy Sailors to use the Frostbites on Sunday afternoons to keep your “hand in” and ensure you “hit the ground running” at the start of the summer season', Colin told Afloat.ie

The DMYC Frostbites Series II, runs from 7th January to 25th March – potentially there are 11 Sundays left, with double race days when the weather and daylight allows.

Racing is for Lasers and PY fleets (incl KONA windsurfers) with the first gun at 13.57 hours each day.

Entry is available on line here or in the club house after racing, entry fees will be discounted by 50%.

A modest fleet of 25 boats opened the second half of the 2017/18 Frostbite Series hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club earlier today, Sunday 7^th January writes Cormac Bradley. While XCWeather had a forecast for 14:00 of 11 – 16 knots Easterly with an air temperature of 5˚, the weather station inside the harbour was showing 17.3 knots with a maximum gust of 22 knots at 13:45 with a wind direction of 105˚ and an air temperature of 6.4˚. On leaving the my commentary position to repair to the DMYC clubhouse, the wind strength recording was 16 knots gusting 19knots and considering the number of capsizes, I think that this was the more accurate assessment.

Race Officer Ben Mulligan (Flying Fifteens) set a five-lap trapezoid course for the day’s proceedings with his committee boat stationed just to the east of the entrance to the marina and a weather mark in the middle of the harbour. No.2 was situated in the middle of the harbour mouth but probably of the order of 60m inside the mouth itself, while No.3 was close to the West Pier and No.4 was about 30m to leeward of the committee boat.

Of the 25 boats on the water the breakdown was as follows – 10 Lasers (of assorted rigs), three Laser Vagos, three Fireballs, two IDRAs, a Solo, a Wayfarer, a 470, a K1, a Kona Windsurfer , an RS400 and the Hartley 12.2. 

In the Slow PY Fleet, Shane McCarthy in the Solo led for the majority of the race, losing the lead for a short time to the solitary Kona Windsurfer of Des Gibney. Shane started the race on starboard tack towards the pin but not on it and sailed about half the distance from the pin to the end of the West Pier before working his way up the left-hand side of the beat. The majority of the other Slow PY starters were towards the committee boat end and tacked much earlier to work the opposite side of the beat. For most of them this was as close as they got to McCarthy who led comfortably around the weather mark and proceeded to sail away from the other “Slow PY-ers” with the exception of Gibney. Behind the Solo (5302) the pecking order at the first mark was Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy in the Wayfarer (11152), Frank Hamilton & crew, Jenny, in the first IDRA (140), Pierre Long & John Parker in the second IDRA (161) and the KONA (2677) of Gibney.  By Mark 4 of the first lap, the KONA has risen to second and Hamilton had passed out Schaeffer. The places behind McCarthy remained in a state of flux with Long passing out Hamilton in the duel of the IDRAs before Hamilton regained that lead and Long retired. The Wayfarer exercised caution on the off-wind legs by not flying the spinnaker and this left Gibney as the sole chaser of the Solo. Downwind he was able to close significantly and indeed on the penultimate lap he actually overtook McCarthy, albeit briefly, before McCarthy pulled away over the last lap to win by 2 minutes and twenty seconds.  In the Slow PY Fleet the day’s Frostbite Mug went to the first Laser Vago, registered to Nigel Russell but sailed by two others. 

The Fireball turnout was very modest at three boats – work robbing the fleet of one boat, hospitalisation and holidays another boat and a possible sixth boat not appearing.  Despite two late arrivals in the starting area, one of the latecomers seem to get the best start with Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) commanding the committee boat end of the line with Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) to leeward and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) astern. All three headed left initially with Colin going over the top of Court and being the first to tack on to port for a long leg up the middle of the course. Court followed shortly thereafter but now occupied the windward berth relative to Colin. They rounded Mark 1 with Court leading by half a boat-length but neither flew spinnaker down the leg to No.2. McKenna had another challenge with the 470 rounding on her transom and for the rest of the afternoon she was unable to get any significant distance away from the Olympic Class boat. Spinnakers broke out from Mark 2 to Mark 3 but Colin dropped at Mark 3 while Court held it for the early part of the leg, but fell off to leeward relative to the mark as the price. For the second beat all the Fireballs stayed right and left the hitch to the windward mark to much later. By this stage Court had opened up his lead on Colin and both were comfortably ahead of McKenna who was having an alternative race with the 470. No spinnakers featured on the top reach of the trapezoid all afternoon and only sporadically on the bottom reach, with Court the only proponent of that exercise.  Court progressively pulled away from Colin who then went swimming on the third lap between 1 and 2 – a squall arriving with not enough kicker released. This prompted an early retirement, leaving the field wide open for Court & Syme. In the Fast PY Fleet the day’s Frostbite Mugs went to Gerry Ryan & John McAree in the 470.

The tightest racing of the day was in the 10-boat Laser Class. While the fleet was led all the way round by Sean Flanagan (177854/Full Rig) he was closely chased by Alan Hodgins (175809/Full Rig) with Shirley Gilmore (204762/Radial) lurking with intent in 3^rd place. The “lurking with intent” paid off, for although she was 1:57 down on Sean Flanagan at the finish and 1:16 down on Hodgins, on corrected time she finished just 25 seconds behind Flanagan and 13 seconds ahead of Hodgins who recorded the same corrected time as Evan Dargan Hayes in a Laser 4.7 in fourth. Thus, the first four Lasers on corrected time were covered by 38 seconds.  The Frostbite Mug went to Sean Flanagan.

In elapsed time the Fireball of Court & Syme was the fastest boat on the water, sailing the five laps in 34:40 with Flanagan’s Laser taking 38:47 and McCarthy’s Solo going round in 39:01. Physically, the finishing order on the water was Solo, Fireball and KONA. 

The postponed prize-giving for Series 1, from 17^th December, took place in the DMYC Clubhouse after racing with prizes being in the form of calendars with photographs by Frostbite stalwart Bob Hobby. Calendars were liberally handed out to winners and volunteers by “Frostbite Director” Neil Colin – Happy New Year!